Melbourne via Coast Road

HI Guys

looking for some advice here on my up coming trip to Melbourne with my partner. Looking to accomplish around 400kms per day as she will only be riding a CB250. Of course i will be fully laden on the GSX.

Do you have any suggestions for cheap accommodation on the route? and any nice stopping points on the way. Hoping to make melbourne in 3 days and then head home up the princess highway after a few days with family.

cheers

Can't help too much with accommodation Mpottsy. My mum and brother live in Traralgon so I do the Canberra - Traralgon trip in one hop (~560kms). Don't usually stop to see much.
Things to see might be:
There used to be a very nice historic trestle railway bridge at Nowa Nowa just off the hwy but it burnt down in the bushfires (see how helpful I can be!). Lakes Entrance is picturesque. Marlo is where the Snowy River flows into the ocean and is worth a look if you like that sort of thing. Mallacoota has a nice bay but is a bit off the hwy - it's also very popular in school holidays and summer so it can get crowded. Wilson's Promotory is worth a visit but a long way off the hwy. There's some very historic towns on the mountain side (eg Dargo, Licola) but also a considerable distance off the hwy. Traralgon has the open cut Loy Yang power station which is worth a look if you want to see a big hole in the ground (and only just off the hwy - there's a viewing platform).
Be watchful for static speed camera cars in Gippsland - there are always a number parked beside the hwy.

Tathra Pub is a good place to stay, the motel next door to the pub, and its about 400km from Sydney

I wouldn't bother following the coast west of Sale. On the little Honda i'd look at doing Cann River to Melb in one hit or Bairnsdale - Melb. The South Gippsland Highway (from Sale) doesn't really follow the coast. You'll do a lot of doubling back to follow the coast and not get far in a day.

Happy to meet somewhere East of here to "escort" you through

2wheelsagain wrote:I wouldn't bother following the coast west of Sale. On the little Honda i'd look at doing Cann River to Melb in one hit or Bairnsdale - Melb. The South Gippsland Highway (from Sale) doesn't really follow the coast. You'll do a lot of doubling back to follow the coast and not get far in a day.

Happy to meet somewhere East of here to "escort" you through

We will be stoping in Sale as my partners parent live there. Would love to meet up. The trip is planned to start on 11th june and will be in sale probably on Monday 13th.

Mpottsy wrote:

2wheelsagain wrote:I wouldn't bother following the coast west of Sale. On the little Honda i'd look at doing Cann River to Melb in one hit or Bairnsdale - Melb. The South Gippsland Highway (from Sale) doesn't really follow the coast. You'll do a lot of doubling back to follow the coast and not get far in a day.

Happy to meet somewhere East of here to "escort" you through

We will be stoping in Sale as my partners parent live there. Would love to meet up. The trip is planned to start on 11th june and will be in sale probably on Monday 13th.

The long weekend is out for me. There will be someone home but I will be in Melb and will be at work the rest of that week. Any other weekend but that one!

Saturday - Cherrybrook to Batemans Bay - main route will be through the Royal national park
Sunday - Batemans Bay to Cann River - Main ride will be down Princes Highway (route 1)
Monday - Cann river to Sale
Tuesday - Sale to Melbourne
Friday - Melbourne to Gundagai
Saturday - Gundagai to Cherrybrook

Feel free to Join us anyone send me a PM and I will let you know where to meet up and what times

There are some roadworks just north of Bega and I went in after rain or they just watered the road so I was going through west dirty slippery crap .. you might want to go through Bermagui.
Cann River is a nice place. I stayed at Lakes Entrance at the RSL motel $63 if a member of NRMA.

thanks baz good to know where potential issues might be.

Well Saturday is close at hand and almost ready for the off.

We had a small issue on Tuesday when I got the miss's bike out to warm up. We have a very step slop drive way and have to have the bike just right otherwise it falls over. Unfortunately the bike moved under the vibration of the engine and fell over, bending the handle bars. We have been lucky in finding a garage that could replace them and service the bike at short notice.

