ZfromWinnipeg

As background, this is my third trip to Australia. This trip will be for 2 months and all of my trip is now booked (including Adelaide and Melbourne) except for the last leg in between Adelaide and Melbourne (March 30-April 13, 2007). I am looking at two options:

Option 1, take the Northern route via Broken Hill:

Adelaide 3 days
Barossa Valley 1 day
Broken Hill 2 days
Mildura 1 day
Halls Gap 2 days (includes Good Friday)
Portland 2 days (includes Easter)
Melbourne 3 days

Option 2, Take the Southern route along the coast to Portland:

Adelaide 3 days
Barossa Valley, 2 days
Portland, 3 Days, includes Good Friday
Halls Gap, 3 days, Includes Easter
Melbourne 3 days

A slight complication is that Easter weekend affects both options, but I have no choice in the matter. Hopefully it will not be a significant factor. We planned to do sightseeing and hiking along the way. Driving is a little longer along the Northern Route but is not a significant consideration.

I am struggling to decide the route with best options for sight seeing and hiking. Comments will be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks, ZfromWinnipeg

shandy

Personally I would be going with your second option in that the drive to/from Broken Hill and Mildura is extremely boring. Unless you have a particular interet in Broken Hill as in mining or some of the artist galleries, there is not a lot else to see.

I am not clear whether you are intending to do the Great Ocean Road as part of this trip as you don't mention any of the towns that one normally associates with this drive. You do have 2/3 days for Portland on both itineries, is this meant to be a base for doing the Great Ocean Road? If so, I would use Port Fairy/Warrnambool as it will place you a bit closer to the most famous section of the Great Ocean Road. The famous section is from Port Campbell through to Anglesea.

Another point if this is what you are intending, is that most people just drive the GOR one way with one or two stops along the way because it is so much simpler. If you base yourself in Portland/Port Fairy, it means that you have to do the slow, windy roads both ways. This will significantly impact on how much sightseeing you can accomplish in one day.

DownUnder

I would agree with shandy. Unless you have a specific reason for going to Broken hill I would give it a big miss. It is not considered one of the countries great tourist attractions and it is a boring trip to get there. Hire a copy of the "Mad Max" DVD and you will see all you need to see of that area.
Pt. Fairy is also a more charming option than Portland with Apollo Bay and Lorne on the GOR even better, especially at Easter. Admittedly the route from Pt. Fairy to Halls Gap is more direct, but you don't want to miss the GOR and it only starts after Warrnambool (near Pt. Fairy). Book early though as there is always a monster Surf Carnival at Bell's Beach (near Torquay and the GOR) at Easter.

ZfromWinnipeg

I have done GOR on my last trip and I was not planning to repeat. Portland will be a base to day day trips from. I planned to do hiking around some of the parks like Mt. Eccles. Day trip to Pt. Fairy might be an option.

johhj_au

I am an advocate of Broken Hill and surrounds as a varied outback experience.Of course it does not have a big red rock like the place where all the north americans go for their outback experience but imho it does have a good range of elements of a more genuine "outback experience".

However you must include some time at mutawintji national park and the opal town of white cliffs.It it also advisable to follow the darling river south,stay at a sheep station and check out mungo national park as well.
Have a beer for me at the Pooncarie pub.

To do this you need to squeeze a couple of extra days from the schedule...do you need two days in portland????

maryk

Whichever route you decide make sure you book your accomodation early. Easter is a very busy time with many people taking holidays.

ZfromWinnipeg

Thank you for your comments. I am inclined to take the southern route along the coast and take Younghusband peninsula, Canunda NP, Mt Eccles, and Port Fairy. I am also considering changing my base to Hamilton (this is in place of staying right at Halls Gap and Portland). My thinking is that this is a central point to take day trips north to Grampians and south to the coast. I realize that it is about 80KM drive north or south. Seem reasonable to me. What do you think.

johhj_au

Have you been to the real outback on your previous trips?

lancefan

a few comments
north vs south,
I wouldn't head all the way to broken hill. if you did want something a little less coastal, you could basically follow the murray to mildura, then go down to halls gap. this really is a 'road trip' though, so depends on how much driving you like to do. There's a good book that we used to follow the murray river from the alps to the see, it's called: River Tracks http://www.exploroz.com/Shop/Display...D=1&ItemID=504 if that interests you.

re southern route (probably my choice), I'd be tempted to suggest cut barossa (wrong direction!) and do mclaren vale and/or fleruieu peninsula instead. or, those plus connawarra (if reds are your thing). mclaren vale is lovely (both reds and whites) and there's some great wines down on that fleurieu/limestone coast area (Ralph Fowler, Cape jaffa, Bremerton). if you went that way, see the coorong NP and kingston SE/robe. Also, deep creek conservation area near victor harbour is also lovely.

with regard to Grampians/Portland, I would personally advise staying one or the other rather than hamilton. Stay at halls gap for a couple of nights then down to the coast (or vice versa). You can easily kill 3 days in the gramps with walking and sightseeing.

