Great & Crap Driving Roads
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@dogmeat said in Happiness Scale:
hmm. Six years ago we went to the opening day of the Ashes Test at the MCG and then drove up to the GC . Four days of unrelenting tedium.
Yes it is a fucking big country. Full of fucking road works. We did the coastal route because everyone raved about it. Sorry but yeah sand, sea, gum trees gets real samey, real quick. We did get to see a bush fire from way closer than we would have liked ( 200 metres) which was spectacular. Otherwise....
Depends largely on the route you take. That and any route which includes transiting Sydney is overused and overpoliced. Even the Putty Road has too much traffic on it these days.
I have also done the great ocean road from Melbourne - Adelaide. "One of the great drives of the world" In your fucking dreams cobber. Only one of the three words is accurate. It is a road.
Only Mexicans can think it's great. The same people who have the unmitigated gall to favourably compare their city on a filthy river to the magnificence of Sydney's harbour.
They do have the Bonang Hwy which thankfully sees very little traffic and isn't all sealed.
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@Crazy-Horse said in Happiness Scale:
@dogmeat said in Happiness Scale:
hmm. Six years ago we went to the opening day of the Ashes Test at the MCG and then drove up to the GC . Four days of unrelenting tedium.
Yes it is a fucking big country. Full of fucking road works. We did the coastal route because everyone raved about it. Sorry but yeah sand, sea, gum trees gets real samey, real quick. We did get to see a bush fire from way closer than we would have liked ( 200 metres) which was spectacular. Otherwise....
I have also done the great ocean road from Melbourne - Adelaide. "One of the great drives of the world" In your fucking dreams cobber. Only one of the three words is accurate. It is a road.
I did drive from Port Douglas to Undarra Lava Tubes and back in a day once. That was a good drive.
I find Aussie quite annoying to drive in. Like others have said it's big bloody place, yet in there seem to be bugger all places to legally overtake (especially on the main country roads) and when you do come up to an overtaking sport you are usually stuck behind a row of motorists following each other closely yet holding no intention of overtaking.
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@antipodean if I recall correctly you like to ride a motorbike? I have ridden a number of the 'great' motorcycling roads on the Aussie East Coast, and holy shit they are average. Too busy, over policed and slow speed limits. I miss NZ when it comes to riding.
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Lots of bagging Aussie roads and drivers on here, but as one who has spent time recently driving both NZ and Aus, I can't separate the two. NZ was absolutely FULL of roadworks when we toured this year, and the muppet-speeding-up-for-the-passing-lane is surely a global phenomenon
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@Crazy-Horse said in Happiness Scale:
@antipodean if I recall correctly you like to ride a motorbike? I have ridden a number of the 'great' motorcycling roads on the Aussie East Coast, and holy shit they are average. Too busy, over policed and slow speed limits.
Agreed. Simply too many people, which means too many tards, which means too many police to save the tards from themselves. 25 years ago I could to the Putty Road with abandon. These days it's full of Sunday drivers which is why I like the Bonang. There's a good section of unsealed road which means you have to be committed to be able to do the rest.
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@booboo said in Great & Crap Driving Roads:
On the subject of long tedious boring Strayan roads I present the Hay Plain.
So long, so flat, so boring and so featureless it transcends tedious and is actually a really cool experience.
Ken Oath (to the first part). I did 20,000 km in the outback in Oz and lived it but the Hay Plain is like you’ve been watching Mark Richardson bat. Tedious as hell.
Had a cool drive a couple of days ago. Decided on the longer route from Kurow to Arrowtown and went over Dansey’s Pass towing the camper trailer. Nice pub at the top of the pass for a cold one. Out through the Maniotito.
Even better drive yesterday but this one wasn’t on public roads. Up the tops of the hills above the Kawarau Gorge at sunrise to do some tailing. Mountain climbing in the 4x4 -
@MajorRage said in Great & Crap Driving Roads:
Divergence from the Happiness Thread ...
Was just thinking about doing that ...
