Annual Easter Car Conga Line: Word of Warning

As half the population evacuates metropolitan Perth, and tags onto the Easter car conga line to the south west, I thought I’d give this gentle reminder …

Many years ago I spent three years driving around Western Australia and making the annual Easter pilgrimage to the South West. Years later I found myself on the road again, this time peaking into strangers lives doing indepth interviews … all wonderful experiences, meeting fascinating people … such a privilege. However once on the road it wasn’t long before I was pondering the same thing I’d done all those years ago ….

Is this the same guy permanently driving his caravan around Australia?
How does he always manage to turn up just as you realise you’re running late for the next appointment?
Or just as you’re getting back into your car, after a long overdue quick toilet break? You look up and just as you pull out from the service station, there he goes again … in front of you.

After travelling on so many long Australian roads I’ve developed a fairly clear picture of him …just tipping the six foot bar (he’d be three inches taller if his head hadn’t hit the van ceiling ten years ago, thereby stunting his growth); scrawny from making too few pit stops for food along the way; his continuous journey necessitating the growth of a long scraggly beard; his clothes date back to the 1965, the year he bought his first van, oh and he’s been on Australia’s Most Wanted for the past twenty years, for crimes against the motoring public.

But mostly I find myself pondering …. I promise I’ll go to the gym every day next week, if you just give me a passing lane around the next corner. No? Okay I’ll go every day for eight weeks … okay I’ll give up chocolate … and not just for Easter … for good.

Mind you there was one occasion when I wished caravan-man was in front of me. On that day I’d been driving for three hours with two more to come. Twisting around the narrow south west back roads I was enjoying the scenery then around the next turn I found one of these, actually it was twice as big as this one ….. sometimes it truly is better the devil you know.

Drive Safe everyone.