What Road Would You Never Travel On Again & Why?

86GTS · Guru

What Road Would You Never Travel On Again & Why?

Whenarewethere · Guru

Not overly keen to travel on Gibb River Road or Purnululu NP again. It's not the road itself, but too many using them as a race track. Also had a 4WD fly past us over 100kph on the Oodnadatta Track throwing stones everywhere, kms down the road they were changing a tyre, then flew past again.

Joda · Senior Member

My son & I rode from Buchan to jindabyne on road bikes, mine a 750 f2 honda, sons bike was a gpz750, took us all day, my speedo fell out of its socket & landed on the top of the fuel tank, gaffa tape fix! Was crook as a dog when we arrived in Jindabyne, that was 40 years ago, don,t know what the road is like now, did,t have time to look at the scenery! Bikes were loaded with all our camping gear, Only when you are young........

Bicyclecamper · Guru

The original road to 1770, if it was still the same, as it was in the 80's I would never go up there. We went up it in 83', and it was a goat track especially for my Sigma. That Sigma with me had by this time, been partially on the Gunbarrel, the full length of the Tanami, and all the way to the tip, but we only made it halfway to 1770, as it was the worst goat track, we had ever been on.

Cupie · Guru

I don't do corrugations, but ..

On one trip we were tired of the usual route across the Barkly through the Three Ways so we decided to take the scenic route via Cape Crawford & then down to the Barkly Homestead, all bitumen, yea. A beautiful & historic drive too.

While at Cape C we took a day trip to Bing Bong in the GQ. Nothing much to see there because of the fenced off commercial installation, but we found a bush track winding thru the scrub that took us to a very large concrete boat ramp onto a beautiful stretch of water. Clearly a commercial fishing facility with a couple of tin sheds nearby. Great spot for lunch after a pleasant drive through the scrub.

On the way back on the main road we came across a dirt road turn off to King Ash Bay, a renowned fishing 'community'. "We'll just take a quick look, it's only 20-30k", we said.

Bad decision.

From the start the corrugations were about 12" from crest to crest and 6" deep. We should have known better.

Even with the tyres let down it was miserable driving. The GQ is never a soft ride, hey? After about 5 km I noticed a track through the bush beside the road, so I found a spot where I could get on to it. Buggar, not much better, but the corrugations were only about 5" apart & 2' deep.

No good for us, so did a 180 & back to the lovely bitumen & on to Cape Crawford & a coldie.

In about 260,000km that's about the only dirt driving that the Patrol has done. Never again.

(actually, we have done dirt driving into 80mile Beach, Uldara Lava Tubes, and a bit down on the Yorke Peninsular... but they were all well graded hard bitumen like gravel)

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

We prefer not to drive any road that we have ever driven before, if there is any other alternative.
This has not been updated for 4 years.

18-04-15 All.JPG

Cheers,

Peter

86GTS · Guru

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:
We prefer not to drive any road that we have ever driven before, if there is any other alternative.
This has not been updated for 4 years.
Cheers,
Peter

Looks like you only did a few main highways in Victoria. biggrin

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Victoria is not a common destination for us (right now we are at the northern end of Lake Torrens in SA).

Cheers,
Peter

86GTS · Guru

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:
Victoria is not a common destination for us (right now we are at the northern end of Lake Torrens in SA).

Cheers,
Peter

Looks great, enjoy!

Dicko1 · Senior Member

Got sick and tired of driving the Central Arnhem Hwy. Highway be buggered...goat track many years ago. Spent years travelling it for work. Saw dozens of wrecked vehicles, millions of corrugations and bulldust that was unreal. Anyway.....all part of life's adventures.

deverall11 · Guru

Looked forward to driving across the Nullabor ever since I was a child. It got mentioned by so many people. So many stories.
Most boring drive ever done. When we got to WA I actively looked for a way to send the caravan back via train/road so
it did not need to towed back east.
Some people love it and spend weeks stopping at every nook and cranny, including the irresponsible brain dead idiots
who feel the need to take a selfie on the side of the road at every road signs. You automatically slow down to render help only to realise
it is a waist of time.

86GTS · Guru

deverall11 wrote:

You automatically slow down to render help only to realize
it is a waist of time.

Reminds me of the time we spotted an elderly couple towing a Jayco slightly pulled over, taking up half of a lane on a major bitumen road in Nth Central Victoria.

