Hi Tom and Chrissy,

No doubt you are worried about the Clyde Mountain. Apart from being a pretty hard slog in low gear it isn't that bad going up. The road surface is good and wide with regular overtaking lanes. The actual climb is about 5kms; at the bottom check your odometer and count off the kilometres otherwise it seems to take forever.

We towed our 17ft van with our BF Falcon up the Clyde the last time in November, mostly in 2nd.

Once at the top the road is winding with double lines for what seems to be about ten kilometres - it can be frustrating when behind a slow vehicle. Then for the last 10kms or so to Braidwood it is a normal country road. From Braidwood to Bungendore the road is generally good with some bends and undulations - watch out for idiots overtaking no matter what.

In February 2010 we went to the Easts Caravan Park in Kiama - on the way went down Macquarie Pass - which is a lot worse than Clyde - but returned via Mount Ousley. It was 300kms to Canberra via Mt Ousley (why it was exactly 300 I don't know but that was the odometer readings) versus 238kms down Macquarie. But it was faster!

If you have any worries you might like to go up Mt Ousley, across to join the Hume, take the Federal Highway south of Goulburn. Then just as you cross the border into the ACT take the exit onto the Monaro Highway. Not sure what the exit markings are these days but the exit ramp drops down past a rest area. Turn left. That road goes all the way down to Cooma. About 10kms along there are bridge works where the highway crosses the Molongo River and traffic is diverted to two way.

Another way to go is via Nerriga. Go past the Navy base HMAS Albatross at Nowra, then a kilometre or so past Nerriga take the Tarago turn off to the right. That joins the Bungendore/Goulbourn road just north of Bungendore. I have driven the Braidwood to Nowra road several times but not the Nerriga to Tarago - but a friend has told me that it is OK. The Braidwood - Nerriga road has some gravel - one 5km stretch, then a 13km length giving a total of 18kms of gravel.

BUT; the Nerriga way is a pretty gentle climb and the road generally straight. In fact, when the Clyde was closed for a month due to a rock slide all Batemans Bay traffic was detoured through Nerriga.

To finish up Welcome to the playground.

Murray

Well, yes. As Dougwe says it is quite a high mountain. A continous five kilometres of heavy low gear work around tight turns even without towing a van. By the way, there is about 10kms of up and down tight turns even before you get to the start of the climb.

But it is better than Macquarie Pass on the Illawarra Highway. (One particular corner requires you to back up then go forward to get around.)

After being on all roads - Macquarie Pass, Mt Ousley, the Clyde and even Brown Mountain I would recommend going north from Kiama and up Mt Ousley, then onto the Hume. On the map it is a lot longer but the roads are almost all freeway so they are faster. Mt Ousley, while steep, is six lanes wide and mostly straight with a speed limit of 80km/h.

Murray

We always use the Main road 92 road from Nowra to Braidwood, but we turn right about 3 klms out the Braidwood side of Nerriga sign says Goulburn and follow the road out through Ollaen Ford and Windellarma and onto Goulburn, you come out near the airport and from there you can go into Goulburn or across to South Goulburn near the big Merino, where you can get on the Hume, no dirt, a bit windy but no really steep climbs like the Clyde or Browns Mountain. We tow a 21' Jayco with a 2009 Holden Colorado no problems.