Longestdrive in Australia

[Great Dane]

By the way, how did you find performanceforums?

google was my friend and contacted the moderator directly

[Great Dane]

How much difference would moving it into start to mid Feb make? I can look on temperature and rainfall charts easily enough but what are your experiences locally where you live (both in the North and South)


Our mad 'leader' wants to do North Cape (northern Norway) to Cape Town via London in August!!!

[Great Dane]

The fact they are planning to do it in January, and hoping to do it in under 6 days suggests they haven't. Good luck to them, would love to see them succeed but I suspect it will be closer to 9 days than 6, assuming they finish at all.





I stick by my prediction - 8.5 days

Personally I will take 6 (but don't tell the team)

[132oft]

The Bruce Highway (Highway 1, Queensland) was cut for several days last year around that time (maybe early March though? Can't remember) in multiple locations over a stretch of at least 1/3 of it's ~1700km length. End of the day, you can look at all the rainfall charts (zomg, 4m annual rainfall in Tully) you like, the fact of the sheer distance you are covering in as short a time as possible is such an immense obstacle in itself that all else becomes almost trivial. From Queensland, you can cross two borders and be in the same state as the most remote city in the world, and still be days away from it. The weather can and does change a lot in a couple of days. Any time in the first couple of months you are unlikely to get ideal conditions for the whole duration of your journey, perhaps not any time at all.

The distance itself is not impossible for the time frame. I know (knew? RIP Davo) a guy who rode a bike from the most Eastern point of Australia (Byron Bay, NSW) to most Western point of Australia (Denham, Western Australia) and back, a distance of some 10,367klm, in under 6 days, solo. You can read about it here.

Get here and do it already, it's just a road.

[Mr Purple]

I've done 9000km over 12 days in a CM Valiant and not even died once. Can"t be too hard!

No roo hits, but took out something like five birds and a couple of snakes one day.

[Tripper]

How much difference would moving it into start to mid Feb make? I can look on temperature and rainfall charts easily enough but what are your experiences locally where you live (both in the North and South)


Our mad 'leader' wants to do North Cape (northern Norway) to Cape Town via London in August!!!

Still in the wet season for up north and also still in the bushfire season down south, thou school holidays are over so should see less traffic on the road. I lived up Mount Isa for a few years, and some time we wouldn't get a lot of rain but the low river crossing would go under for a few hours due to the size of the catchment area. The dam went from around 20% full to 30% overnight and with another days heavy rain the dam was 1 metre over the spillway, the river was like a scene out of a african documentary gentle flowing stream to a massive destructive surge of water. Keep a eye out for cyclones that are out to sea they dont need to hit land as one as they often get downgraded to a storm but the rain still comes

[Dark Orange]

Personally I will take 6 (but don't tell the team)

God Speed, my crazy little Pomie racecar driver, God speed!

As for the question of whether to delay the drive until March, it will lessen the chances of being stuck in the top end due to flooding, but not remove it. You'll know when you start if it will be a problem or not and all you'll have wasted is a couple of airfares.

[TJ Shermuz]

God Speed, my crazy little Pomie racecar driver, God speed!

As for the question of whether to delay the drive until March, it will lessen the chances of being stuck in the top end due to flooding, but not remove it. You'll know when you start if it will be a problem or not and all you'll have wasted is a couple of airfares.

yeah, your better off getting the car into the country, then just looking at the weather activity before you go, i dont think its the end of the world, if theres going to be floods you'll get notice

[260BC]

You blokes should have been with me the other day for a real Aussie road experience, big black cloud mofo storms with the rain nearly solid and horizontal off and on for several hours. Towing the race car on a trailer behind the SUV with semis hauling past one after the other when my speed dropped back to 60kph for visibility reasons. Honestly at times all that could be seen was a white line flicking past, the rest was a grey out.

If you are not towing anything the coastal Brisbane via Sydney to Melbourne route is the best of a bad lot, Pacific highway into the Hume highway.

[darwinschops]

darwindude , what do you mean ?

chopped up into little pieces ?

Er, yeh, that too at that. But more the don't get axed by a tree/roo/road train/bruce or it'll be all "oh noeeeees!!!" and we'll never hear the end of how this outcome is exactly how this sort of awesome speed venture will end for you next time you do 65 in a 60 zone.

And these guys'd probably die which'd be unfortunate for all involved.

[dnegative]

I would try and schedule passing through Sydney around 1AM

[Cplus]

How much difference would moving it into start to mid Feb make? I can look on temperature and rainfall charts easily enough but what are your experiences locally where you live (both in the North and South)!

Delay to May if going to put it off. Pretty much best weather up north and much cooler down south. It'll be a little wetter down south, but the rain south at its worst is nothing compared to the monsoons up north!

[Cplus]

I would try and schedule passing through Sydney around 1AM

Now that is a fantastic tip. Could save them 4hrs!

[dnegative]

Now that is a fantastic tip. Could save them 4hrs!

It occurred to me going to Newcastle the other week at 10AM what a deal breaker it would be, by the time you get along the Hume, up the M7, on Pennant Hills road and onto the F3 you have burned a shitload of time and your average speed required just gets higher and higher. You can pump it up the F3 but last time we did that it was an expensive mistake.

[Daisy]

I know (knew? RIP Davo) a guy who rode a bike from the most Eastern point of Australia (Byron Bay, NSW) to most Western point of Australia (Denham, Western Australia) and back, a distance of some 10,367klm, in under 6 days, solo. You can read about it here.

Get here and do it already, it's just a road.

That has become a bit of a regular thing. Just quietly, a guy on the same model bike did it recently - 3 times in 6 days. A loop around the country is a different matter though.