Conclusion of our epic roadtrip of NSW, covering 7604 km in 68 days

November 5th

Odometer: 7855 km

Believe it or not, we have finally made it to Brisbane. We packed up our home in Sydney on August 27th to start our trip. The plan was to move to Brisbane. As the borders started to close, we ended up extending our trip through the state of NSW to 7604 km and 68 days.

The border between Queensland and NSW (still excluding greater Sydney) finally opened up on November 3rd. As luck would have it, we were at Tenterfield at that point, only 17 km from the border. So we decided to complete the Queensland Border Declaration Pass G, as we had been outside Greater Sydney for more than 14 days.

We got up early and headed out for the border at 9 am, anticipating large queues. There was just one (1) car ahead of us at the Jennings/Wallangarra border crossing. The policeman was very nice, happy with the digital pass version on the iPad, my driving license and our verbal assurances. He didn’t need to see my blog, accomodation receipts, or anything else.

Once across the border (by only 10 meters) we stopped again to check out Wallangarra Railway station. The Qld / NSW border runs across here as a line on the ground. The station was opened in 1887 to link the different railway gauges adopted in Qld and NSW. The west side of the station has the narrow-gauge Queensland track and a Queensland bull nose verandah. The east side has the standard-gauge NSW track and a more standard NSW sloped verandah. Passengers had to change trains here until the 1930’s. It is now a cafe and has the occasional steam train coming through.

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We finally arrived in Brisbane on November 3rd at 2 pm, having covered 7855.5 km in total.

We are now in the process of doing all those things you have to do while moving interstate; changing our driving licenses, getting the car safety certificate so we can register it in Queensland. This is likely a short stop before we hope to start travelling again.

I have listed the places we stayed at during this trip, and their highlights from our point of view. There are still a number of other places on our “to visit” list which we hope to cover in a following roadtrip; like more of outback NSW (places like Tilpa and Louth), the NE coast around Lennox Head and Byron Bay, The Warrumbungles NP, etc.

Destination	Km	Highlights
Sydney	0	We really enjoyed living on “the Pier” in Walsh Bay; the location, the views and above all the friends we made there made it a real home for us. We will miss you guys!
Mollymook	249	The beach here is marvellous, and also has lovely rock pools.
Bermagui	409	The beaches, the Blue Pool, old bridges, sapphire coast, beautiful place and not too touristy (yet).
Bega	787	River walks and relaxing in our cottage and garden.
Cooma / Bunyan	1459	Very very cool AirBnB and visiting Kosciuszko NP.
Ingebyra	1708	Horse riding in the Snowy Wilderness and that amazing off grid cabin.
Narrandera	2309	Watching the trucks and carwash from our verandah while drinking Lillipilly wines, and the water tower art.
Hay	2794	Sheep shearing and the sunset on those flat, flat plains.
Wentworth		local pub meal and the Murray / Darling River.
Mungo NP		Mungo man, the views, the night sky and the sunrise, truly amazing.
Curlwaa	3658	Oranges fresh from the tree and kayaking on the river.
Broken Hill	3939	Junction mine, having drinks in the Palace hotel, visiting Silverton, seeing the curvature of the earth on the Mundi Mundi plains, the minerals museum and its building.
White Cliffs	4476	Living underground.
Cobar	4848	Grenfell aboriginal art site and that impressive longest hotel verandah in Australia.
Bourke	5080	The lush gardens and the historic cemetery.
Dubbo	5756	Excellent food at Veldt, the big dish at Parkes.
Bathurst	5890	Inner-city parks, the fossil and minerals museum and its building, and all those historic towns surrounding it.
Katoomba	6154	Views over the three sisters and the valley, doing the Cliff Walk.
Hunter Valley	6403	The Putty Road drive. Enjoying the Spicers retreat, wine tasting at Keith Tulloch and Pierres, and fooooood!
Tamworth	6679	Walks around town and on the levee, horse country.
Armidale	6935	The pure Englishness of the town, as well as the surroundings, the lush green rolling hills with sheep and cattle. The Waterfall Way to the coast.
Friday Creek	7217	Relaxing, enjoying the resort with great valley and dam views.
Tenterfield	7520	The impressive range of historical buildings, learning about the political history of Australia, driving around the granite outcrops.

On the above map it is clearly to see that we first headed south, hugging the Pacific Ocean until we nearly hit the Victoria border. We then turned west, following that border. We next drove through the outback from Broken Hill to Bourke. And then turned back east towards the lush green of the high country and the dividing range, which we transected a number of times as we moved slowly north.

For those of you who liked my blogs, I will continue. I am planning to cover our Ethiopian roadtrip of 2018 retrospectively. I still have the notes which I was going to use for a personal photo album. Yes, we are a sucker for a good roadtrip!