Who doesn’t dream of visiting Australia from behind the wheel of a car ?
As an avid road trip lover, I would like to share with you some of the things I wish I would known before embarking on a road trip to Australia. Australia is a land of adventure, offering its visitors sublime and diverse landscapes. In a single day, you can go from desert to rainforest, stopping to swim on some of the world’s most beautiful beaches.
But before you embark on this great adventure, there are a few things to bear in mind. Discover three key points to anticipate before organising the road trip of your dreams.
Wild animals …
The first thing you need to know is that this is no ordinary country. Australia is known as a country with an atypical and extremely varied terrestrial fauna. Here, wild animals are very present and have a wide range of behaviours. To cope with this, some roads are protected by fences, but it’s possible for animals to get over them, and this isn’t the case for all roads. If you drive on roads with little traffic, or just not near big cities, these are not protected.
The number of roadkill is one of the most shocking things about driving in Australia, and many accidents are caused by this. There may be kangaroos, ostriches, parrots, quokkas, dingoes… some jump, run, walk, crawl or fly.
These is the sign you’ll see most frequently. They can be found on just about every road, especially where there is no protection against terrestrial wildlife. We strongly advise against driving at night outside major cities, as there is a much greater risk of encountering wild animals, frightening them and seeing less of them.
Little known fact: in addition to all these wild animals, Australia has a fly invasion. Yes, you read that right! During the hot season in central Australia, and increasingly on the coasts, flies become a plague. It may not sound like much, but I assure you that if you’re unlucky enough to go during this period, it’s almost impossible to be outdoors. They stick to you everywhere, getting into your nostrils, landing on your eyes and your food. The only effective way is to wear a net over your head.
Distances …
Don’t be fooled by a lack of knowledge of the country. Even if you studied Australia in college, that’s not enough! If you talk to people around you who have already been there, they’ll certainly tell you how great the country is. But most of the time, on your first trip to this country, you’ll be surprised by its immensity. Two cities that may appear next to each other on the map, only a few kilometers apart, are in reality days away.
In fact, this island contains over 7.7 million square kilometers, or about sixty times the size of England. When planning your road trip, I advise you to use google map to evaluate all your distances, and to be aware of the time needed to drive between each epate.
A little extra: Plan your trip well in advance, using all the tools the Internet has to offer, but once you’re there, remember that most of the time there’s no network or connection. I advise you to go back a few years and use paper maps.
Temperatures …
The final trap to avoid is the temperature. It’s essential to plan your trip with an eye to the season, and not on the basis of the seasons you know at home. Australia has a highly varied climate, typical of the southern hemisphere.
Because of the vastness of the country, there are three different types of climate. There’s the temperate climate, which is divided into four seasons, but in the opposite way to what we’re used to. Summer runs from December to January, autumn from March to May, winter from June to August and spring from September to November. This climate is found in the south of the country. The north has a tropical climate with two seasons. There’s the rainy season, characterized by humid heat and rain, and the dry season, characterized by high temperatures and dry weather. And finally, the desert climate found in the center of the continent. It consists of a very hot period (difficult to bear) from September to February and a cooler period from March to August, with very little rain throughout the year.
As a result, temperatures on this continent can vary from 50 degrees in the deserts to negative temperatures in the mountainous regions. But as I said before, the landscape changes very quickly, and so do the temperatures. You can’t be sure of having a huge variation in temperature in less than a day.
A little extra: Plan a flexible trip in case of unforeseen circumstances. It’s very common for traffic lights to cut off roads, forcing you to take a long detour or abandon a stage. Don’t get stuck in this kind of situation.
So…
If you’re dreaming of a road trip to Australia, make sure you realize that this country is not like any other. Before setting off, it’s essential to be aware of the risks created by the land’s wildlife, its vastness and the seasons.
If you’d like to know everything there is to know about Australia, take a look at the official Australian website.
And to brighten up your journey, I’have put together a little playlist for you to listen to while you enjoy the scenery.