- OP 🔹
- #21
- Aug 19, 2020
- 1,597
- 4,558
- 2018 Subaru Outback
- 1999 Subaru WRX Club Spec Evo 3
Day 7- a week on the road now. Travelling down the New England Hwy seems like it was longer than that.
As I was packing up, I spoke to a kiwi bloke who wanted his footy inflated. Unfortunately we didn’t have a suitable inflator. Turns out that a whole lot of kiwi kids were over here representing NZ in softball. They’ve been coming here for 20 years or so, staying at the same place every time.
As we were staying in the north west of Sydney, I decided it would be better to go a bit further out on to route 9 rather than 7. Firstly, I’ll miss the traffic that I knew would be going back down Windsor Rd. And I’d miss the M7 tolls.
So I headed out to Windsor then turned left towards Penrith. They haven’t upgraded the Northern Rd from Blacktown Rd-it’s as I remembered it. Not until you cross the M4 and the upgrades have been significant. The old roundabout is gone, replaced by traffic lights. And it’s dual carriageway all the way to Narellan. We went past the turnoff to the M12 and the new international airport too. It’s all very different to the road as it was last time. And while it’s much better, I cant help but think they should have made it bigger. And they should have made it a motorway.
Still, we got a good run with the lights. At Narellan, we turned on to the Hume and made our way out of Sydney. We were facing an uphill climb and headwinds on our way to the southern highlands, and beyond that to the southern tablelands. So fuel economy was about 21 or so litres per 100 rather than 18.
We stopped off at Pheasant’s Nest at the service centre there for morning tea. They’ve been upgrading this place as well. They’ve probably done as much as they can on the available real estate.
Lunch was at Goulburn, and this time it was meat pies. Not bad either. You really notice the sheer number of trucks doing the Sydney to Melbourne run, highlighted by how few there were when you take the turnoff on to the Federal Hwy to Canberra.
The caravan park we are staying at is pretty good, even if the drive through site is a tad short for my combination. Once set up, I drove down to the tourist information centre, which is right next to where the Floriade flower show is.
Sydney has a reasonably effective traffic light synchronisation programme that optimises traffic flow. Canberra has a different take on managing traffic. Rather than synchronisation, they have a sequential system. You stop at one set, and the set in front goes green. Then when your lights go green,the next set goes red. And it’s like that the whole way, in both directions. Yes, Canberra is a bit different to the rest of the country!
Caught up with my mate Dom, who works during the week in Canberra and returns to Sydney for a 3 day weekend. Had a very pleasant dinner at a Thai restaurant.
Tomorrow we go to Floriade. Not really my cup of tea, but that’s ok.
As I was packing up, I spoke to a kiwi bloke who wanted his footy inflated. Unfortunately we didn’t have a suitable inflator. Turns out that a whole lot of kiwi kids were over here representing NZ in softball. They’ve been coming here for 20 years or so, staying at the same place every time.
As we were staying in the north west of Sydney, I decided it would be better to go a bit further out on to route 9 rather than 7. Firstly, I’ll miss the traffic that I knew would be going back down Windsor Rd. And I’d miss the M7 tolls.
So I headed out to Windsor then turned left towards Penrith. They haven’t upgraded the Northern Rd from Blacktown Rd-it’s as I remembered it. Not until you cross the M4 and the upgrades have been significant. The old roundabout is gone, replaced by traffic lights. And it’s dual carriageway all the way to Narellan. We went past the turnoff to the M12 and the new international airport too. It’s all very different to the road as it was last time. And while it’s much better, I cant help but think they should have made it bigger. And they should have made it a motorway.
Still, we got a good run with the lights. At Narellan, we turned on to the Hume and made our way out of Sydney. We were facing an uphill climb and headwinds on our way to the southern highlands, and beyond that to the southern tablelands. So fuel economy was about 21 or so litres per 100 rather than 18.
We stopped off at Pheasant’s Nest at the service centre there for morning tea. They’ve been upgrading this place as well. They’ve probably done as much as they can on the available real estate.
Lunch was at Goulburn, and this time it was meat pies. Not bad either. You really notice the sheer number of trucks doing the Sydney to Melbourne run, highlighted by how few there were when you take the turnoff on to the Federal Hwy to Canberra.
The caravan park we are staying at is pretty good, even if the drive through site is a tad short for my combination. Once set up, I drove down to the tourist information centre, which is right next to where the Floriade flower show is.
Sydney has a reasonably effective traffic light synchronisation programme that optimises traffic flow. Canberra has a different take on managing traffic. Rather than synchronisation, they have a sequential system. You stop at one set, and the set in front goes green. Then when your lights go green,the next set goes red. And it’s like that the whole way, in both directions. Yes, Canberra is a bit different to the rest of the country!
Caught up with my mate Dom, who works during the week in Canberra and returns to Sydney for a 3 day weekend. Had a very pleasant dinner at a Thai restaurant.
Tomorrow we go to Floriade. Not really my cup of tea, but that’s ok.
