8th April 2011
Our day started at 7:30am when “He” helped a couple of other members of our group cook breakfast consisting of sausages, bacon and eggs. This was enjoyed by all (was not the Last Supper!).
We had decided that our trip back to Sydney would have to be by the most direct route which was back to the north of Melbourne and then home via the Hume Highway.
The main reason for this decision was based on the issue with the clutch experienced at Corryong and we felt it safe to be on main roads rather that a rural road if we were to experience any problems. We had also considered spending a little time in The Grampians but as a result of recent rain, many of the roads in the area were closed and in fact, are likely to be closed for up to twelve months whilst restoration work takes place. The threat of rain in Sydney on Sunday made it very attractive to return in two days to ensure that we could unload the motorhome in dry conditions.
We spent a considerable amount of time saying our “goodbyes” and left the area just before 10:00am. We spent the remainder of the day travelling to Albury.
Just before Albury, some of the rubber trim on the front of the motorhome Luton peak came loose and we were forced to stop on two occasions to rectify the problem. During the second stop we taped the trim back into place as our initial repair had failed. We stopped at Bunnings in Albury and purchased a bonding compound (a Sikaflex compound) that would not react with either the plastic trim or the rubber insert. This was applied to the motorhome upon our arrival at the caravan park (Edit – the repair was successful as we dide not had any more issues on the return journey to Sydney).
We splurged and purchased our evening meal having driven 560 kilometres during the day. The majority of the drive had been into a head wind and had required a major input of concentration during the drive.
9th April 2011
With another seven hours of driving in front of us, we departed Albury just after 8:00am with our intention of arriving home by mid afternoon.
We stopped to refuel at Holbrook (the town where you find a submarine in a park adjacent to the main road) and then visited the cafe near the submarine where we purchased coffee. Coffee at this location cost us $9.50 for two take-way cups and we will never stop at this cafe again. The quality of the coffee did NOT justify the price charged and we noted that food items available for purchase seemed to be very highly priced. We now understand that a cafe on the southern outskirts of Holbrook is the place to stop at.
Further stops were made at Gundagai, just to the south of Goulburn (driver change – “She” took over the captain role) and finally short of Mittagong (final driver change).
When we left Holbrook, our average fuel consumption was around 17 litres (per 100k’s) due to the wind and possibly a decision to travel at a speed between 90 and 100k’s per hour. This had reduced to just over 14.5 litres (per 100k’s) when we arrived home without a reduction in the speed. For the second consecutive trip, a tail wind from Goulburn had given us great fuel consumption figures.
Overall we travelled close to 3000 kilometres which included single day drives of;
400 kilometres – Sydney to Bylong
500 kilometres – Bylong to Tumut
560 kilometres – Halls Gap to Albury and
540 kilometres – Albury to Sydney