Road trip from Sydney to Perth - 1

Glenwood to Cobar - 654km

An idea that was brewing in Keerthi ayya's brain, voiced by Dilani akki while we were at their place. My family will just say "yes" to any trip without even blinking. Since the two families had done many camping trips together we felt that we won't be killing each other literally..... or will become eternal enemies or break the relationships after spending 24/7 during this trip.

Once my sister had found a great itinerary for a road trip to Perth about six months ago, the dream started fallIng into it's place.

After a planning day which became a family get together with drinks and dinner as always, we decided to extend the trip to 14 days and to make slight changes to the original plan.

Hiring a van that fits 7 adults and luggage, booking accomodation, buying emergency food, drinks including water, juice and alcohol, booking return flights, hiring a satellite phone, organising a first aid kit were also looked into.

On the day finally we left Sydney around 9:30am instead of the planned 7:00am departure due to the opening time and a few hiccups at the car hire.

Drive became a nightmare just after 45mins into the trip. It was Good Friday and it seemed like all Sydney siders have decided to leave Sydney for the long weekend at the same time. All we could see was kilometers and kilometers of cars and camper vans. The road looked just like a car park. Took almost two hours to reach Lithgow from Leura which is not more than 45mins otherwise.

Lesson learned - leave really early (won't be possible if hiring a car) or leave on the day before the public holidays start (the best option) when travelling during public holidays.

After this stretch the drive became easy but most of us were fast asleep....  after a few quick stops for breakfast, snacks and tea, we continued to drive. By the time I took driving onto my hands, it was getting dark. Could see kangaroos on the road side grazing and checking the vehicles out. Not that there were many vehicles on the road after we went past Mudgee but we could see heaps of roadkills.

I was checking the road and the roadsides constantly and was driving at 80kmh when a bunch of kangaroos on the roadside decided to panic. A couple ran parallel to the van and one decided to run across. As the control of the car was easy at low speed it had only hit the back of the van. The noise was louder than the actual effect. It was too dark to stop the car and to check the damage.

Recommendation is to get out of the car and check the animal. If fataly injured, kill it without letting it suffer. To kill it, one has to have an appropriate equipment, which most of us don't have. Calling wildlife is the other option but they will take many many hours to get to the incident on a rural road. On such roads, there is no number to call.

Advice - on roads like these, after dark 80kmh is way better than 110kmh. Best is to avoid driving on such roots during dusk and dawn is the only logical thing an ordinary person could do.

Finally, we reached Cobar. Cobar Caravan Park was our first accomodation. Dinner was what we planned to have for lunch. My mom prepared it for us prior to leaving in the morning. Yummy rice, dhal curry, coconut sambol and boiled eggs.

After dinner when we checked the car for damages by the kangaroo, there was nothing other than a bit of kangaroo fur on the side of the mud guard of the back wheel.

Managed to avoid running over a rabbit and another creature that looks like a lizard.

Tiredness had made us fall into a blissful sleep on the first night. Ofcourse after a few drinks, some analysis of the day's events and planning the next day to Broken Hill.

https://www.mynrma.com.au/holidays/holiday-finder/road-trips/sydney-to-perth-10-day-road-trip