I slowed down & pulled completely off the road just past them.

I walked back to them thinking that they had done a wheel bearing or had some other problem.

No nothing was wrong, they'd just ''pulled over'' for a cuppa.

Whenarewethere · Guru

New sections of autobahn in Germany which make the best Australian freeway look like a goat track.

We were doing about 140kph at the time & a Porsche flew past us like we were standing still. My calculations at the time were about +280kph for the Porsche.

KevinJ · Senior Member

deverall11 wrote:
Looked forward to driving across the Nullabor ever since I was a child. It got mentioned by so many people. So many stories.
Most boring drive ever done. When we got to WA I actively looked for a way to send the caravan back via train/road so
it did not need to towed back east.
Some people love it and spend weeks stopping at every nook and cranny, including the irresponsible brain dead idiots
who feel the need to take a selfie on the side of the road at every road signs. You automatically slow down to render help only to realise
it is a waist of time.

There must be two roads across the Nullabor because the road we took was incredibly interesting. So much to see and I know we missed some of it. We can't wait to do it again.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Some people only see the white line, but a track is always more iteresting.
Cheers,
Peter

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Crossing the Nullarbor from south to north.
youtu.be/7vK-7cMyKUw
Cheers,
Peter

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Duplicate

-- Edited by Peter_n_Margaret on Friday 8th of April 2022 07:06:27 PM

Whenarewethere · Guru

KevinJ wrote:
deverall11 wrote:
Looked forward to driving across the Nullabor ever since I was a child. It got mentioned by so many people. So many stories.
Most boring drive ever done. When we got to WA I actively looked for a way to send the caravan back via train/road so
it did not need to towed back east.
Some people love it and spend weeks stopping at every nook and cranny, including the irresponsible brain dead idiots
who feel the need to take a selfie on the side of the road at every road signs. You automatically slow down to render help only to realise
it is a waist of time.
There must be two roads across the Nullabor because the road we took was incredibly interesting. So much to see and I know we missed some of it. We can't wait to do it again.

Across the Nullarbor is really interesting, could spend weeks looking at things. We walked up some of the escarpments, looked at some of the caves, beaches, cliffs. Love the changing scenery. One of the best roads in Australia.

Derek Barnes · Senior Member

We drove along the Matilda Highway in Queensland about 20 years ago. The highway was bitumen and flat with no pot holes, but it was FULL of dead kangaroos in various stages of decomposition. We drove along some sections several kilometres in length where we estimated there was at least 1 kangaroo every linear metre. In some areas they were piled high on the side of the road. It was the most sickening sight imaginable. We havent been back since then.

DMaxer · Guru

If anyone is suffering from constipation I would recommend the drive down Brown Mountain in southern NSW towing the van. If the case is severe then I recommend waiting for a bit of wet weather and heavier traffic. Its not called Brown Mountain for nothing.

Radar · Guru

We were young and on our honeymoon late April 1970, we had spent a night at Cooma, typical April weather, rain, overcast, not much sunshine but we out were exploring.

We drove to the Mount Kosciusko, in those days there was a maintained unsealed road as were most roads down in that area. We really don't remember how far we walked to a viewing area, it was clear as when we started, cold but clear, then as re were returning to our (my) car a most horrible cloud cover come over us in, spookie because we could not see more then a vew feet in front of us, cold and damp, we were at times totally disorientated, we finally got to the car park and after some time located the car, a mud spatted light yellow colour that just blended into the surroundings, my new wife was a bit upset by this time, I was trying to be brave.

That is my worst bit of road and it's really got nothing to do with the story except public motorist are now forbidden to drive a motor vehicle in that area of the Kosciusko National Park but I really would love to that drive again.

erad · Guru

Dmaxer:
Yes - Brown Mountain is a steep, winding road, but it is no worse than many other roads in this area. We go down to the coast for Fish & Chips quite often, but of course then we don't tow our caravan. But we regularly tow our van down and up the mountain with no trepidation. USE THE GEARS on your car going down. Even without the caravan, I use 2nd gear and I have to dab the brakes about 3 times over the whole trip down. Yes - I go slower than most of the traffic, and when there is a buildup of traffic behind me, I know where there are places I can pull over and let the traffic pass. Even then, I don't HAVE to do this - it is only courtesy to other drivers. When I tow the caravan down, it is the same except I use first gear. When you take your rime going down the mountain, you see a large variety of vegetation changes - it is an enjoyable drive for us.