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@voodoo said in Great & Crap Driving Roads:
Lots of bagging Aussie roads and drivers on here, but as one who has spent time recently driving both NZ and Aus, I can't separate the two. NZ was absolutely FULL of roadworks when we toured this year, and the muppet-speeding-up-for-the-passing-lane is surely a global phenomenon
Worse in NZ in my experience. But cruise control was less of a thing back when I lives there - may have changed.
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@taniwharugby said in Great & Crap Driving Roads:
@booboo plenty of roads (inc SH1) in NZ where cruise control is a pointless feature.
Yeah I did notice how often you had to brake last few times I've been over.
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@antipodean said in Great & Crap Driving Roads:
Depends largely on the route you take. That and any route which includes transiting Sydney is overused and overpoliced. Even the Putty Road has too much traffic on it these days.
Agreed.
Coast road through NSW has undergone some massive improvements over the years I've been driving it - particularly as they dual carriageway everything - but it is boring as batshit to drive as a result, and you still get retards proportionate to the road size via Jevons' Paradox.
Inland via New England is much better, and there are a few shortcuts along the Newell as well. Plenty of places to overtake if you're prepared to put the foot down.
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NTA'S Favourite Alternate Aussie Roads Part 1:
Let's start small: Hume Highway from Sydney to Canberra is boring as batshit. Unfortunately avoiding large parts of it cuts your speed dramatically. So these days I usually suck it up until I get to Goulburn, then turn off and head down the country road via Tarago. Less cops, less dickheads, and you can make up the lost 15 minutes or so that Google Maps talks about without too much issue.
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NTA'S Favourite Alternate Aussie Roads Part 2:
The Newell Highway is the bowstring between Melbourne and Brisbane, but the stretch north of Dubbo to Coonabarabran is hilly, a bit bendy occasionally, and loaded with big trucks and grey nomads.
So fuck all of that - take the alternate road via Mendooran. Funnily enough, Google Maps says to do this now as well, being both 20km and 14 minutes shorter. It never used to do that as it thought the road was second-rate and would figure average speed below 80km/h. But clearly I and other drivers have provided data to re-educate.
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NTA'S Favourite Alternate Aussie Roads Part 3:
I've driven the New England Highway its entire length several times, between Hexham (Newcastle) NSW, and the northern tip in the middle of fucking nowhere aka Yarraman, QLD. Parents moved to Wondai QLD (stop laughing - these are all real names) when I was at Uni and I moved to Sydney. Perfect distance.
This year for a trip to see the old girl, I decided I was bored of that route, and would not even contemplate the coast road, so I headed up the other inland road and it was a fucking beaut from Gloucester through to Walcha which is otherwise known as Thunderbolts Way after a bushranger.
Thoroughly recommended - into the high interior where it occasionally snows, and through some spectacular forest up around the Barrington Tops. Pioneer lookout is a highlight, showing just how fucking crazy early settlers were.
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@Crucial said in Great & Crap Driving Roads:
I think this thread needs to define a great driving road.
Some seem to think it’s the one where the kids can watch a movie undisturbed, some the scenery on the way and others whether you get to test the capabilities of the car and driver.Judging by the tone of some on here, it is "any road that I have all to myself and nobody else is allowed on it waaaaah!"
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NTA'S Favourite Alternate Aussie Roads Part 4:
Someone mentioned the Hay plain earlier being boring - well it can be. I don't get out there very often and I appreciate the stillness and relatively stark landscape. Being able to see the curvature of the earth from your car is cool.
I found this alternate quite by accident while heading to Hay to go camping with a mate from Adelaide. It was windy as fuck on the open dual carriageway, I was bored of the Hume Highway and had driven the Sydney-Wagga leg (turning off onto the Sturt Hwy) so often I was grinding my teeth in anticipation.
Deciding I needed to get out of the wind, I turned off near Binalong and had the best time going up and down the hills away from all the other traffic, and Google Maps took me on some road I'd never driven before, through places I definitely had.
The last section between Darlington Point and Hay is a road unto itself: one and a half to two lanes of tar for 100km and no lines marked. Flat country, bugger all traffic forever and a chance to put the foot down and carve some serious time off the journey. That was fucking fun.