Travelling from Sydney to Perth & need advice

Shy Ted

As the title might suggest, I'm travelling from Sydney to Perth and plan to camp along the way. I've downloaded "wiki camps au" app which is incredibly helpful. Thinking of joining Big4 to get campsite discounts as well.

We'll be staying at hostels once or twice a week to reconnect with humanity and hopefully get a comfy bed.

With regards to sights, does anyone have any recommendations of where to stop along the way, what to do, what to see and even joining in on group activities etc...

Thanks

Karlos_Macca

Shy Ted wrote: »

As the title might suggest, I'm travelling from Sydney to Perth and plan to camp along the way. I've downloaded "wiki camps au" app which is incredibly helpful. Thinking of joining Big4 to get campsite discounts as well.

We'll be staying at hostels once or twice a week to reconnect with humanity and hopefully get a comfy bed.

With regards to sights, does anyone have any recommendations of where to stop along the way, what to do, what to see and even joining in on group activities etc...

Thanks

I drove across with friends from Mel to Perth last year.....Umm....good sights...

Ballarat is a decent stop outside Melbourne, but if you are going along the coast obviously the Great Ocean Road.... Then the Grampians too. They are beautiful. A good stop before you get to Adelaide to Hahndorf. A German town. Book a place at the camp site and drink a few Steins! Also, the Barossa is decent for passing through. Can maybe spend a day doing a wine tour. Other places you just have to stop at, as there is nothing else, like towns like Ceduna. Its on the coast but it seemed kind of dangerous.... same for Port Augusta. Its a big town, but its a bit of a ****hole, so just do lunch and keep going. Can maybe check out the Flinders Ranges if you fancy a hike.....Iron Knob is an interesting old town to look at and also obviously loads of stops on the Nullarbor to check out the cliffs., and there are Roadhouses there where you can camp. We didn't stop at Eucla but heard it was an okay place, or a town nearby was.....when you get to Norseman in WA you have thc choice of going North to go to Perth through Kalgoorlie or south to go to Perth from the south coast (longer route). The Southern route is more scenic and Esperance is a nice town with magnificent beaches and you can make the journey longer by heading to Albany and heading up through the forests which are great. If you fancy the quicker route through Kalgoorlie, its a bit barren, but Kal is interesting to see the Superpit (biggest gold mine in Australia) and see a wild west town...its a bit rough, but has its own character, with "skimpy bars"" etc......after that its 6 hours drive to Perth with not much to see on the way.

Shy Ted

Thanks Karlos_Macca. Yeah, the great ocean road is a priority alright. We're looking to take the scenic routes. We've travelled down along the Princes highway so far. Some great sights with the mountains and valleys around south Sydney, and through the lakes entrance in Victoria. The camp sites have been kinda boring though. Mainly older couples and some families travelling in campervans. Not much craic at them tbh. Thanks for all the tips though. We'll prob stop off at hostels in Melbourne to see the city properly though, and then pick up the camping again when we get on the great ocean road.

Mackman

I drove across the Nullarbor a few years ago, I wouldn't recommend camping. We camped one night, As soon as dusk came in, a plague of flies of biblical proportions came to attack us with made eating dinner very difficult. We ate it in the front seat of the car.

Then the wind came. There are no trees out there so the wind was fierce. I had to move out car to the side of the tent to give it some shelter. If we weren't in it, it would have blown away.

Find out beforehand which roadhouses have accommodation and plan your trip around them.

minzabud

Spend a day or two in port Lincoln if you get the chance, you can go shark cage diving and some of the national parks are great like coffin bay, I lived down there for ten months and as said above would avoid the likes of port Augusta and Ceduna, from adelaide to port Lincoln is about 6 and half hours drive but nowhere to hold you up so not a bad drive. I spent a couple of nights camping in streaky bay last month, there is a caravan park right on the beach so nice for camping

The great Ocean road is worthwhile and once your down that way mount gambier is worth a stop when crossing the boarder to South Australia and see the blue lake. The wine tours in the Barossa are pretty good value and the scenery is really nice.

Shy Ted

Thanks for all the replies guys. So far the trip has been going ad hoc with the recommendations of randomers we meet at the campsites. We ended up in Phillip Island for a couple days which was fantastic. The penguin parade was brilliant, as were the views around the paths of the nobbies centre (lots of wallabies on the roads towards the centre too). There was a koala sanctuary and and old heritage farm which was interesting. You can get a 3 for 1 ticket to see the koalas, the penguins and the farm which is good value. The paths around the nobbies centre are free. There's also a lot of isolated beaches as well which are nice. And if you're into motor sports, there's a grand prix track too.

At our campsite we were advised to go to Eucha. It was Australia's largest inland port and still has paddle steamers, and a lot of the original buildings are intact. It was a bit off the beaten track but absolutely worth it. Its a different experience and mainly full of "older" Aussie campers but still a nice spot. I don't think many foreign backpackers know about it.

When we left there we went towards the Grampians. Stopped at Bendigo and went to the Chinese museum to see the worlds oldest dragon. There's also a gold mine you can visit but we mistakenly thought we could see that in Ararat instead, as it was a large gold rush area. There's none there, but there is J-Ward prison for the criminally insane, which do ghost tours at night if you're in to that sort of thing.

The Grampians are amazing, unbelievable sights and trails to walk. Loads of kangaroos everywhere. We even had one beside our tent on the first night, which lost its novelty when he kept us awake. Whilst here were advised to go to Apollo bay next, so we'll go back towards Geelong through Ballarat and on to the great ocean road. After that we don't really know, thinking of going Portland but don't know much about the area.