Road Trip, NSW & Vic, Australia

Originally posted on aus.cars, thought some of you guys might be interested as well.

I decided to head out on a road trip this weekend for a break, and to catch up with some friends in Melbourne. Off I went on Friday afternoon, from Canberra to Lakes Entrance, via Cooma & Cann River.

This was the first time I've done that route in the Falcon, and it was *much* more enjoyable than my old TP Magna :-) The road was straight and boring as all hell until the Victorian border. The most interesting thing was a big storm that seemed to be chasing me for a good 100km, yet I managed to drive around it. Almost immediately after I crossed the NSW-Vic Border the road became windy and fun :-D

Stayed at the Lakes Entrance YHA overnight, left at about 8:30 Saturday. Stopped in Warragul for lunch. The trip was fairly uneventful. I used the new motorway into Melb, God knows why that's only 100km-h. I used Citylink for the first time, despite the RTA telling ETag users that their tags will not beep in Victoria, mine did. Nearly got cleaned up by a flatbed truck when his lane ended without warning so he merged into lane I was in, with me right next to him. That was interesting, but we managed to avoid an accident. Missed my turn off on citylink, but got the next one and managed to work out where I was.

As I entered the Melbourne CBD, I ended up stopped for a red light under a bridge. You know you're a country boy when you're parked under a bridge and this incredible rumbling starts, so you begin looking around for full sick VN full of subs, but it turns out it's a train pbutting overhead.

Caught up with my mates on Saturday arvo. On Saturday evening I thought "Ok, now what to do in Melbourne for the next 3 days... ummm" I ended up driving out of Melbourne further West. Went along the Great Ocean Road. That was great fun. Anyone who hasn't driven this road, do it. If you're not into having fun on a windy road, do it for the incredible scenery. It's an awesome drive.

I stayed at a YHA in Port Fairy on Sunday night. No it wasn't full of poofs as the name may suggest, there didn't seem to be anyone in the town at all. The YHA was nice, it's an old fishermans cottage that's been renovated and is quite shmick. Chatted up some cute Yank girls who were on their way to do the Great Ocean Road the next day. They seemed to be enjoying this great land of ours.

Monday, I drove North to Halls Gap in the Grampians. Whilst on a deserted flat, straight, one lane road in the middle of nowhere, I decided to have a bit of fun. Floored it and got up to 140 before chickening out. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a new black Commodore in the distance, coming up behind me fsking fast. I thought "that'd be right, the only cop within a few hundred k's and I get pinged the only time I've broken the speed limit for the last 3 days". Turned out it was just someone else out for a bit of fun, gave me a good fright though.

The Grampians were quite something, the roads were good quality, with lots of fun corners, the views were spectacular, well worth it.

After that I headed north to Balranald, then East back to Canberra along the Stuart Highway. Those who've done this highway before will know there isn't much to talk about in terms of scenery, or corners. It was a great road to gain a perception on how vast and empty Australia is, without wandering off into the wilderness.

Overall, it was a great trip. I'll definitely do the B23 down to Cann River again, the Great Ocean Road, and the Grampians, I'll keep off the Stuart Highway unless I have to be on it for fear of dying of boredom.

One thing I noticed about Victorias rural roads was that the speed limits seemed to be adequate most of the time. Of course the default 100 and 110 on A and M roads felt a bit slow, and the 100 limit starting ~75k's east of the Melb CBD was a bit insane, but through towns, I never felt like I was going unnecessary slow, often I'd be moving at 10 under the speed limit feeling like I was going fast enough. Many towns I went through 70 and 80 seemed to be the norm, unless there were lots of entrances branching off it, in which case 50 or 60 was the go. Unlike NSW where 50 is quickly becoming the default speed limit on highways on the outskirts of towns. I'm sure any Victorians reading this would be able to list hundreds of inappropriately low speed limits in rural areas, this was just my experience on the routes that I took. Also I am a big fan of their route numbering system, M, A B & C. It made much more sense than the NSW system, which I still don't get.

There's a few photos of my trip here:

Cheers, SL.