Friday 18 October 2013

The Timing of the Friendly Wave


A long straight road. With nothing but red dirt, dry grass, cattle and the odd mountain range to amuse yourself with.
It makes for boring stuff.
There's nothing quite like the spontaneous friendly wave (more of a lift of the finger from the steering wheel really), from the very occasional passing car to break things up a little bit.
We've enjoyed this courteous gesture and hello while travelling in this part of the world.
But we've lived here long enough now to start returning the favor, and spreading the love to others.
The secret to the spontaneous wave is timing. With both cars travelling at high speeds, in the opposite direction, you can easily miss the most opportune time to do this. Getting your wave not only noticed, but most importantly, allowing time for a reciprocal wave.
My tip, start waving as soon as you can see oncoming traffic. It's your best chance.
My husband prefers a more casual approach. Attempting to judge the best time, and waving when the car is almost on us. He's had a lot of missed waves, way too late waves that couldn't be even seen, let alone get many waves back.
The enthusiastic waver always wins. And also gets occasional toots from passing road trains (that's a truck with a very long load, in case you weren't aware). 
A good tip to remember, if ever you're driving in this past of the world.

Fuel anyone? The dustiest roadhouse I've ever seen!

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