Tag: #roadkill

Easter Road Trip Day 2

19 April 2019

Today I drove 290km (180miles) from Leura to the mid western NSW city of Dubbo.  I tried to stop off at a few places along the way to capture the changing landscape.

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Hartley Historic Village NSW
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Robertson Park Mudgee NSW
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Galambine NSW

Arrived in Dubbo and I was fortunate to find accommodation as I do not book anything until I arrive at my destination or when I stop because I am too tired. Luckily the Tourist Information Office was open on Good Friday and as Dubbo is a country town, they are updated by local hotels when there are last minute cancellations which I was fortunate to snap up.  I am staying at the Orana Motel which is very comfortable and close to everything.

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From Leura and more especially going on from Dubbo, I need to be aware of more animals running onto the road. This road kill was not by me luckily.

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Tonight I went to the Dubbo Observatory.  I had a very close call when driving 100kph (65mph) when 3 kangaroos jumped out onto the road in front of my car.  I am so aware of the danger of driving from dusk that I normally stay within the city limits at night to avoid the possibility of having an accident with animals.  As the observatory is an evening event and in the middle of a remote area, I should have expected kangaroos.  I can tell you I slowed down to under 60kph when going back to the hotel.

When on my USA road trip I had skunks, snapping turtles, elk, mustangs, turkey, beaver, chickens, deer, pig come onto the road by surprise and saw many of all these animals and many unidentifiable road kill.  So far on this road trip I have seen many kangaroos, foxes, wombat and birds.  I expect to come across many more as I move into more remote areas of my beautiful country on this trip.

Augusta Ohio/Huntington West Virginia

The road from Cincinatti Ohio to West Virginia runs through beautiful green lush country side. The treescape makes for a pleasant drive as was the scenery through Kentucky, Virginia, North and South Carolina. The roadkill through those states has been significant compared to what I see on my roadtrips driving from New South Wales to Queensland.

The roadkill I have seen is around 50 animals per hour, often small, which I expect would be squirrels and birds, and larger raccoons, possums, small pigs or hogs and a few larger furry animals I could not discern. I prefer not to drive at night as I expect I would encounter more live animals on the road at that time than I do through the day. I am thankful the animals I have almost hit were on roads where I was travelling slow enough to miss them without putting myself in danger. A few orange birds which I think are the Northern Cardinal (the state bird of Kentucky) have played chicken with my car several times, I had to stop several times for squirrels, twice for beaver and once for a turkey. I have no intention or wish to hit any animal, for theirs and my safety. This country has lots of wild animals. I have yet to see a bear and would enjoy that so long as he or she isn’t hungry and is not coming in my direction.

I didn’t do much sightseeing today but I stopped off at Augusta Kentucky (there are several States where you continually cross their borders as the road winds in and out of the State).

I saw a documentary with George Clooney about this town of 1,100. He went to Augusta University and his aunt, the actress, singer, Rosemary Clooney lived in Augusta.

Augusta’s history dates back to 1787

and has a ferry which takes cars across the Ohio River for $5US.

Some of their historical buildings

On arriving in Huntington WV fatigue has set in and I will have a rest for the remainder of today.

I will take this opportunity to provide some information which might be of use for others who are planning a roadtrip.

Travelmath.com is a trip calculator for distances in kilometres and miles, travel time between 2 cities and naming cities or towns to stop in between.

Something very frustrating in the USA is mobile phone reception for data and/or calls. For a country which sends people to the moon and into space it has not mastered phone and data service in all parts of their country. I have been without reception in Mississippi and now in Huntington West Virginia (WV), the second largest city in WV, I have no reception. Whistleout is an excellent site which shows you the coverage for providers and not one covers all the USA.