Bucket List: Long Drive on Country Roads

Australia, Western Australia, Great Northern Highway

I lived in a city state that measures approximately 50km from east to west and 17km from north to south. There are thus no country roads to speak of where I could drive and drive to enjoy the pleasures of solitude.

The longest drive that is geographically near to my city is the neighbouring country of Malaysia where the North-South Highway stretches from the southern state of Johor to the northern state of Kedah, a distance of about 772km. I often embarked on long drives along this route to travel from Singapore to Ipoh (capital city of the Malaysian state of Perak). The distance each way is about 550km (as measured by my car's distance tracker). But the North-South Highway is a relatively busy stretch of road and while the route passed by large swathes of palm tree plantations, this is definitely no country road by my personal definition.

The opportunity for me to drive on a lonely country road finally arrived when I visited Western Australia. The Great Northern Highway linked the city of Perth to Wyndham in the north of the state, a distance of almost 3,200km. For the avoidance of doubt, I did not drive the whole of this highway. Not even half of it. The distance I drove along this highway was only less than 4% of the route, about 114km from Perth to New Norcia. 

But I did get to enjoy driving pass stretches of land where my car was the solitary vehicle on the road. There were huge trucks which passed by along the way but these were not as frequent as what I encountered while driving along Malaysia's North-South Highway.

I did not see any wild kangaroos but I saw the Deep Space Station of the European Space Agency (ESA), one of the 3 ESA's tracking station network around the world. I also saw grazing cattle and drove past huge trees. I stopped at the Monastery Town of New Norcia to rest and eat before embarking on the return journey to Perth. Technically, I drove about 230km (both ways) on the Great Northern Highway in one day. I believed that was not too bad for a first-time driver on a long country road! :-)

Great Northern Highway, near Bullsbrook, Western Australia, Australia (2018)

Great Northern Highway, Chittering, Western Australia, Australia (2018)