Australia Road Trip: Brisbane to Melbourne, Tasmania, and Back As much as we love cruising, sometimes it's just good to get off the boat, and sometimes it's the only way to really see a country. Australia is HUGE. Even after looking at maps and devouring guides we still didn't have a feel for just how big the country is. It wasn't until we started driving, kilometer after kilometer speeding by, that the true size of the country began to sink in. In the end we couldn't possibly do everything or cover all of Australia; we just didn't have the time (or money). So we decided on renting a little campervan and driving the east coast, from Brisbane to Melbourne. Then we flew to Tasmania, spending a week circumnavigating the island via another rented campervan. Finally we flew from Tasmania to Sydney to hang with friends, then did a mad dash, driving back to Mooloolaba in a two day period. We stayed with our friend (and previous owner of Billabong) in Yamba (near Mooloolaba) for three weeks (lovin' the land life) before returning to Billabong and our life at sea! It seems we covered a lot of ground, and saw a lot of sights ... so much that we figured we'd deviate from our normal journal style entry, providing picture journals of our trip instead. The maps below highlight our travels in black. Links bring up various photo-journals, divided in hopes of making them manageable in both size and attention span! Road Trip Summary:
Brisbane to Melbourne: Tasmania: Sydney Area (just hanging): Sydney - Mooloolaba Return Drive: Total: 5,585 km
Brisbane to Sydney:
2/20 - 2/23: Brisbane to Coff's Harbour 2/23 - 2/27: Dorrigo to Broken Bay 2/28 - 3/01: Blue Mountains 3/2 - 3/4: Sydney Including the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras
Sydney to Melbourne:
3/5 - 3/9 Sydney to Wilson Promontory Kiama 3/10 - 3/13 Phillip Island to Melbourne Phillip Island
Tasmania:
3/14 - 3/22 Tasmania Hobart Tasmania back to Mooloolaba & Billabong: On March 22, 2007 we flew from Hobart, Tasmania to Sydney, where we stayed with our friends until the 28th (in their lovely house in Pittwater). On the 28th and 29th we drove like crazy, covering over 1,000 km in the two days. We only intended to stay with Steve for a week, but before we knew it three weeks had flown by!!! Finally, on the 22nd we returned to Billabong for good, spending the next week getting her back in shape and ready to go. By the way Steve is a great boat builder -- check out his website at: www.marshalldesign.blogspot.com . The photos below of are the beautiful birds that visit Steve & Lynne's multiple times a day ... it was a real treat to watch them everyday. (Click to view larger photograph)
Previous Journal Entry (AU Feb: Southport to Mooloolaba) Next Journal Entry (AU May-July: Mooloolaba to Darwin)
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