The road surface is quite good these days, although it is prone to landslips, especially after heavy rains. Milk and timber trucks daily use the road to go to Canberra. It is as safe as they can make it. The only time I was worried about the descent was once when I rode my bicycle down to the bottom and back up. On the way down, we had to keep the brakes on all the time to minimise the wetting of the rims (no brakes then). Coming back up, it was the granny gear and just sit there and grind away at the hill. Driving or cycling, it is an enjoyable ride.

Radar:
You should try skiing to Kosciuszko and the cloud comes in (it is called a whiteout). You lose all sense of direction and movement. You think you are moving so you lean over onto one ski to turn and fall over - you were totally stationary but didn't know it. Similarly, you think you are stopped so you plant the ski pole into the snow and it moves away from you! Scary.

You can still ride a bicycle from Charlottes Pass (the end of the road now) to Rawsons Pass (just below the summit). It is an easy ride, no steep climbs like Brown Mtn. I think I hold the record for the latest summit climb of Kosciuszko - 28 July 1967 I think. Normally the summit is well covered by snow at that time, but I only had to traverse on snowdrift near Rawson Pass and from then on it was clear all the way to the top. Those were the days when I was young and stupid. Now, I am old and stupid...

-- Edited by erad on Saturday 9th of April 2022 10:37:33 AM

Radar · Guru

Radar:
You should try skiing to Kosciuszko and the cloud comes in (it is called a whiteout). You lose all sense of direction and movement. You think you are moving so you lean over onto one ski to turn and fall over - you were totally stationary but didn't know it. Similarly, you think you are stopped so you plant the ski pole into the snow and it moves away from you! Scary.

You can still ride a bicycle from Charlottes Pass (the end of the road now) to Rawsons Pass (just below the summit). It is an easy ride, no steep climbs like Brown Mtn. I think I hold the record for the latest summit climb of Kosciuszko - 28 July 1967 I think. Normally the summit is well covered by snow at that time, but I only had to traverse on snowdrift near Rawson Pass and from then on it was clear all the way to the top. Those were the days when I was young and stupid. Now, I am old and stupid...

Those were the days and yes I was young and ..., then professionally...... truck...., and now retired, old and stupid from the class of 1947.

Do you know how far from the summit you could drive?

-- Edited by Radar on Saturday 9th of April 2022 11:22:32 AM

erad · Guru

From memory, it is about 19 km from Charlottes Pass carpark to Rawsons Pass, and it is less than 1 km walk from there to the summit. It is an easy walk/cycle, but rather boring - the road/track is straight and the scenery changes very slowly. There is a shelter hut (Seamans Hut - built in memory of Laurie Seamans who died in the area in the 1930's) about 3 km from Rawsons Pass. There is a toilet block built at Rawsons Pass as well. No other facilities there. An easier access to the summit is via Thredbo - up the chairlift and walk along an elevated steel grille walkway. I imagine that there will be quite a display of wildflowers out at present, but they will be near the end of their season.

You can even take your bike up the chairlift and then ride down a trail back to the village or to Dead Horse gap and then down the road back to Thredbo. It is a good place to visit during Summer as well as Winter. And no - I don't get commissions from Thredbo or anyone else either... You can hire a bike from a place in Thredbo as well.

-- Edited by erad on Saturday 9th of April 2022 12:06:22 PM

-- Edited by erad on Saturday 9th of April 2022 12:07:20 PM

Radar · Guru

erad wrote:
From memory, it is about 19 km from Charlottes Pass carpark to Rawsons Pass, and it is less than 1 km walk from there to the summit. It is an easy walk/cycle, but rather boring - the road/track is straight and the scenery changes very slowly. There is a shelter hut (Seamans Hut - built in memory of Laurie Seamans who died in the area in the 1930's) about 3 km from Rawsons Pass. There is a toilet block built at Rawsons Pass as well. No other facilities there. An easier access to the summit is via Thredbo - up the chairlift and walk along an elevated steel grille walkway. I imagine that there will be quite a display of wildflowers out at present, but they will be near the end of their season.
You can even take your bike up the chairlift and then ride down a trail back to the village or to Dead Horse gap and then down the road back to Thredbo. It is a good place to visit during Summer as well as Winter. And no - I don't get commissions from Thredbo or anyone else either... You can hire a bike from a place in Thredbo as well.