Portland looks good for a base down there. I loved Cape bridgewater (it's small) and the lower glenelg NP was also fantastic. we only had 1 night there but could have stayed longer. Great walking canoeing swimming. I presume you know about the great south west walk down there. http://www.greatsouthwestwalk.com

the advice to book is definitely good - everyone goes away at easter as it's such a lovely long break.

ZfromWinnipeg

I have been to Uluru, Lightning Ridge and area, on this trip will go to Norseman, Kalgoorlie and Hyden. Not sure if this counts as real outback

johhj_au

That'll do Z.

Why not have a crack at the nullarbor?

ZfromWinnipeg

I am still mulling both options and have not discarded Broken Hill and area.
Thanks, Z

johhj_au

Nullarbor ....just fuel up in Norseman and head east and east and east

ZfromWinnipeg

I am all booked up on that part of the trip and Nullarbor will have to wait for some future date. I am flying to each area and then renting a car to do a tour and fly to the next destination. It might be interesting to drive from one end of the country to the other, but not on this trip.
Z

Mitch04

Option 2 is the best, by far, although it you are going to Portland, I'd probably give Halls Gap a miss (although I love that place).

My suggestion would be Adelaide-Barossa-Coonawarra-Mount Gambier-Portland-Port Fairy-Port Campbell-Great Ocean Road-Lorne-Melbourne.

If you are not heavily into wine, make it Adelaide-Coorong-Robe-Mount Gambier-Portland-Port Fairy-Port Campbell-Great Ocean Road-Lorne-Melbourne.

I live in Adelaide. I have driven both Big Sur (in the US) and the Great Ocean Road, and in my opinion, Big Sur pales compared to the Great Ocean Road.

You could add some interest by taking the ferry (about 40 minutes) from Queenscliffe to Sorrento, and approaching Melbourne from the east rather than from the normnal western route. Check the map. From Geelong, go to Queenscliffe. The ferry leaves regularly, and there is no need to book.

Mitch04

I should add that you can do the Barossa easily as a day trip from Adelaide. And if you ARE into wine, another day trip (or even half a day if you make an early start)is the Southern Vales wineries (McLaren Vale).

An interesting route would be to do McLaren Vale for a couple of hours on your way to Melbourne, and then travel, as I say, via the Coorong. From McLaren Vale you drive to Wellington on the Murray River, and cross over on the ferry, then follow the road down through the Coorong to Mount Gambier via Kingston and Robe.

ZfromWinnipeg

Thank you for your comments. You have provided some great ideas. I plan to think about them over Christmas and new years and do some more research and make my decision early in January.

Thanks Again,

ZfromWinnipeg

ZfromWinnipeg

I finally decided on a modified southern route:

- Adelaide 3 days
- To Barossa Valley via McLaren Vale, 2 days
- To Kingston via Coorong, 1 day
- To Port Fairy, 2 Days, includes Good Friday
- To Halls Gap, 3 days, Includes Easter
- To Melbourne 3 days

I will book places early in January.
Thank you for all the help,
ZfromWinnipeg

Mitch04

I live in Adelaide, and my suggestions are to:

Make the Barossa a day trip from Adelaide. Your itinerary of To Barossa Valley via McLaren Vale, 2 days simply doesn't make sense. Both the Barossa and McLaren Vales are really day trips from Adelaide. And travelling to the Barossa via Southern Vales means driuving south from Adelaide to the Southern Vales, and then travelling north through Adelaide to the Barossa!

Replace your night inKingston (bleak and windswept with little to recommend it, IMO) with either Robe or Beachport (both charming fishing villages) or Mount Gambier (Blue Lake volcano crater).

The drive from Kingston to Port Fairy is an extremely long day, despite the way in which it might appear on your map.

Feel free to email me on [email protected]

ZfromWinnipeg

Thanks Mitch04, will review and revise plan.