The road trip home 2022
Monday 4 July 2022
Picking up Angela for the drive home
I disembarked the spirit of Tasmania at 6:50 on the Monday morning, after an uneventful smooth sailing the night before.
I followed the GPS to where Angela was staying at the Docklands and went up to the room and had a coffee. We then went down for breakfast at the little cafe under The Sebel.
After breakfast we went back up to the room so I could have a shower. After refreshing myself, we packed the car and set off in search of gas for the car.
Melbourne to Tolmie
With the car full of gas, we sought out the Hume Highway and entered directions into the GPS for Tolmie, which is a little way off the highway and located in the hills of Central Victoria.
The scenery was beautiful and the air a bit crisp as we headed to Kathryn’s – 12° outside and a balmy 22° inside the car.
Tolmie to Albury-Wodonga
We left Kathryn’s after a beautiful lunch (thanks Kathryn) and headed to Albury-Wodonga where we called into Teta Sonja’s place to pick up a cabbage and some nuts for Angela’s Mum… I know right 🙄
We left Teta Sonja’s and headed for Esther’s place where we stayed the night (thanks Esther)
Tuesday 5 July 2022
Albury-Wodonga to Bathurst
It was a little chilly the next morning as we packed up again and hit the road for Bathurst.
We arrived in Bathurst at around 2.00pm on Tuesday afternoon and did a quick lap before checking into our accommodation searching for something to eat.
Tuesday practice at the Mountain.
“Happy with how the car rolled out but we’ll tune a few things overnight and be back for a decent crack tomorrow…” lol 🤣
One kebab later we retired to our accommodation. I was starting to feel poorly and went straight to bed to sleep ‘it’ off – ‘it’ was the start of my COVID-19 journey.
More laps would be done tomorrow…
Wednesday 6 July 2022
The Track
“Mount Panorama Circuit is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on Mount Panorama and is best known as the home of the Bathurst 1000 motor race held each October, and the Bathurst 12 Hour event held each February.
The track is a 6.213 km (3.861 mi) long street circuit, which is used as a public road when no racing events are being run, with many residences which can only be accessed from the circuit.”
Angela had first crack at the mountain this morning and put the ute though it’s paces, even though the speed limit was 60km/h – she might have doubled that at some stage.
I was a bit more sedate and kept to the speed limit…
We stopped at the top of the mountain near McPhillamy for a photo opportunity…
Bathurst Motor Museum
We carried on ahead down the escape road at the end of Conrod Straight, as this also happens to be the road into town and where the Bathurst Motor Museum resides. It is filled with all sorts of cars (and motorbikes) covering the period 1960-present.
Some great motor racing history in this place…
Bathurst to Tamworth
By the time we left Bathurst, I was feeling terrible so Angela drove the first couple of hundred kilometres towards Tamworth.
It was a miserable, rainy day and matched how I was feeling. We were going to drive back to Sydney, through Katoomba, and drive back up the coast road but there had been torrential rain and flash flooding so we didn’t want to risk getting trapped somewhere we didn’t want to be.
It was a real shame as Angela had arranged for us to call in and see our old neighbours at Port Stephens on the way through.
We drove on some of the dodgiest, rain-affected roads on our way to Tamworth and were glad to get there.
After approximately five hours in the car, including our stop for lunch, we arrived at our accommodation in Tamworth.
We checked in and then went to the Nemingha Tavern (just down the road) for dinner…
Thursday 7 July 2022
Tamworth to home
We spent today navigating more pot-holed, dodgy roads on the way to Grafton and ultimately to home in Tugun.
I was still feeling poorly and Angela was starting to fall in a heap as well. We were so invested in getting home and to bed that we hardly took a photo the whole six hours home…
It was an awesome road trip and one I had wanted to do for a long time.
We’ll do it again in 2024 and hopefully won’t get sick for the return journey next time…