Great Drives

[Grumpy John]

The Great Ocean Road in Victoria is supposed to be one of the great drives in Australia (and it is), however I reckon the Black Spur drive between Narbethong and Healesville would have to be up there as well. Driving through the awesome tall timber and stunning tree ferns is a sight to behold. Did this video on the way back from doing some 4WD driving today.



If you have any video of drives through spectacular scenery please share.

[powderpost]

Couple of years ago we spent some time in S.W. Western Australia. Left Bunbury for Busselton via a detour through karri forest. There is a magnificent stand of karri trees there, well worth the detour.

Jim

[Acco]

Marysville to Warburton is a good one to do as well, particularly at this time of the year as you'll be driving through snow and the motorbikes become almost non existence due to snow and wet roads.

Narbethong to Warburton via Acheron Way is good too but is mostly dirt road, some good views across the Valley to be seen on this road.

[Big Shed]

One of the really great drives in Victoria is not on a made road but a track in the High Country - Blue Rag Track - once you get to the top the views are just breathtaking and it is one of the best 4wd tracks I have done (twice).

Another great scenic drive is the Great Alpine Road from Bright across the top through Mt Hotham and down to Omeo, done that one several times in both directions.

Another one, this time in Queensland, is coming down from Atherton in to Cairns, gets the heart rate up, particularly towing a van.

In the eighties we did the Gibb River Road and the Tanami Track, two great drives as well.

[doug3030]

...I reckon the Black Spur drive between Narbethong and Healesville would have to be up there as well...

I agree John. I did that drive a couple of years ago. Beautiful scenery, tall trees and tree ferns etc. Looking forward to going that way again sometime.

Thanks for the memory-jogger.

Cheers

Doug

[Cliff Rogers]

...

Another one, this time in Queensland, is coming down from Atherton in to Cairns, gets the heart rate up, particularly towing a van.

....

The Gillies?

One of my favourite bits of road.

Did you do the coast road up from Cairns to Port Douglas?

[Sawdust Maker]

I'm feeling a bit car sick

actually thanks for posting - great scenery (actually you'd better go back I think I saw some burl)

I've always liked the Bonang Highway and the track from Tom Groggin down to meet it, absolutely fantastic

The Bells Line of Road in NSW is not a bad drive

and I've done the Cairns to Daintree which was also pretty speccy

PS what did you use to take the video?

[Grumpy John]

......................................
PS what did you use to take the video?

GoPro Hero 2

[BobL]

The most scenic road I have been on is the Banff to Jasper drive through the Canadian Rockies, It's a 3.5 hour drive and it took us 8 hours because we just had to stop to take in the scenery.
Highway one on the west coast US between Santa Barbara and Monterey is also spectacular.
Tall timber wise, the drive through tall Karri forrest between Manjimup and Walpole is a good one but there are many more in that area.
It's only a few km long but the old road between Busselton and the old timber town of Ludlow is a beautiful tunnel of tree canopy which is pretty special. A former Swedish flight attendant who had travelled extensively and settled in the south west of WA told me that short bit of road was the best she had ever seen.

[Big Shed]

The Gillies?

One of my favourite bits of road.

Did you do the coast road up from Cairns to Port Douglas?

Yep have done that one as well.

[Grumpy John]

Marysville to Warburton is a good one to do as well, particularly at this time of the year as you'll be driving through snow and the motorbikes become almost non existence due to snow and wet roads.

Narbethong to Warburton via Acheron Way is good too but is mostly dirt road, some good views across the Valley to be seen on this road.

There was a bit of snow on the ground when we did our trip.

[rrich]

Great drives??? It depends upon who you ask. The driver or the passenger seat.

On the Big Island of Hawaii we were staying in the Kona area and driving over to Hawaii Volcano National Park. Depending upon the direction, clockwise or anti-clockwise it was three and a half hours or a bit over four hours. But the Saddle Road is about an hour and 45 minutes. (Hidden on all rental car maps.)

At that time they were working on the Saddle Road going down into Hilo. The road, originally carved out of the volcanic flow and had been scraped of asphalt in preparation for the new pavement. The surface of this part of the road was, for lack of better words, decomposed granite or small gravel over a firm macadam base.

My rental car was a typical Hertz economy, super small but with air conditioning sub compact. It was a Ford Escort (That's going back some years) with a 4 cylinder engine, front wheel drive and a 3 speed automatic transmission. We had gone through the saddle (over 7,000 feet above sea level) and were going down into Hilo.

It's a rental car and you don't really care. Not enough to abuse the car but you just don't care.

I had locked the automatic transmission in second gear. I was not really using the brakes and allowing the engine to slow the car as we were descending toward the Hilo side of the island. Not being aggressive behind the wheel, not really trying to go fast and just a gentle drive. Suddenly SWMBO reaches over and hits me saying, "Slow down! You're on vacation." I take my foot off the gas and look at SWMBO saying, "I'm not pushing it." SWMBO growls, "Yes you are! You're sliding through every curve." Yes, I was sliding (a.k.a. Drifting w/o tyre smoke) through most of the curves. I was having an absolutely marvelous drive whilst SWMBO was white knuckled. We still laugh about that today.

[Simplicity]

Another one tho you would possibly be a passenger not a driver.
Is Varanasi in India to Kathmandu in Nepal ?
If your an atheist to begin with in Varanasi by the time you hit Nepal ,you will be a devout of most religions .
Breath taking views and county's both of them .
Did that trip in 1998 .

[RoyG]

My favourite drive is the Snowy Mountains Highway, from Tumut to Talbingo or back the other way. Great scenery. Fantastic road construction with beaut sweeping turns all it seems perfectly cambered. It doesn't matter what time of the year, although I prefer driving that road winter as the country side looks even nicer with a good bit of snow on it.

RoyG

[rrich]

I remembered another one. It is the Interstate Highway 10 through the 'Big Bend' area of Texas. Some people have called this crazy, reckless or just plain stupid and others have asked how I survived the boredom and still more have commented "I'll have to try that." There is very little traffic on this part of the Interstate especially mid day.

The highway is four lanes, two in each direction. The physical aspects of the area required that the highway be built with one sweeping curve after another. A speed of 120 KPH can easily be maintained, even in a large diesel Ford F-240 4x4 pickup truck which was my vehicle at the time.

The fun works best during daylight hours. Catch up to a vehicle that is using cruise control. When you're within 50 M of the vehicle ahead, it becomes obvious that the other driver is using cruise control. Set your cruise control to exactly the same speed as the car ahead. You can do this by staying in the same lane as the car ahead and insure that you are maintaining the same distance behind.

Your assignment is to pass the vehicle ahead of you without altering your cruise control setting. And enjoy the scenery.