We've got friends staying with us from out near Hungerford in the far southwest of Queensland. They commented to me that it's not unusual now to see grey nomads either driving 4WD rigs or mobile homes at night, sometimes up till 3am. Our friend and their neighbours pulled a few up initially thinking they were roo shooters/piggers or trapping dogs but found they were just grey nomads who prefer to travel at night due to the much cooler conditions. They get very little traffic out that way and usually investigate lights at night - usually will call on the UHF. By day it's been getting up to 45 so they just find a nice spot before sunup and camp and rest for the day. Most seem to travel at 40kph as they're not in a hurry and the roos are bad....plus it reduces fuel consumption.
Seems not a bad way to travel in the middle of summer.
I love night driving at most drivers are professional drivers (trucks) and I would much rather deal with the odd animal than a lot of the 2 legged rabbits in the day time. Good lights are a must.
cheers
blaze
I would not recommend any night driving in the Northern territory or Northern W.A. to anyone,
There are miles too many wild animals and live stock on the roads, many of the cattle are black in colour and you will only see them if they happen to be facing you,
I have come across cattle who play chicken with cars, this happened to us on one trip North of Carnarvon W.A. we came around a bend just on dusk, my spot lights picked up the reflection of one eye, I slowed right down and as we approached, a huge Bull came out of the scrub and stood in the centre of the Highway, I'm sure he was daring us to come closer, after waiting quiet some time we finally got past him when he ambled back into the bush.
Around the next corner I had to break suddenly as there were two cattle dead in the middle of the road, on reaching the next fuel stop, we were told that a road train had hit the cattle the previous night and they had caused over $20.000 damage to the truck.
"Nup" it's just not worth the risk in my book.
K.J.
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From Coast to Coast, We'll see it all.......One Day
Well it isnt for nothing we SKED Geo phys field crews to stop the wheels when the sun is less than 20 degrees over the horizon. It is just too dangerous.
Being a one time travelling Sales Representative, many years ago, travelling through out Queensland and Northern NSW, our company's golden rule was they one had to be off the road by before sunset. In fact perhaps the most dangerous time to travel is at dawn and dusk, particularly dusk.
Just my views particularly due to road kill and more so if towing a van.
Jay&Dee
I much prefer night driving particularly when I'm out west. I have a solid bullbar but spotties that turn night into day. Never had a problem driving at 100 kays at night.
I like to night drive also, wish I had your bullbar though, because on Friday a guy hit me at the rear of my vehicle as I was slowing down to turn into a street, he had a 4 WD with a bullbar, he's made a mess of my boot and he has no damage to his vehicle. So having a bullbar may be a good thing afterall.....Kisha
Those types of bull bar are probably illegal now because they prevent all the injury prevention systems (air bags, crumple zones, etc) from working as designed while causing heaps of damage to pedestrians and other vehicles.
I have to agree with the majority opinion here. We don't drive at night and particularly at dawn or dusk unless we are going somewhere for dinner or its an emergency, I reckon doing so is just tempting fate a little too much.
With three out of ten replies plus the OP and a couple who did not express an opinion either way, I don't see a clear majority. I too like night driving. However my night driving does not include the twilight periods or an hour either side of them. It's those periods that are the most dangerous periods. When it's really dark I have not experiences much animal movement.
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
Remember the GN's I'm talking about travel at about 40kph and the country out there is one step from a desert so they have plenty of visibility and room to avoid cattle lying on the road, roos etc. Apparently they just poke along for a few hours till they find either a tank, some larger scrub or a rocky outcrop where they can then pull up and setup a bit of a camp.
Personally I wouldn't do it but the interest in this thread was that it is apparently a new phenomenon - previous to these recent sightings they would never see any GN's driving at night. Not sure why the sudden increase.
Regards
It might be because there are more GN's overall, Hako.
And no we would never dream of towing the caravan at night, nor being in an area where temperatures reach 45 degrees of a day!
One of the advantages of the lifestyle is to take ourselves to where the weather is nice. (mostly) And travel during the day for only a few hours, to enjoy the scenery.
You got it in one Gerty. Cant see much at night !!
Many bull bars will cause the hit animal to "roll up" on impact over the bonnet and through your windscreen
"Spot on" about the Bull Bars, Bruce and Bev,
The Fuel tanker that I mentioned that hit two Bulls North of Carnarvon , had a heavy duty bull bar fitted, but all that did was to roll the Bulls under the front end, taking out the complete front axle, resulting in over $20.000 damage, you can just imagine what would have happened if it was a car towing a caravan that had been involved. " OUCH "
K.J.
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From Coast to Coast, We'll see it all.......One Day
Our trip around WA last year from home in Darwin involved a fair bit of evening driving through the top end of WA as it was just too hot during the day well over 40 degree's.
As we needed to get to Esperance fairly quickly we broke camp early & drove till lunchtime then flashed up the generator & plugged both motorhomes in to run the air-con for an early afternoon sleep & travelled in the cool of the evening. Both fitted with bull bars & HID lighting makes it a little safer but keeping the speed around 80 was a must, the Pilbara/Kimberly have a lot of brown cattle you just don't see until your almost on top of them.
20 years of driving/living in the Pilbara taught me to take extra care, many a traveller I have picked up over the years that hit or worse still swerved to avoid that cow/roo & paid the price.
I hit the biggest roo I had ever seen out of Roebourne one night, snapped the bull bar off my truck taking the first three inch's of the chassis with it, then I went over the roo & roo bar with the vehicle causing major damage to the gearbox & tearing the fuel tanks open, expensive lesson learnt about traveling at speed at night.
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