Quote:
Originally Posted by leon
That's a bit like driving the longest straight road in Australia, 149 kilometers long.
One can see the lights of a car in the distance and it takes about half an hour to pass you going the other way, quite a spectacle.
Leon
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Hi Leon,
It's amazing, isn't it? What particular stretch do you have in mind?
I've witnessed this phenomena myself at night in a section of that long straight stretch
between Nyngan and Bourke. You see the other headlights for an eternity, then suddenly
what turns out to be truck goes zooming past the other way.
We also had a close encounter in the Top End once and I will take the time
to relate the tale here.
One night we were driving along the Victoria Hwy between Timber Creek
and Katherine in the NT. There were joint military exercises going on
in the area and we had seen quite a few tanks and other armoured vehicles along the
road and in the bush during the day. As we had witnessed armoured vehicles
unexpectedly come crashing out of the bush and onto the road in front of us,
our vigilance was heightened.
So here we are driving along at night literally in the middle of nowhere
when I grew conscious of something rapidly approaching on my right and I could
hear an enormous roar. In an instant I assumed a large tank was careering out
of the bush towards us on a collision course and in that split second I braced
myself for what my senses were telling me must be an inevitable impact. There
was an enormous deafening roar and our 4WD shook and we both simultaneously
shouted out in anticipation of us being hit side on. However, what appeared only
tens of meters above us and to the left were the glow from the
twin exhausts of an
F18 Hornet that had just buzzed us. I assume it was operating out of Tindal Air
Force Base near Katherine and the pilot would have seen our lone pair of
headlights traveling that lonely dark stretch of road in the Top End as a target of
opportunity to practice a simulated strafing run on.
nearly identical first line of the musical. 
