night driving and kangaroos

[Supa R00]

just take an old F250 with a big mofo bullbar, u need not worry then!!! hehehehe

[Steve_T]

LOL, very true Supa ROO.

IMHO the single biggest problem night driving is eye strain. If you have reasonable lights then looking out for roos shouldn't be too much of a problem initially, but your eyes are being strained and will fatigue very quickly (proportionate to how good your lights are). This leads directly to mental fatigue which then leads to physical fatigue (notice how you feel when you get out of the car after a few hours of driving at night compared to in the day?) Then concentration and reaction time are decreased and your sight becomes less clear etc. and the problems all mount up rather quickly and risk increases exponentially over time I reckon.

So my point being that the best way to help ensure safe night driving is by reducing eye strain which is done by having the best lights you can. (Also make sure you keep the windscreen clean as this can make a huge difference). Have lights which shine a long way ahead (no point going further that what you'd ordinarily be looking in daylight though) and as wide out in front of the car as you can get. HID lights are very much worth it (in the form of spotties/driving lights) as the white light is more natural and less fatiguing to the eyes.

No point forking out for fancy HID spotties for one trip, but worth noting if you find yourself driving regularly at night.

If you do do it, just make sure you either have a couple of people to keep swapping between driver/navigator/resting roles as has been said or else take very frequent "stop, revive, survive" breaks.

Steve.

[MotherNatureVer2]

Another thing I forgot to mention is Emus ........ they hurt much more when hitting than a huge roo :(

Steve .......... you have said that so eqolently ......... its is the truth .............

and also watch out for Echidna's...ran over one once. sh!t they can do some damage underneath.