Halfway meet Drive- Brisbane/ Sydney -overnighter - long weekend

[Jason E]

Lets start here.

After the success of our recent drive/ overnighter & attendance at Byron Bay Coffee & Cars I thought I might suggest a longer trip to find a halfway meet with the Southern crew.  Lets call it somewhere around the (broad) Coffs Harbour/ Armidale area (is about 5 hours from each major city).  Open to other suggestions - just an initial geographical idea based on nothing more than equalish distance.

 

Just a suggestion at this stage but maybe an itinerary such as -

 

Saturday morning meet up & launch in respective cities.  Collect stragglers along the way on your planned route.  Stop for lunch etc & plan to meet as a group (possibly) late Saturday arvo.

 

Accommodation near good Pub/ Restaurant for Saturday night.  Beer.

 

Sunday - drive agreed upon routes.  Lunch/ coffee etc as required.

Sunday night accom as above.  Beer.

Monday morning head home hoping to arrive after respective peak hour traffic has subsided.  

Could be shorter if need be - or different days.  However we need to satisfy the collective without too much individualisation. 

All types, breed & species of car welcome. 

Let me know what you think, if we can get some interest I will start a conversation that you can opt into or out of as suits.

cheers,

Jason E

[brian in buddina]

I'm in

[Port 911]

Count me in, I do believe talks have already started, just whispers at this stage, but I think the talk is out there.

 

[TINGY]

Count me in, I do believe talks have already started, just whispers at this stage, but I think the talk is out there.

 

Yeah mate I've been meaning to ring you.

Peter M is a goer as well i think.

[Russ]

I'm keen, unless it's a saturday i'm on shift

[clutch-monkey]

what russ said

this definitely has my interest, and i finally have some street rubber for the car.

[OZ930]

Sounds promising ?

 

I'm keen, unless it's a saturday i'm on shift

It reads that it includes Saturday, but depending on the route and shift times, you could meet up Saturday night or Sunday morning.

[TINGY]

Sounds promising ?

 

It reads that it includes Saturday, but depending on the route and shift times, you could meet up Saturday night or Sunday morning.

OZ maybe you can help with some roads that may worth doing up your area.

[brian in buddina]

which contingent is going to be the most prevalent?

the southerners, the northerners or the centralists? 

water or air

front, rear or middies

[Russ]

Sounds promising ?

 

It reads that it includes Saturday, but depending on the route and shift times, you could meet up Saturday night or Sunday morning.

yeah, saturday 8:30 to 12:30, but i'll come down after that and catch you all

[symsy]

Quite Possible - dates?

 

[TINGY]

Quite Possible - dates?

 

Looks like 4/5/6 of November.

[symsy]

Remember lads , we need some proper roads in the route map!! Ok .. Some of us are re-living our youth

 

[TINGY]

Hi everyone, i've been working google maps for a couple of days and i have come up with a few possible routes that will cover some good roads.

What we need to decide is if we want this weekend to have a more social aspect or more driving, any input is welcome because we need commitment from those that are interested over the next week.

Jason is in Brisbane and i'm in Newcastle so it makes it hard for us to get together, any ideas would probably be better sent to us as a PM.

So far we have 13 people that have shown some interest, that's going to be a lot of accommodation to organize.

[Coastr]

Remember lads , we need some proper roads in the route map!! Ok .. Some of us are re-living our youth

 

Legendary symsy escort footage?  Compete with angry Welshman in the passenger seat?

[brian in buddina]

I think its a balance of social & driving and being flexable.

There will be 3 main groups coming from 3 different directions to arrive at Saturday nights destination.

If we establish the Saturday night destination & then the Sunday night destination the only common, for all 3 groups, is to establish the Sunday drive routing to the evening destination. If we pick moderate sized country town we should find enough accommodation. 

Each of the 3 groups can be responsible for their own Saturday day routing & Monday routing home.

