ozzieeagle

Seeing as this is a question where the answer can come in days in the case of Australia, I'm wondering what is the longest distance people have driven to get to a destination. Plus what people consider the longest they would drive in one day.

In my early days here, back in the early 80's I'd heard of people driving in their Valiant Chargers and Ford XB Shakers (Mad Max type cars) in the 70's across to Perth with 2 drivers non stop in less than 40 hours, reaching speeds of above 200k's per hour on the Nullabor, before the helicopters and when the Authorities apparently turned a blind eye to the speed limit...whether they really did that or not I don't know, there were plenty of tales about it.
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When I first got here, the size of the place and endless driving capacity excited me a tad, so I took on the task of driving from Melbourne in the winter to the Sun on the gold coast mid winter. So I took of early one morning and drove non stop in about 20 hours up the Newell to the GC in an old Valiant AP5... Felt ok about it as I was still in my 20's but did the return in two days.

Personally If going to Sydney, Canberra or Adelaide and points in between if it's a visit for a purpose rather than a holiday (Football mostly these days or visiting someone) then I'll do that in a day as well, but thats about my limit. So less than 900 K's. I imposed that limit on myself after a 16 hour drive to Port Macquarie about 5 years back that took me 3 days to get over LOL.... Cant do it so easily in your 50's, Even in a Aussie purpose built car for long distance travel... The Ford Falcon.

In holiday mode I'd probably only consider 5 hours now, before I stopped off for the day.



So whats the longest trip you've done in one go and the furthest you would drive.... bearing in mind the difference between a drive for a specific purpose and a holiday.


Apparently there are plenty of people in Queensland that do Townsville to Brisbane non stop ?

Dorothy

The longest distance I've ever driven on my own was from my hometown just outside Toronto to Vancouver - about 2700 miles or 4400 km. It took about 4 days of driving 10 hours per day. I was 20 and drove a 1976 Chevette.

We used to drive to Florida every year from Toronto when the kids were little which was about 2300 km. We would drive about 12 hours per day and it took 2 days.

Now about the farthest I drive is to Dunsborough which is about 4 hours south.

Bermudashorts

Never done any really long drives. The longest I have done by myself and in one go is about 10 hours, being south west London to Scotland and at last two of those hours is mainly to do with UK traffic jams.

We have just done a WA holiday including Margaret River and Esperance but we broke up the drives to about five hours a day. No traffic jams here.

ozzieeagle

Good effort Dorothy... I think the furthest I ever drove in the UK was from London to Rhyl... or maybe MKeynes, to London, then to Nottingham, then back to South London. Trains are far more use for distance in England.

Grayling

I once drove from Sydney to Adelaide via mallacoota which is about 2700 km...but did it over three days. I also drove from Brisbane to Cairns over a couple of days.

I find driving long distances here pretty boring as nothing much changes.

I have driven long distances in Europe and America and found them much more interesting.

Amazulu

From Seattle to Washington DC - we did 1000 miles in a day on one of the legs

Woodlea

Turriff to Plymouth (660 miles 1062 kms) every two years to visit the outlaws, best time just under 8 hours overnight when the M4 was empty. Glad I don't do that anymore!

ozzieeagle

Yehp I hear you and relate to that loud and clear "G"... I am naively and perhaps optimistically looking forwards to driving across the Nullarbor in one of those Motor homes ... Apparently it's a trip you'll only 'enjoy' one way, so it'll have to part of a circumnavigation of Aus.. best make it clockwise from Melbourne as well methinks.

You've given me the Genesis of an idea though Grayling... trying to circumnavigate Aus the most picturesque route possible... which probably equates to as many high elevation roads combined with forest and ocean roads as possible.

Grayling

That is why we drove round the coast to Adelaide as it seemed much more interesting than cross country.

I once drove from Adelaide to Port Lincoln.....pretty much desert most of the way and it was nice to see....took about 8 hours but i wouldn't want to do it again.

moneypenny20

A friend lives in Cairns, he needed a part for his boat, found one in Brissie and just because he could he decided to ride his motorbike down non stop. Picked up the part, had a kip for a few hours on a park bench somewhere and drove straight back up to Cairns. I think he's was pretty dumb but he lived.

ozzieeagle

Yehp, I reckon thats where most of the people still driving "one go" long distances will come from... FNQ.

jad n rich

Partner drove from brisbane to melbourne leaving early sunday arriving monday lunchtime. Coffee stops and a few hours sleep roadside included.

To cut down on fuel costs it was in the teens Barina

Bris to canberra, non stop ( aside from roadside loos! ) but 2 drivers.

We have driven LA to Chigaco a few times, just enjoy driving the USA. In winter we had to change States along the way to avoid ice roads etc. Image of several overturned huge trucks still sticks in the memory, as do many, the sandstorm reducing viability to end your nose! the tumble weed storm, hilarious for some reason, thousands of them, suddenly clearing to see a giant sign saying Subway Albuquerque Turkey Sub sign. One Vast white cloud on arrival, next morning couldnt get out 40klm of ice roads.
Amazing trips

Drove London to Scotland overnight, but that seems a short drive after living out here.

I also drove a very very flash brand new huge luxury car with boyfriend from Toronto to Vancouver some years ago! It was a way to travel across ( delivering cars ) cheaply. Very romantic but rushed trip, we had 3 days or something to deliver it. I dread to think what the owner would have thought if he knew what had been going on in lovely car LOL.

Dreamy

When the kids were little, we regularly drove long distances for holidays - it was much, much easier than faffing about in a plane and we could take all the crap they needed.

One day jobs would be from Warrington/North Wales to various places in the north/middle of France.

Longer drives would be from Warrington/North Wales down through Spain to the Algarve - we used to allow about 3-4 days for that and between us would drive for about 8 hours a day. Something like that, anyway. Just checked and it's around 1700 miles.

Here, I did the drive from the Sunshine coast to the Blue Mountains when we moved interstate - it was the easiest way of getting the car and the animals here (Himself and the kids flew down). Did it in one go, but it was only about 1100km I think.

What can I say? I like driving

verystormy

I mapped out the road before it was even a track from the Tropicana mine to Kal. Total bush bashing at 10km. Can't remember the time it took, but a good few days. Slowly pushing down trees, bush and up and down dunes.

bcworld

I pretty much maxed out the UK once by driving Ullapool to Torquay in a single go...about 675 miles. I set off about 5PM and I think it took about 12 hours after even getting stuck in traffic jams on the M6 in the middle of the night! It was kind of a stupid thing to do and I can't remember why I didn't stop somewhere.