Journal: Melbourne to Sydney roadtrip

My first Australian road trip, it wasn’t a long trip but it was one I’ll treasure forever. My friend Jo (who I met in Melbourne) can luckily drive and she was patient enough to wait for me to gather up enough funds to be able to do the trip, we had been talking about doing a trip from Melbourne to Sydney and stopping along the way and in November we started to get organised. I opened Google Maps and Google and got researching and pinning. I really really enjoy researching, we came up with a rough plan and felt super excited about it. I say rough because no trip ever really goes to plan and you always have to leave room for those hidden gems (especially on the road).

The google map I created with highlights of things to see here and the bush fire map here

Our first destination was Wilson’s Prom, it took us three and a half hours from our place in Elwood, Melbourne. We arrived around three in the afternoon and headed straight to Whisky Bay, the bay was beautiful. It was very quiet here, we were the only people. We stood for awhile getting hit by the high gusts of wind and let out huge sighs of relief. This trip was going to be a gooden.

Next and right next door was Squeaky Beach, I mean everyone told me that the sand would squeak under my feet but it didn’t… still a very pretty beach with very white sand though.

We didn’t have great weather for our first day, it kept raining then the sun would come out a little then the rain and the high winds. It was a very up and down day. We squeezed in Telegraph Saddle, the view wasn’t bad considering the weather. It started to rain so decided to call it a day and headed to our camp. We decided on the Stockyard Campsite, there were only two other campers there, it was pretty small but it had everything we needed for the one night.

We were planning on checking out the Big Drift in Wilson’s Prom but we ran out of time and had to get on the road again. We drove to Golden Beach that’s apart of Ninety Mile Beach.

We parked the car and jumped out and walked through some bushes and were greeted by golden sand and a turquoise ocean, it was beautiful. A very long stretch of beach that I could have happily spent all day on.

From Ninety Nine Mile beach we drove to Mallacoota, straight to our campsite. We chose to stay at Mallacoota Foreshore Holiday Park and I’m so glad we did. This view from the camp! After setting up camp we took a walk to find some dinner, we passed wild kangaroos too (yeah I was scared but they are cute). We found a fish & chippie and took it back and unfortunately had to eat in the car because we got surrounded by seagulls within 2 seconds of sitting outside our tent.

On our way from Mallacoota to Narooma we found a sweet place called Eden, this was our first stop in New South Wales and what a beautiful stop it was.

Found this cafe / local produce shop in Eden called Sprout and my my my the most perfect egg sarnie!

We got to randomly stop at some beaches!

Australia Rock in Narooma

We was supposed to stop off at Bateman’s Bay on the way to our final campsite but we were greeted by thick smoke, it so happened that the road we were taking got closed off so we had to detour and then drove through two bushfires, it was very intense.

We arrived at Grady’s Riverside Retreat after quite a scary drive. It was too quiet, eerie and there were roaming wombats (they actually looked so cute) but after seeing them we decided to sleep in the car. Of course was woken up by the concerned owner in her golf buggy, it was actually not a bad nights sleep.

It was finally time to see Jervis Bay! Hyams Beach beautiful beautiful white sands and blue blue seas. My favourite beach i’ve ever stepped on. The sea was still cold of course but we stood in it for awhile, so amazed by this beach.

We took a short drive to Moona Moona beach, the sun had gone in and made the beach look prettier, pale blue waters.

Then we took a 40 minute uphill drive to the Cambewarra Lookout the roads were so winding, we had to drive up and down a few times due to roadworks and google maps.

Nearby was Kangaroo Valley. Not a valley full of wild kangaroos though, A quaint little town with cute cafes and gift shops. I picked up a wooden kangaroo tree ornament for my family here.

Fitzroy Falls, the waterfall wasn’t really spectacular because of the droughts but the views were incredible! You can walk around here for awhile because of the many look out points.

I wouldn’t recommend doing this roadtrip anytime soon as the bush fires have gone out of control in this area, more so near Mallacoota now, it’s tragic. For those with money to give, donations to the Salvation Army, the Australian Red Cross and state-based brigades like the NSW Rural Fire Service will go towards bushfire relief.