During the last December vacation, Vijini and I went on a road trip starting from Australian Capital Territory, then to New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. On the way, we visited many places of natural beauty and man-made masterpieces. We started from Lyons in Canberra and our furthest destination was Seaton, Adelaide. Following is a rough road path without the places we visited. However, the total journey took us nine days (22/12/2018-30/12/2018) and nearly 4500km of driving. 🙂
New South Wales
Our first stop was Batemans Bay in NSW. We went to Casey’s beach to enjoy the sea breeze and have lunch. After filling up our tummies in a public BBQ tent, we headed to our night’s stop, Hobart Beach Campground.
We arrived at the campground in the evening and set up our tent. After having a barbecue dinner we tucked in our cosy tent. Early in the next morning we packed our stuff and headed to Victoria.
Victoria
From Hobart campground, we headed to Eden, Eagle point and to Sale where we stayed the night in an AirBnB place.
Our drive from Sale to Clayton was a short and nearly 200km ride. However, we decided to make it 400km+ drive while having a look at all the possible attraction given the time we had. So we headed to Walhalla which was an ancient city famous for Gold Mining. Then we headed to Foster North Lookout, Flynns Beach (in Phillip Islands) and Finally end up at Clayton around 9pm at Night. I must mention that driving in Melbourne was not as easy as in Canberra and the drivers were not that polite driving under the limits. So it was a bit stressful drive for both of us.
We stayed for 2 days in Clayton. The next day was Christmas Day so we did not have much to explore as it was crowded and many attractions were closed. However, we were able to go to Mount Dandenong. It was a mountain drive to the Dandenong Mountain. However, we did not find much attraction in there as it was very crowded with tourists.
On the fifth day, we drove along the Great Ocean Drive to Cape Nelson. We stopped at a few beaches to take some pictures. We stayed the night at Cape Nelson Retreat in Portland West.
We were able to gather a set of very nice drone shots of beaches and nature on our drive. The drive from Melbourne to Cape Nelson was a very enjoyable experience. Drivers were polite as we left the city and the surrounding was cheering with beauty.
South Australia
Everything about Adelaide was great. People, road, culture and things to see were far better than what we experienced before in the journey. The road system was quite complicated and busy (only in the city), however, driving was very comfortable as people drove under the limits and in a decent manner. We note that the city was not alive after 5pm in the evening.
On our way to Adelaide, we stopped at Mount Gambier to see the very famous crater lakes.
In Adelaide we visited D’Arenberg cube which is a tourist attraction centred around a winery, Victor harbour horse tram and Granite Island.
On our last day at Adelaide we visited Hahndoft which is an ancient German village with old style German architecture.
Return Journey
The return journey was a bit complicated one. We were planning to return home in a one-day drive we got ourselves stuck at Hahndorf, the German village in Adelaide. So we had to stay overnight in the middle. The only option available for us was the Horsham, rural city. Despite the city being bit rural, we found that Horsham Int’l Hotel was a 4 star rated nice stay with very comfortable amenities.
One of the most strange things we found on our way back was the pink lake.
In conclusion, we found that Adelaide could be a wonderful city for living. Melbourne was quite good and lively, but the city was very busy and driving was hectic. My vote goes to Adelaide as a nice living other than Canberra. Hope you enjoyed reading. Cheers! 🙂
The Arachchi Style 