Hi, I just been doing some extra reading that I had not planned about Koscuszko NP.

One thing is when did the spelling change, my road atlas is 1997 model.

the road closed in 1977 to the motoring public.

Thank you for the incentive to look.

I found these 2 slides now digital photos of that drive, maybe you will appreciate them. I think I may of been a bit out of my depth that day. I think this is why I nearly always have a compass with me now.

I could not imagine being up there on skis in a whiteout.

1970 05 17 027.jpg 1970 05 17 028.jpg

86GTS · Guru

Further to my original thread starting essay, the same stretch of road south of Jindabyne (Barry Way) turns to gravel eventually.
A little further on is Jacob's Ladder, a series of hairpin bends as the road drops off the plateu down to the Snowy River.
A pretty hairy stretch of road.

Bow · Veteran Member

The south bound lane of the Hume highway

Gaylehere · Guru

Don't remember the road but I too have been to that carpark and did the short walk to the top of Mt. Koscuiszko back in 1972. Lovely bright sunny day from my old photos. I wouldn't call it the worst road we've been on but back in the 1980's when the road from the highway to Ayres Rock (as it was back then) was still dirt we were the first vehicle, I believe, that got in after some wet weather. The trip took us hours. On numerous occasions there was water over the road so we'd stop, throw a couple rocks into the water, walk around it a bit and hubby would decide - yes I think we will be right to go through that so off we'd go slowly. A few times we saw a 4 wheel drive come the other way. Anyway we made it in, set up our little 3 man tent in the then camping area and down came the rain again. Seeing Ayres Rock with the water running off of it is something to behold. And yes, a dingo did come into the camping area, we chased it away but others fed them. This was not long before the Azaria Chamberlain incident. We were in a Mazda station wagon. Our current motorhome does not like corrugations. Many of the dirt roads back then are now bitumen. Cheers.

erad · Guru

Radar:
I don't remember when the Kosciusko name changed, but I guess about 20 years ago at least. The National Sparks and Wildfire Service spent a lot of money changing the name (and all the signs etc) so that poor old Count Kosciuszko (who was the Polish Patriot who sponsored Strezleki to go exploring in Oz) could now sleep more comfortably in his grave. I guess that the way things are going the name will soon be changed to reflect the Aboriginal heritage of the area, although which tribe it will be named after will be a quandary since they used to only go to the tops during summer to eat the Bogong Moths. Maybe call it Mt Bogong - now that is a good idea - Damn - there is already a Mt Bogong elsewhere... Gee I am getting catty in my old age....

86GTS: The Barry Way currently is a shocker near Jacobs Ladder. Deep erosion gutters crossing the road, many of them hidden in the shadows of trees overhanging the road as well. The erosion gutters are roughly the diameter and half the depth of a large 4WD wheel and if you hot them at any speed, I shudder to think of the damage. Once you cross into Victoria, the road becomes comparitively a super highway, but the original alignment on the escarpment going down from the plateau near Gelantipity down into Suggan Buggan remains pretty much as I first saw it in 1966. It is a case of very slow and steady, looking well ahead for signs of a vehicle coming the other way. At this moment, the Snowy River will be really roaring due to all the rain we have had of late. It is a spectacular area to visit. If you think that road down to Suggan Buggan is bad, try the road down to McKillops Bridge. Now, that road is narrow and winding, with no safety barriers on the shoulders either...

-- Edited by erad on Saturday 9th of April 2022 10:03:25 PM

dorian · Guru

erad wrote:
Radar:
I don't remember when the Kosciusko name changed, but I guess about 20 years ago at least. The National Sparks and Wildfire Service spent a lot of money changing the name (and all the signs etc) so that poor old Count Kosciuszko (who was the Polish Patriot who sponsored Strezleki to go exploring in Oz) could now sleep more comfortably in his grave.

It's "Strzelecki', not "Strezleki". Give the man some respect. The least you can do is get his name right. I would hope that was the reason behind the correction, or maybe it was to undo the stupidity of misspelling the name of our highest peak. Idiots.