All good so far.... day time hazards.... number 1 - lumpy road kill from previous night....
daytime hazard number 2 - the dammed big birds masquerading as eagles and blackwing buzzards trying to pinch said road kill breakfast.
daytime hazard 3 - part a - boredom... stop, take a flash, some museli bars, and lotsa water. The more you fill on water, the more you stop and move around.
part b - avoiding the accidents where someone swearved to miss something, went to sleep, lost control for whatever reason.
daytime harzard 4 - limited shady places to stop, but every 100-300 km there is a reliable service station. If your tank is below 1/2, stop and fill up.
daytime hazard number 5 - solved easily with a good set of sunnies.... its bright out there
onto night time hazards .... after longreach, or adelaide what the hell are doing driving at night. The only appealing things you will see is how well your high beam works, and how long you have to leave them dipped for traffic. Kangas, cattle, camels, horses and donkeys dont know what time it is, so they wander and feed all night. Ive hit roo's at 2am on a moonless night, so all the tales saying otherwise are slightly out of left field. Large birds also tend to stop on the road at night.
Ive driven both ways a number of times and had a ball each time. And all bar one trip was on my pat malone. Have done the trip in little cars, through to Winebagos... but all have one thing in common... they were prepared
First Aid Kit.. specifcally a motoring kit.
Water - minimum 4l per day (I usesd to change the water every night stop)
Phone (few places to use them though although stand a slightly better chance with CDMA... Sat phone is great but pretty expensive)
Spare change
Cigarette lighter
A bit of rope
Good spare tyre, prefer no retreads on your car. these can wilt under continuous running at speed on roads that are dammed hot and make sure you have the appropriate tyre changing gear with it.
Maps
Some research on what to do on the way
Blanket
Torch (just in case)
Camera (with city bought film if required.. it can get expensive in some places)
and a sense of humour with a touch of patience...
For my old car, I had a first aid kit for the car - 2 pieces of wire, jumperleads, spanner and screwdriver set, spare radiator hoses, top and bottom, tape, and rags.
The funny part about all that... barring the tape to plaster up a glove box on a rental and a spare tyre change... Ive never had to use any of it in over 100,000 worth of NSW, QLD and territory driving every year.
As part of my job, we potter about at night, usually because someone else did. Even on lights and sirens, we wont go much faster than 100km/hr.