Not every day is filled with adventure, revelations and new discoveries. Some, like today, are just ticked off the calendar, another 300 kilometers of Australia's back roads.
The kookaburras and colorful parrots near Lake Clifton were replaced by ravens and magpies (and precious few of those) as we ate up the two-lane blacktop of Coalfields Highway. For scenery we settled for a few huge strip mines that provide the coal that lights Oz and endless vistas of golden wheat stubble punctuated by stands of gums, shading scraggly-looking sheep. I was driving slowly enough to enjoy myself while keeping a sharp eye out for "road trains," 200 feet of tractor-trailer high-balling at 110+ k/h. Most Australians drive sensibly and obey the rules of the road even on the deserted, arrow straight country highways, a real surprise after the lunatic drivers of Greece and Italy.
The population density of Australia, the entire country, is 6 people per square mile, one twelfth that of the US. And 85% of the population lives in 5% of the country. Bill Bryson wrote that if you happen to see 6 people in a square mile outside the metropolitan areas, it's probably a family reunion.
