If you’ve been reading about our East Coast Australia Family Friendly Roadtrip Parts One, Two and Three you will know we have had an incredible journey. It has been the trip of a life time with adventures in nature and luxury stays. We had planned to take the in-land route back from Cairns through Central and Southern Queensland and New South Wales at a leisurely pace, checking out the various inland waterfalls, and artesian basin-fed hot pools along the way.
Unfortunately, the holiday came to a dramatic conclusion, when the perils of winter viruses finally caught up with us. However, we found a silver lining in each other, our good car and a positive attitude for the 30+ hour drive ahead of us. In what felt like a Herculean task of co-driving, we managed to make it from Cairns to the South Coast of New South Wales in three days. This meant driving from dawn to well past dark. It was not pleasant, but did the trick.
Day 1: Cairns – Townsville – Charters Towers – Emerald (10.5hrs) QLD
Day 2: Emerald – Roma – St George – Dubbo (12.5hrs) QLD – NSW
Day 3: Dubbo – Canberra – South Coast (6.5hrs) NSW
In the future, we’d like to take a version of this overall path at a slower roll, spending a week or more on the road with sightseeing. For example, we had hoped to hop on the Kuranda Scenic Railway, the Undara Lava Tubes, and then stop at Josephine and Isabella Falls, Paronella Park, visit Artesian bath spots, Lightening Ridge, Carnarvon Gorge, and linger in NSW wine country, stopping in towns such as Molong; SONA Hotel looks chic for a stopover.
We saw the sun rise and set along the Great Inland Way; beautiful but arid land with barren rivers, the highway edges littered with puffs of cotton. It was a nice surprise to enter Roma, her streets lined with Bottle Trees. Once in New South Wales the pastures become green and landscape transforms from a flat expanse to hilly (mind the corners: we encountered a huge flock of sheep crossing the road in a 100 zone.)
If you’re going to tackle the itinerary in this way, it is essential you have litres of drinking water in the car and constantly fill up on petrol. Leave each stop with a full tank. There can be stretches of 100s of kms without a petrol station, and when there is a petrol station, it might not be open at night (and may not stock premium fuel). Watch for Kangaroos, road train Trucks, and cowboy drivers; all are plentiful. Most of the road is a thin two-lane highway so be alert and take advantage of the rest stops, and playgrounds.
Check the map prior to leaving and understand the different routes, some roads might shave a few minutes off a drive but happen to be dirt. The Google maps little blue dot won’t be accurate like it is in the city.
When stopping in St George for coffee, we made the questionable decision to follow the advice of a teenage barista and travel through Mungindi rather than along the more trafficked tourist route that goes past Lightning Ridge. This resulted in a late-night traverse of a bumpy dirt road without phone reception in what certainly felt like the middle of nowhere. I shudder to think what car troubles would have meant (we saw nobody on that road). Thrilling or anxiety-inducing, it’s in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.
Although we like to wing-it, we did develop a new mantra; ‘call ahead’. Call ahead to your accommodation, call ahead to cafes, call ahead to petrol stations, call ahead to your GP; telehealth is an amazing service. This absolutely saved us from arriving late in Dubbo without accommodation, since the accommodation provider had decided to unilaterally cancel our booking without telling us.
Prepare your road snacks and pack an assortment of non-perishables for DIY meals when you pull into rest for the night. It was fruits, kid friendly snacks, sweets, pasta and sandwiches for a few days there and of course, caffeine (shoutout Campos liquid coffee and long-life milk).
Remember to download your favourite podcasts (we got into Hot Money), music or shows for the backseat, as mobile service is patchy. On that note, we have over the years found it helpful that one of us is on Optus and the other Telstra, this maximises your chances for reception. If you have little ones, make toys accessible and diverse, the iPad and headphones also did some heavy lifting on these long driving legs.
Finally, be nice to each other. This, and all road trips, have their challenges but everyone is happier if you can remember to work as a team.
We didn’t return from our mega-road trip in triumph, like we imagined. We limped across the line in a heap of illness and exhaustion. But in the end, we felt grateful for the wild adventure and happy to be finally home.
It was amazing to think that after taking weeks to wind our way up the coast, stopping many places along the way, and playfully bouncing around Far North Queensland for a fortnight, we were able to transport our entire family all the way home in just three days, when the need arose. It wasn’t easy, but the best things rarely are.