Im new to posts on this forum. Covid delayed our trip plans as it did those of many. We picked up our Evernew Rugged Terrain last year. Weve only done short trips within Victoria thus far. We want to head north in May on an inland route to Cairns and surrounds. Ive been using google maps to track a route but welcome suggestions on the best roads to travel and places to stop on the way OR places to avoid! we look forward to meeting some of you on the road!
Is it the journey or destination you are interested in. We try to take a different route on every trip. The back quite roads are more interesting.
Yes be a bit diverse if you have time. We do the same as you, looking for country roads and interesting place and stopping at the places we come across that we neve knew existed.
Last July we had to go to Mission Beach to our grand daughters wedding. We traveled from Gippsland through Melb to Seymore then made our way to the Newell Hyw up to Goondiwindi and onto Miles in Qld. From there we went across to Roma up to Charters Towers and onto Mission Beach and returned the same way. We found the Roads in NSW were good but deteriorated in Qld and were very bouncy so we just had to travel to conditions. You have to be content to work with the trucks and we found them good and communicated with them by UHF to which they showed their appreciation and quite often had a chat and friendly banter about being Victorian to which I returned the comment offering we were escaping from Covid but could slow down in front of them if they wished and all was taken in good humour. From Roma to Charters Towers there is a lot of mine trucks with 3/4 trailers so you have to give them room and be very careful and it only takes a small movement of their truck steering to make the last trailer to come across the white line but they drive them well, just remember if you havent got UHF hold a steady speed and when they go to pass wait till they are out beside you then back off the speed by about 5klm/hr to give them more time and a flash of your head lights when they are passed enough to come back in.
We enjoyed the trip with plenty of fuel stops available and apart from Belyando Crossing we free camped all the way. Lots of hassels with Covid travel permits for us but you wont have that problem now.
Have a good trip and enjoy the scenery.
