Who’s ready for a virtual road trip again? Bring your coffee/chai, I’m taking you through a 2-day drive from Melbourne to Sydney via Hume Highway, also called the inland drive between the two cities. (Some days ago I posted about the coastal drive from Sydney to Melbourne via Princes Highway that you can read about here).
So as most of you would already know, the inland drive via Hume Highway doesn’t really have any amazing stoppvers like the coastal drive does. It’s very green and beautiful with lots of hills, trees, sheep, cows along the way. But it keeps going that way for about 8 hours which can be ‘dry’ for some and so most people do the whole stretch in one day and spend more time elsewhere (in Melbourne, for example).
But we did it over two days for the simple reason that we wanted to do the trip at a relaxed pace and not have to drive 8 hours continuously in one day. And also all of us really enjoy being on the road, in general so we enjoyed that part.
FOR PERSPECTIVE, THIS IS WHAT OUR ENTIRE ROAD TRIP LOOKED LIKE FROM THE DAY WE LEFT SYDNEY
Duration of road trip: 6 days
The split of the days: Sydney to Melbourne (2 days), Time in Melbourne (2 days), Melbourne to Sydney (2 days)
The routes we took:
Sydney to Melbourne: The coastal drive via the Princes Highway. Approximately 1000 kms, about 12 hours.
Melbourne to Sydney: The inland drive, via Hume Highway. Approximately 850 kms, about 8 hours. (This is the one I’m posting about today)
Sidenote: Please do read about the tips I mentioned in my Sydney->Melbourne post linked above, because tips are always good.
Now to the road trip….
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MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY (INLAND DRIVE, VIA HUME HIGHWAY)
DAY 1: Our agenda on this day was to start our drive back home to Sydney but make one detour along the way and stay the night there. It was a five hour drive including our detour.
We pretty much spent the morning in Melbourne brunching at a friend’s place, got on the road around 11 am and then spent the day stopping at gas stations along the way for coffee, snacks, doing stupid shit, etc.
Towards the end of day 1, we took a 30 minute detour to go see what we had wanted to see on this leg of the road trip: the Sugar Pine Walk in Laurel Hill. Because we reached around dusk (earlier in winter time), we drove to the town of Batlow to stay the night (it’s right next to Laurel Hill) , so we could wake up the next morning and go see the Sugar Pines. Be careful if going upto Laurel Hill around sunset, kangaroos can be bouncing across the road so drive slow enough to be able to control your vehicle.
DINNER: Our friend had packed food for us randomly which we had for dinner that night. But be aware that Batlow closes down early and so food options will be zero if you reach after dark. Best to pick up something along the way at a gas station/service station or get something from Melbourne (and practice self control and don’t eat it on the way).
NIGHT STAY: The Apple Inn in Batlow (one room with 1 queen bed + 2 twin beds). This was also a really nice place.
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Day 2: Batlow is famous for its apples and everything-apple, so apple pie, apple jam, the works. We woke up early to get some fresh apple pie for breakfast and they really were some of the freshest, softest, most comforting apple pies I’d had. Great with some tea, perfect start to the day.
After breakfast we drove (about 15 minutes) to Sugar Pine Walk. You can find it on Google Maps very easily. The drive itself was super pretty with massive trees lining both sides of the road.
But guys, the Sugar Pine Walk itself, oh man, it’s absolutely magical and so worth a visit. Sugar Pines are the biggest pine trees in the world and as you move through the short trail between these trees, you honestly feel like you’ve entered some kind of an enchanted forest. Breathtaking.
We spent about an hour here, just strolling, taking pictures (because, of course).
The rest of the day we spent finishing off the drive back to Sydney. We made a few stops along the way, there are some heritage points along the route which you can stop at and read about if you’d like – like the massive Ned Kelly Statue (on Google Maps) or Big Merino. We stopped at Big Merino (the massive ram in the picture) because we got food at that stop and also went up the stairs inside to peek out through its eyes (the view is nothing special, but you might want to do with kids. The wool history inside is quite interesting to read though).
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And just like that, after a 5 hour drive on Day 2, we were back in Sydney. Happy road tripping.
