As you can see we have glorious weather here at the moment.
Blue, blue skies with not a cloud in sight,
cool nights - down to 4-6C
and lovely warm days of around 20C for most of the day.
A trip to the coast was the order of the day as the dogs' big beds had to be retrieved from Sally's place.
At least she has a little colour in her Winter garden.
Now here is where I show you some of the differences I was talking about between England and Queensland
1. Driving on the M roads
The road from Brisbane to the Gold Coast is a huge highway -
4 sometimes 5 lanes going either way.
Look! The slow lane is the one directly in front of us.
The lane on the far right ( where all the trucks are ) is SUPPOSED to be the fast lane for cars traveling fast and overtaking.
This huge semitrailer (lorry? ) with its second trailer behind it was tearing along in the fast(er) lane
and no, it wasn't overtaking unless you mean overtaking everyone !!
They are not supposed to go any faster than 100kph (60mph ).
It was not the only one.
A huge truck with a double load of gravel thundered past us.
Often there was a huge space in the left hand lanes with all the fast lanes containing trucks.
We have a lot to learn.
2. Trees
Though our gum trees are lovely in their own right they are not a lovely lush green
and the leaves are quite sparse.
They do often have lovely silvery white trunks though but are quite dangerous planted close to houses like this one as in high winds and storms they often come down or lose large branches on houses and roofs (rooves ??)
(photo from the web )
I'll show you more photos of our day out tomorrow.
Cheers.
It seems you may be a little confused about English roads and what a dual carriageway is, so I hope you don't mind me providing some info here!
ReplyDeleteIn England our 'M' roads are motorways and usually have 3 lanes plus a hard shoulder (hard shoulder is for break downs and such, not a lane for general traffic). The lanes are 'arranged' the same as how you describe with your pictures - hard shoulder to the far left, then the slow lane on the left and the two faster/overtaking lanes on the right. A dual carriageway here has 2 lanes and a slightly higher national speed limit - 70mph as opposed to the 40-50mph limits on A and B roads! A roads are the main roads, then we get B roads and after that it's down to country lanes!
Our lorries do tend to stick to the slow lanes unless they are overtaking something slower! The speed limit for them on the motorway or dual carriageway is 60mph, as opposed to 70mph for cars.
Traffic, yes, I know all about.
ReplyDeleteTrees, yes, falling down in the winds.
But, a WINTER GARDEN, never heard of that one.
At least not in my part of the country. Unless you count Evergreen trees.
Can't wait to see the rest of your trip.
Thanks Louise , I have removed the dual carriage way aside. Should have realised that dual meant only 2 lanes!
ReplyDeleteHelen
You will have noticed a different style of driving on your visits to France too where their lane discipline is much stricter but their driving less polite - even the French say how much less aggressive we our in our driving! It's interesting to see all these differences and I guess it's something we need to be aware of when driving in another country! Hogging the fastest/outside lane is frowned upon here and one is meant to get back into lane as soon as the overtake is finished. I heard the other day the term undertaking meaning passing on the inside lane when the outside lane contains something moving slowly and thought how apt that the word undertaker is also someone who arranges funerals!!
ReplyDeleteGlad your winter is so lovely for you and Sally's garden looks great.
And even between states there's lots of differences in the scenery isnt there? I dont think we have any super highways like that one near my place and a lot f your greenery is so different to ours too. With the exception of the gums -I think everywhere has gums!
ReplyDeleteIn the US the "fast" lane is on the left and the slower lanes to the right. However there are those in the US that completely ignore that convention. Makes driving interesting in certain parts of the country.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm I think our national speed limit on A's B's, C's and unclassifieds is 60 unless it says something less. But on C's and U's it's usually impossible to do more than 20 or 30.
ReplyDeleteBad drivers throng our roads too. Silly lorries that try to pass each other but don't get on with it. Slow people who shouldn't be in fast lanes and people who wear flat caps who just hold everybody up on all normal roads when there's nowhere to pass them.
I do like the colourful flower pictures.