 

Maybe each group can form 3 separate group mailing lists to discuss there own Saturday & Monday routing, coffee stops, sharing accommodation etc.

Between Tingy, Jason & any other knowledgeable party we can discuss & establish the 2 destination/accomodation points & roads of interest on this thread.

Who knows, maybe the Saturday & Sunday destination is one in the same.

Just my thoughts...

[Port 911]

Staying in one place has some good points, but when you look at some of the drive loops you can do they can end up a full day of driving, I will be happy either way as long as we can get it to happen, before the flame goes out.  

 

[TINGY]

Staying in one place has some good points, but when you look at some of the drive loops you can do they can end up a full day of driving, I will be happy either way as long as we can get it to happen, before the flame goes out.  

 

Flame is lit and the fire is getting bigger, this is happening.

[WOKA]

I'll chuck some wood on the fire.!

I don't care so much the route, let's just get out and drive.!

Do we have approximate dates..?   First weekend of November, I barely know what I'm doing weekend after next..  Well, I do, I'll be drinking beer with the hippies in Bellingen,    That's halfway and a bloody good town too BTW.

[bear924]

I've had the calendar marked up for a week now so I'm in.  I'm happy with whatever route and location is decided, I'm just keen to get some driving in.

[brian in buddina]

petrol on the barbie

[Port 911]

Ok gentlemen, let me put the following towns up for Saturday/Sunday night sleepover, not in any order of preference here - Armidale / Coffs Harbour / Glen Innes / Grafton. There are a few smaller town in this area that could also fit our needs.

These towns make up a weird rectangle but they are roughly halfway from each end of the travel zone.

If we can get a preference on the town to stay in I know we can come up with a nice drive loop from that town, and start looking at accommodation options. 

[WOKA]

Glenn Innes or Armidale is good.  Gives good options for good roads..  

Thunderbolts Way / Waterfall Way / Nymboida 

Rural rather than coastal would be my preferance, either / or..

 

[TINGY]

 I had this in mind for the drive up for the southerners

https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Buchanan+Rest+Area+West/-32.7087143,151.4260221/-32.6155058,151.4389174/-32.429453,151.5520729/Dungog/Gloucester/-30.6440085,151.5005046/Armidale/Glen+Innes/@-30.2100804,151.370982,8z/data=!4m36!4m35!1m5!1m1!1s0x0:0xe823ed5439ac9d08!2m2!1d151.5420419!2d-32.8443069!1m0!1m0!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x6b7499af6c6120f3:0x40609b4904381e0!2m2!1d151.7524146!2d-32.4046634!1m5!1m1!1s0x6b74fefa68c4c935:0x40609b49043a1f0!2m2!1d151.95875!2d-32.0233309!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x6b9f9fdbdd465c7d:0x50609b4904429c0!2m2!1d151.6661993!2d-30.5015616!1m5!1m1!1s0x6b98b630557141b3:0x40609b49043b090!2m2!1d151.7361891!2d-29.7518376!3e0

And something like this for the sunday morning, although a tad ambitious because there are no stops taken into consideration 

https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Glen+Innes/Guyra/-30.4247734,152.3222599/-29.7623068,152.9295016/Coffs+Harbour/@-30.1745452,152.2797019,10z/data=!4m22!4m21!1m5!1m1!1s0x6b98b630557141b3:0x40609b49043b090!2m2!1d151.7361891!2d-29.7518376!1m5!1m1!1s0x6b9f6bb561db0853:0x40609b49043b0f0!2m2!1d151.6676377!2d-30.2168387!1m0!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x6b9c0e4e8be97c93:0x40609b490439470!2m2!1d153.1093922!2d-30.298612!3e0

 

 

[Port 911]

That Armidale road looks like a cracker, looks to have black top all the way through, you could loop back to Glen Innes from Grafton if you only wanted one lot of accommodation to. 

Glen Innes is looking good so far.