Australian Road Trip Dream Achieved

Ever experienced the feeling of accomplishing a dream? Bob has. One of this adventurous Brit’s many dreams was to pack up his wife and daughter and hit the frog and toad (translation: road) on a good old fashioned Aussie road trip. This dream was ticked off his list January of this year and Bob has kindly agreed to guest post about their adventure. Check out his post and then hop on over to Bob in Oz to see how a Pom really finds life in Australia.

A great example of someone living like they mean it me thinks! Over to you Bob…

Our Dream Australian Road Trip

Unlike Sami, who is a true Aussie gal, I am a bloke from England. Sami would affectionately refer to me as a Pom. Well, this Pom moved to Australia in November 2007 and has fallen in love with this amazing country. 

Sami believes in “making the most of the time you have on this planet” – well, me, my wife and my five-year-old daughter certainly did that back in January, just before my little girl started school full-time. 

We had often talked about it but this time we said “why not now?” – and our dream of a major road trip across three Australian States and through some of the most spectacular and diverse scenery began.

We didn’t overly plan our trip, but the route ended up being Brisbane – Yamba – Port Macquarie – Sydney – Bateman’s Bay – Lakes Entrance – Melbourne – Warrnambool – Shepparton – Forbes – Dubbo – Goondiwindi and then back home to Brisbane. 

Originally, our first stop was to be Byron Bay. But we had made good time so decided to press on to Yamba. What a great choice that was. If you get the chance to go to Yamba, take it. A couple of months after we had got back, Yamba was voted the top town in Australia by Australian Traveller magazine. We were not surprised.

As I mentioned, I was already in love with this country. But I didn’t expect to fall in love with one of its motorways. I guess all you Australians take it for granted, but I love your M1. It has river views!

It’s a beaut, as you Aussies say. And if you do take it for granted, try and pop over to England and drive up and down their M1. You’ll soon see where I am coming from. 

Pressing on towards Sydney, just past Swansea, we stopped briefly at Caves Beach. At around 100 kms from Sydney, I imagine some might commute from here.

Unspoilt sandy beaches overlooked by luxury hilltop houses out of view to the left. Australia clearly has more beach than it knows what to do with. Back in the UK, we’d have built a Maccas, some amusement arcades and we’d have shops selling “Kiss Me Quick” hats and lollies inscribed with “I Love Cave Beach”.

 We couldn’t even buy a sandwich here. How refreshing.

Ahh, Sydney! That was more like home. Overcrowded, busy, expensive, everyone in a hurry. We were too, to quickly move on. We spent too little time at Bateman’s Bay and Lakes Entrance before pushing on to Melbourne, which had bags of character; we loved the trams. We were, of course, in the height of summer. And we knew it, with temperatures reaching 40°c.

By now, we realised we’d tried to fit too much into our three-week road trip. But despite that, we were glad we took the advice of one of our Australian friends who told us that we couldn’t come this far and not go on The Great Ocean Road. Originally we had intended to head back towards Brisbane after Melbourne. But instead, we found ourselves travelling this way….
 

Our destination was Warrnambool where we had booked to stay for three nights. We knew our daughter would enjoy a bit of beach time after spending so much of the holiday in the car. As you can see from the movie, the further we travelled along this stunning road, the greyer it got. By the time we got to Warrnambool, the temperature had dropped to 16°c.

So, the weather can let you down in Australia! We didn’t get too much beach time.

In a different way, the journey home along the Newell Highway was just as jaw dropping. We particularly loved the dish, in Parkes. With the recent celebrations marking 40 years since the moon landing, I saw for myself the real difference the Australian’s involvement made to the watching millions.

As Neil Armstrong began his short descent down the steps from his space pod, it was difficult to make out what was happening. Realising mans greatest moment was nothing more than a grey blur, NASA switched from the USA transmission over to that of Parkes. It was like turning on the lights. All at once, an estimated 500 million people around the world, who were asking “What is it?” gasped, “Crikey, there’s a man on the moon!”

Our final overnight stop was at the border town of Goondiwindi before we pressed for home. We had completed our trip, all 4774 km of it and not a single lemming had been squashed. One small step for man, one giant road trip for me and my family. Sami says make the most of the time you have on this planet. Australia is one great place to do that!

I loved every inch of the road. It was the trip of a lifetime, a dream come true. But this dream has spurred more dreams, we have plenty more places to see around here!

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