The plan is to set off from cherry brook at 7:30am. Heading down to the national park to take the coast ride. Stopping on Saturday at batemans bay. Day two will be down to Cann river. Day three will be to Sale to visit family and for me to finally meet the inlays. Day four will be a short trip across to Melbourne.

We the return on Friday back to Sydney spending Friday night in gundagai before pushing back home on Saturday. On Sunday and Monday

Tuesday I will unfortunately be going into hospital and won't be able to ride for 2 months

Mpottsy wrote:

Tuesday I will unfortunately be going into hospital and won't be able to ride for 2 months

So the bent handle bars were inserted where the sun doesnt shine?

The CB250 is back and in working order again. New handle bars fitted and a minor service too and I have fitted the barkbuster hand guards. Sharon is however concerned that she is crazy trying to ride to Melbourne on it. I say enjoy the adventure and ring the neck out of it.....

I think the new CB400 will be ordered on the sunday after we get back from Melbourne just a small hunch.

She'll be right. I rode 24000+ Kms with my wife on the back for 90% of the time when I got my license in 18 months. The poor thing spent most of it's life at 11000+ rpm.

Mpottsy wrote:
I think the new CB400 will be ordered on the sunday after we get back from Melbourne just a small hunch.

The CB400 is sweet little bike and could easily become a collectible (wish I had one of the '70s model). You could do a lot worse. There a few MLB dealers doing grey imports and the Yamaha 400 equivalent (sort of a minature XJR1300) is in a few shops at half the price (second hand of course). Depends if you want the real deal that is retail in Oz or something that is the real deal retail O/S I suppose.

I agree reddog she will be fine and will love every minute of the trip.

Ewok we will probably go for the proper version instead of an import, I am no mechanic so like the peace of mind of a real deal gives you. If i was more technically apt then a grey import would be no issue

Day one complete.

Started a little wet as we rode through the National park. Things dried up after our stop at lilyvale for breakfast. The rest of the ride was nice and dry and a great feasted for Sharon who coped wonderfully all the way to batemans bay.

day two again has started a little damp but soon dried up and the ride down to Bega has been another good one so far. A small rest stop and then wee are pushing on to cann river but may even progress further on to lakes entrance.

The one things to come out of this so far is that even though Sharon is have a blast on the 250, she is now desperate to get her CB400. Quess where my tax return is heading next month.......

Sounds like you are both having a good time, hope the weather stays favorable. Stay safe.

Day two continued

The rest of day two was mix of pleasure and hell. We left Bega and headed down to Eden for another brief stop before pushing on the can river. This was in a way a blessing as we caught up with a cuople of guys heading to Taralgon. One of them had picked his new M105 from Brisbane and was riding it home to Melbourne. We joined up with then for the ride to Cann river and went via Imlay road. What a ride even with the slight showers it was an awesome ride. Long sweeping corners through beautiful countryside and then picked up the Monaro down to cann river.

We then decided that as we were not tired to push on the lakes entrance. This is where all hell broke loose, 15 kms out of town and the heavens opened up. The light faded and it's dropped in temperature. With 100km still to go things did not improve and we arrived in lakes very cold wet and tired.

20 minutes after arriving we were sitting in a nice hot spa bath letting all our tiredness and aches wash away.

Day three

Only a very short ride today to Sale. Things were still slightly damp from the day before but not so unbearable. A nice home cooked meal tonight with sharons parents before heading up to Melbourne tomorrow.

They sell CB400's in Melbourne you know

Sounds like a great trip, wish I was tagging along.........except for the all hell broke loose part

When you go through Traralgon, wave to my mum as you go through the lights near Maccas - she lives just on the other side of the creek. I have a soft spot for that region - did my High School years in Traralgon and did plenty of bushwalking in that area.

Well we did it. The CB did a great job if a little slow at times. The weather I have to say was not that great but at least the sun was shining as we rode into Sydney. I will never trust the weatherman again the lying bunch to $&@$#***. Sharon has already got the laptop put looking for her CB400. She is planning to buy from Queensland and ride it back to sydney go figure she has the touring bug .