Chetan's blog

Melbourne to Sydney drive during the Christmas break of 2009

My aunties have arrived from Mumbai and we had booked this trip. Unfortunately Shruti could not get leave over the Christmas break so Rucha became my navigator. I had bought the Garmin GPS for this purpose plus I had all the paper maps as well which was quite helpful for me in deciding my day's journey. I could also avoid toll roads because of this. We had overall good fun over the entire trip.

Highlights of the drive.

25/12/2009 - Christmas Day in Melbourne City

Drive from Melbourne Airport to our hotel in Carlton, Melbourne (Best Western Princes Park Motel).

I had got a Ford XR6 rental car. Garmin was not getting any satellite reception and I was a bit worried on how I would reach the motel. It took a good half an hour to get the reception. I need to figure out why.

Our hotel was very close to Melbourne CBD. The GPS had given me directions to drive on the toll road but I wanted to avoid the toll. We got slightly lost because of this but came back on track and avoided Toll. By the time we reached the motel I had got the hang of the car :-).

In the evening we ventured out into Melbourne CBD and I took my aunts in the Melbourne Tram to the CBD. On Christmas day Melbourne public transport is free.

After we came back from the CBD one of my friend had invited us to his house in Mount Waverly and with the help of paper map and my friend's advice I ventured out to his house. It was about 20 kms away from the motel. Rucha was pretty good in directing.

26/12/2009 - Boxing day in Melbourne City

The previous night the motel reception guy (yes he was an Indian guy and you guessed it right a Punjabi puttar) had directed me how to get to the CBD and he advised me to buy the ticket from the nearest 7 Eleven convenience store which was the shop at the corner of the motel. We bought a day tripper for all of us and then went to the city by the Tram (Yarra Trams). Flinder Street station looked pretty busy and a lot of hustle and bustle around the station because of the cricket match. Every boxing day their is a cricket test match at the MCG. This time the match was between Australia and Pakistan, which finally Pakistan lost. The city was pretty crowded because of this event and also since it was Boxing day, there were SALE in every big store of the city. Anyway, we did not buy anything on that day. We went around the city and also traveled in the City Circle Tram which are free but are pretty old trams but you get the idea of the city. On my previous Melbourne visit I had traveled in the same Tram but this time I thought they covered a larger area of the CBD. The buildings over there are very old and look pretty. We had a good time in the Myer Store just window shopping and it was overwhelming to see such a big store. I was slowing getting a headache in this store. Finally we headed back to the motel as we had a dinner invitation and had to go to the suburb of Taylor's hill. Once we headed back to the motel we took provisions for the next day as we were going to start our journey. I had adjusted the GPS properly and it gave me proper directions to go to my friend's house.

27/12/2009 - Heading to the town of Bairnsdale,Victoria (Best Western Colonial)

While heading out towards Bairnsdale we had to go through Melbourne City and I had to drive through the tram tracks, by this time I had seen how people drove on the road which had tram tracks and I followed :-). I drove through suburbs of Jollimont, Toorak, Burswood. On the way to Bairnsdale I had to drive on Monash Freeway and then proceed on to South Gippsland Highway after Philip Island. We took a pit stop at Korrumburra Information Centre and picked up some maps of the Gippsland. I found the staff at the information very helpful. Korrumburra was an important mining town in the 1800 but now people are into dairy business. We passed through Leongatha and other small towns and stopped on the way at Foster at the lookout. We could not see much as it was an overcast day. We stopped at a local bakery for lunch at another small town called Yarram, I found the food to be pretty delicious at this bakery. My original plan was to stop at a place called Sale but then I dropped this plan and decided to drive straight to Bairnsdale. We reached the motel by 2:45 Rucha went for a dip in the swimming pool. I took a small nap (Powernap) which became an everyday affair throughout the trip. I enquired at the reception about places we could visit that evening the lady suggested us to go to Payensville which is really a very very small town by the seashore, there was much to do at Payensville but the drive was good. Rucha was happy as she found a MacDonald's here and I was happy because I got to buy a cold beer at the supermarket. Overall I must have driven about 400 odd kilmoteres. We were still in the state of Victoria.

27/12/2009 - Heading to the town of Eden, NSW (Twofold Bay Motor Inn)

Checked out of the motel in the morning and asked the lady about the things we could do while on the way. She suggested that we should go to Lakes Entrance. This was a very pretty place and we went on the beach at Lakes Entrance. This time of the year, everywhere it was quite busy so Lakes Entrance was no different. We spent some time here and then headed off, I was planning to stop at Orbost for lunch on the way but then found out that I had to take a diversion from the Princes highway inside to go to Orbost so I dropped the idea and instead we stopped at a place called Cann River, had lunch of Fish and chips at a local diner and it was tasty. The road had started to be quite narrow and winding but it was a lovely drive and I was liking the colour of the trees and the sight was looking very pretty. Finally we started to get near the town of Eden and it was looking very very pretty as we were reaching this town. This motel and the previous one was pretty average but the Twofold Bay looked really beautiful from here. The motel host had advised me that the Sydney to Hobart boat races were there that morning, I heard that the kiwi boat Alfa Romeo was in the lead. Finally the boat won this years race. There was nothing much to do in the town other then going for a walk at the bay. Rucha went for a dip at the Twofold Bay. Unfortunately I could not find anything good to eat here and we settled on a Pizza.
The drive from Bairnsdale to Eden was also pretty long but now the remaining trip were shorter drives. I must have driven close to 300 kms today.

28/12/2009 - Heading off to Narooma, NSW (Whale Motor Inn)

Before we left the town of Eden, we decided to visit Eden's Whale Museum, they charge you 23 $ per head and I feel its a bit of a rip off. We got to see the Lighthouse (which is not used these days) but no information is given unless I asked about it. I felt the lady did not have enthusiasm at all. After we wrapped up from the museum we drove on the Sapphire Coast instead of driving from Bega. Sapphire Coast is the southern coast of New South Wales with spectacular mountain views and Ocean views, also their are very steep hairpin bends and one has to be very careful driving on this road. We stopped to go on the beach at Tathra, this place is also a very very small town. We spent about half an hour to 45 minutes over here and then proceeded on to Bermagui where we decided to have lunch. I had to manipulate the GPS in order to get a proper direction. I had learnt by this time that GPS is of no use until you reach the town you are supposed to go. I found that road directions are pretty straightforward if you have planned your route by looking at the paper map. Bermagui was pretty crowded I could not understand why? May be because of campers? I had decided to get out as quickly as possible from Bermagui and wanted to reach the motel in Narooma. I was impressed with the location of the motel and the town. We had a very beautiful view of the ocean and the town as well, it was really refreshing. We went around the town and went up to Wagonga hills which is gravel road. On the way we found Kangaroos in the wild and also a dead Kangaroo. From Wagonga hill we went to the seashore of Narooma and the lookout point. I just loved this place and would visit it again if we get a chance.