You’ll see that there are three big road trips during our time in Australia. This post is about our second big road trip, driving from Inverloch to Sydney.
Originally we thought we would fly from Melbourne to Sydney, it is the fastest way with a 1.5 hours of flying vs. 9 hours in the car (without stopping). We asked locals and did what most planners do, refer to Reddit. The feedback was unanimous, drive. After plotting the route and stops, the trip would be about 3 days exploring the coastal towns with the 4th day landing us in Sydney.
So we pick up where we left off last, Inverloch.
Day 1: Wilson’s Promontory & Google Maps Fail
After getting lattes at The Invy Cafe Al Mare, we drove down to Wilson’s Promontory.
Wilson’s Prom is a national park that is the southernmost tip of mainland Australia. It is full of hikes, beaches, mountain bike trails and apparently home to some rock climbing (learned this after the fact). Needless to say, we could have spent more than just a morning in Wilson’s Prom with all it had to offer.
The hike we chose to do was the Mt. Oberon Summit (4 miles, 1,135 feet of elevation gain). Essentially a paved road that gets steeper and steeper as you hike. Not a bad view at the top (super windy though).
Next stop in Wilson’s Prom, Squeaky Beach.
The beach gets its name because as you walk in the sand, you guessed it, it squeaks. Which come to find out, a lot of other beaches also have squeaky sand. Which made us think, do most beaches have squeaky sand and we just never paid attention? Or is this truly a more unique thing? I would like to believe it’s more unique but other beaches will squeak too (if you Google the answer, don’t tell us). Besides the squeaky sand, the views here weren’t bad either and we spent some time walking up and down the beach.
Tarra-Bulga National Park
After a failed attempt to see kangaroos in the wild, we headed out for a 1.5 hour car ride to Tarra-Bulga National Park. Spoiler alert: we weren’t able to get to the main part of the park and instead drove an additional hour than we planned. Google maps led us up two very unkept roads that led to nowhere. We finally found one hike that was on the outskirts of the park and walked around in the rainforest. Thus began Nathan’s fascination with the trees that grow in these climates, etc.
Tarra Valley entrance gave off Jurassic Park vibes. I want to note that Nathan was talking this entire hike. Mentioning almost every fact he read about this area’s trees on the Wikipedia page earlier that day.
Day 2: More Driving
This day was less activity based with more focus on the driving. We ended day one in Lakes Entrance for the night so that morning we got up and headed out towards Bermagui.
We arrived to Bermagui early so we could go for a run, relax, and go out to dinner. The plus of where we stayed was that they had a little children’s playground and trampoline for us to jump on.
Day 3: Cold Plunging
I’ll start off by saying we loved Bermagui. If you ever get the chance to visit this little town, just go. Ideally we would have stayed an extra night here and explored more.
Since we only stayed in Bermagui for the night and checking out of our hotel on this morning, we had a couple of items to do before leaving.
Get Breakfast Somewhere That Is Open
This day was Anzac day in Australia so a lot of places were closed for the holiday. It just so happened that this coffee shop/bakery called Honorbread was one of two places that was open early in the morning on a holiday so this place was perfect for us to stumble upon.
Swim in the Bermagui Blue Pool
This is a highlight with its ocean-fed rock pool that is situated at the bottom of a cliff! After seeing it in the morning, we quickly went back to our hotel, changed into our swimwear, and came back for a swim. Since this pool is filled up by the ocean, it was not exactly warm but you get used to it after awhile.
Jervis Bay
After checking off the items in Bermagui, we headed up to Jervis Bay to see more beaches. Jervis Bay is another popular destination as it is known for having clear blue water and white sand beaches. It also has squeaky sand at the beaches…We probably could have spent more time here popping in and out of the various little lookouts that this area has to offer.
Just before you enter Jervis Bay there is Hyams Beach which is known to have the whitest sand in the world. If I’m going to be honest here, this was just another beach filled with people taking TikToks and pictures. We much preferred other beaches that we stumbled across on our road trip, and at this point we were ready to get to our next Airbnb.
Day 4: Kangaroo Valley To Sydney
This was the final day of our second road trip in Australia. After spending the night in a less than desirable Airbnb in Oak Flatts, we packed up our bags early in the morning and got in the car.
Kangaroo Valley
When Nathan mentioned we were going to Kangaroo Valley, I was picturing an area that was named after kangaroos because they are everywhere there. I was wrong. The valley ‘takes its name from the kangaroos which formerly abounded here but are now extinct’. So we saw zero kangaroos.
It was a nice little town that we walked around on the main street and looked at all the shops.
Fitzroy Falls
Twenty minutes from Kangaroo Valley is a town called Fitzroy Falls named after a waterfall that drops 81 metres (265 feet) to the forest below.
The 20 minute drives was probably one of the scarier moments in the car filled with me gripping the arm rest, lots of gasping and closing my eyes. Meanwhile Nathan was having the time of his life navigating the narrow windy roads with semis barreling down in the opposite direction…
We parked the car finally at the Fitzroy Falls visitor center and hiked around the area to see the waterfalls. It is another area with tourists but well worth the stop to see the main waterfall drop into the valley below. Not to mention the little drop your stomach does when you stand at the platform right next to it and see the big drop below your feet.
From there the remainder of the drive to Sydney was pretty straight forward! We just so happened to pick a bougie town called Bowral for lunch (we thought it was going to be a small, dinky town but ended up being town with big, beautiful houses and a lot of very nice cars in the area). I somehow managed to drive the remainder of the trip and survived driving on the left side of the road in Sydney traffic.
Our Airbnb in Sydney was in Surrey Hills and we were very lucky to find the place that we did so last minute! It was a little studio apartment which was run by a couple who lived in the unit below. They were the nicest people who gave us a lot of recommendations.
Looking Back
Overall, we covered so much ground in the little Mazda – starting in Melbourne, journeying to the Great Ocean Road, backtracking to the coastal towns on the southeast, and ending in Sydney.
Going back to the beginning of this post where I mentioned our debate to drive or fly. While the rental car definitely killed our daily budget (whoops), it was the right choice to see more of Australia. Without the car, we would have missed these coastal towns and experiences!
