Driving Down the Coast

On Sunday morning it was time to leave Sydney and get out and explore more of Australia. I packed up gear once again and walked a few blocks to an Avis office to pick up my rental car. Australia has inherited many things from Britain, one of them being driving on the left side of the road. I knew driving would be an adventure, but I have driven in Britain before and was confident I could handle the challenge. Plus, my car in Palau has its steering wheel on the right side of the car so I am used to that style of driving. The thing I was most concerned about was getting out of Sydney. There is nothing like starting in the middle of a major metropolitan city as your first test of driving in a foreign land on the wrong side of the road. My rental car is a very nice sedan made by Holden and the first thing I realized is that although I am used to driving on the right side of the car I am also used to driving a tiny car and a full sized sedan is much larger. I had to adjust to having much more car and focus on keeping the car in the lane.

The Avis people gave me directions on how to get to the Princes HIghway, the major route south. I started off constantly telling myself to stay to the left. Fortuitously, it was Sunday morning and traffic was light. There was a few cars out and I was able to follow them to make sure I stayed in the correct lane. The trickiest thing about driving on the left side of the road is making right turns. It was a little scary the first few times I had to make right turns, but I just followed the car ahead me and made it through. I had good directions and the signage was excellent and I was able to make it through Sydney on the Princes HIghway. The road open up into a four lane highway going 110 km/h which is both the biggest road and fastest that I have driven in nine months. Despite the layoff, it all comes back to you quickly and I felt right at home cruising down the highway. I was also thrilled at having more than two radio stations and hearing nonislandized music.

Many maps depict the entire continent of Australia. This can be very deceiving because it makes it appear that places like Sydney and Melbourne are near to one another when really they are rather far apart. It is nearly 1100 km from Sydney to Melbourne. It generally takes two days to drive it if you are going straight through. I decided to take my time and see the sights along the way and so I will not arrive in Melbourne until Friday. Near Sydney, the Princes Highway is a major interstate, but as I drove further south it became a two-lane highway and instead of bypassing towns it took me right through them. The speed limit was 100 km/hr, but frequently would drop due to a town or curvy road. Needless to say, it is not the fastest route.

The little towns along the way, with names like Ulladulla, Batemans Bay, Bodalla, and Bermagui, gave me an opportunity to occasionally stop and stretch my legs and get some food and drink. I had lunch sitting beach side in one of the many little towns I passed that even now have recessed into my the far reaches of my memory. Towards the end of my travels for the day I left the Princes Highway for a scenic drive right along the coast. There were beautiful rolling hills of trees and views off to the ocean. The road also crossed a few small rivers by way of a one lane wood bridge that I had to make sure there was no oncoming traffic before crossing.

About four in the afternoon I finally arrived in my destination, the little seaside town of Merimbula. The small town of Merimbula was not that much different than many of the other towns I had passed, but I had driven 450 km for the day and it left me in a good position to take my time exploring Gippsland, the area in Victoria east of Melbourne. Being winter, vacancy at the road motels was easy to come by and I picked a motel on top of the hills with a view overlooking the town and water. The motel was nothing fancy, but after a week in hostels having my own room was a novelty. I drove back into town for dinner and to explore. It is a nice little town obviously more focused on the summer tourists than winter, but there was still some visitors. I had a nice little dinner before returning to my room to watch a little television before going to sleep.