Our summer holidays are just beginning here in Australia, and we’re headed southbound on a road trip.
Sounds strange after all those years of living in Canada, but over the past five years I’ve adapted to summer being pretty much all year round here in Queensland. So, I can you hear you saying so if it’s summer all year round why are you saying summer is just starting.
We live in the tropical north and so for us it’s year-round, but in the southern states it’s a much more temperate climate and so just starting their summer.
Summer officially began here in Australia as of December first with decidedly more heat and humidity than normal this year, well at least for us here in Queensland. The seasons are the opposite of those in Europe and North America so it’s both nice, but also a little strange to think of Christmas with heat versus biting cold and snow.
This is primarily the reason I moved back to Australia in Dec 2020 to begin living in a more temperate climate and more sunshine. This time of year, the humidity rises substantially and is constantly hovering in the 90% range.
Our Christmas road trip begins as we head southbound to Victoria to visit with my family before making our way back home via the east coast.
The drive itself from where we live is effectively 24 hours, or the equivalent of driving from Toronto to Miami. The plan is to leave at 4:00 am on Saturday morning and drive west to Goondiwindi before heading south down the Newell Highway to Dubbo where we’ll spend the night.
The drive to Goondiwindi is about five hours from home.
This first leg should take us around 12 hours, and for Judy it will be here first time on the edge of the outback. Although not officially the outback it’s likely as close as we’ll come on our trip as it’s quite a ways west of the Great Dividing Range as we dissect the country via through central New South Wales.
The only time I’ve travelled this route was back in College when I was on the Athletics team and we went to the Australian University track and field championships. It’s been a few decades since then, and so only have fleeting memories of the trip itself.
When I explained the route to Judy her first three questions were – how big is Dubbo? Will they have food we can eat? What time does everything close?
Quite typical for my beautiful New Yorker wife…
She’s lived in Australia for almost three years now and so these are all valid questions. After a little research I was able to explain to her that yes, indeed Dubbo has a population of over 40,000 people and yes, there is quite a selection of places to eat including vegetarian/pescatarian options.
As for the last question, I’m out on a limb as businesses in Australia always closes notoriously early…
On our last road trip south some two years ago we went on a different route only to find after our arrival into Bathurst that 95% of businesses were closed and there were few dining options and even less in terms of shopping.
So, it will be interesting to see if Dubbo is like our last experience. I must tell you that if it’s worse, it will likely be the last time I choose the route south to visit family…
I know that Judy was hoping that we’d sojourn via Sydney but the traffic and significantly added costs of detouring through this major city far outweigh it’s benefits other than dining and shopping options.
Don’t worry we have three full days planned in Melbourne (her favourite Australian city) so she can shop to her hearts delight! The beauty of being in Melbourne is that there are also some incredible Korean restaurants that we generally visit during our trips here.
After spending the lead up to and including Christmas with my family in Ballarat we’ll head to Melbourne and catch up with my friend Heather before beginning our return trip.
I’ve planned two days in Bowral in New South Wales which is only an hour and a half from Sydney, but set in gorgeous rolling hills. We’ve stayed here before and love the vibe of this large country town. Our objective is to seek out some antique stores and take our time relaxing.
The final portion of our journey sees us spending two days at a beach resort in Coffs Harbour which is five and half hours north of Sydney and about five hours from home.
The plan is to get to my family in two days, and after spending time with them take about a week on our return trip. Slowly making our way along the coast and taking our time stopping wherever we see something interesting.
Now that truly is the best part of a road trip…
Until next week.
Ciao!