Father and Son road trip

[pradomad Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close pradomad]

This might be off topic but last July I did an awesome trip with my teenage son.
5163km in 8 days.
Good music and all done with a basic mac computer.

July road trip; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qwz96-cdHg
Blue Rag Range Track; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGZOaDjA0NU
Prado flooded with mud; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7QMPesBd3Q

Enjoy.
JS.

[Davros Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Davros]

Good on you for getting out there with your son.

Last year around Easter, I took my two youngest boys on the infamous "Sydney to Melbourne via dirt tracks" trip over 14 days.
My youngest were 11 and 7 at the time. Lots of naysayers said I would be back home within a day or two to drop off the youngest. They were saying... Steve, do you realise you will be driving all day, setting up camp by yourself, cooking dinner, cleaning up, cooking breakfast, breaking camp, and then driving all day again, day after day.
Get stuffed, was my general reply.

The boys grew into capable young men on the trip. They pitched in for all of the work, were consulted as if they were adults about decisions to be made along the way, and it was great for me watch them grow up before my eyes.
The benefits of that trip are evident today. I have great relationship with my boys, and we often talk about our adventures and very fond memories.

We had a ball as I am sure you did.

Well done!!

Steve

[pradomad Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close pradomad]

Thanks Steve
it was definably a memorable experience.

Your Sydney to Melbourne via dirt tracks could that be done in 2 days?

JS.

[Davros Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Davros]

Thanks Steve
it was definably a memorable experience.

Your Sydney to Melbourne via dirt tracks could that be done in 2 days?

JS.

No chance. The trip starts at Clarence in Blue Mountains and takes you through the spanish steps then over Capertee way, and through Gardens of Stone National Park. Continues throught to Hill End, and then way out west to lake Cargellico, and then down and further west to Hay, before heading SE towards Vic high Country.

We didn't get out of low range for the 1st 1 1/2 days, and only covered 60kms or so on that 1st day.

The guy that gave me the gps co-ordinates for the trip did do it in 8 days, but they would have been very long days. We did it travelling an average of six or so hours per day, which gave plenty of time for setting up and breaking camp each day.
We stayed an extra day at Hay, because we were camped on a nice part of the river, and the boys were tired. (So was I actually).
I had an internet dingle thing for my laptop, which we used to download Bear Grills stuf which we watched in the sack at night.
The only night we didn't set up camp, was when we got into Lake Cargellico. It had been pissing rain all day, the Prado had 3" of mud in some places, and we didn't get into town until late. The cheapy motel was the best $75.00 I have ever spent!

We travelled about 1800kms of dirt/mud there, and took the Hume Hwy back home in a day. All up we were away for 14 days.

The rpute takes you way off the direct route, and on some days we travelled all day and didn't head south at all. It takes a bit of work too, to stay off the bitumen. The co-ordinates we had were not correct at times, and on some days we had to do a bit of backtracking and reorganising our route to avoid the bitumen. That was the challange we set ourselves.

I don't think it would be possible to do it in two.

Steve

[pradomad Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close pradomad]

Thanks for that.
Definitely will consider that on my next trip down to Melbourne.
JS.

[Silvo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Silvo]

care to share the trip route?

[Guest Close Guest]

Seems more appropriate to have this in the Trip Planning and Reports section.

[ursos Member Find all posts View Profile Close ursos]

I've had this trip (Melbourne-Sydney off road) pencilled into the back of my head for sometime in the future but until now I have not really contemplated a detailed route. So, here's the challenge: what's your best, or maybe shortest, Melbourne-Sydney route that minimises time/km on the bitumen?