driving

Subaru Outback XT

With demand being high for Rangers, it seemed a good opportunity to explore selling my Ranger, and to look into a different vehicle to use for road tripping and daily use.

I had thought I didn't want another SUV in the traditional sense. I've driven 4x4s and utes for the better part of 15 years now. So, my thinking was that it was time for something new and different.

I explored potentially an EV, looking at small ones like the Cupra Born and larger in the Polestar 2, along with things like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV 6. But none really fit what I wanted it for; a road tripping vehicle. EVs wise I'm still unsure regarding availability of charging for my use case.

Eventually after knocking out all the traditional SUV-type 4x4s and other types of vehicles, along with various front-wheel-drive options, I'd narrowed it down to an all-wheel drive wagon. Of which there are not a lot of those on the market. It's basically Audi, Volvo and Subaru. Audis are expensive, Volvo are at the end of their fuel-based development lives and heading to all EV soon, which left Subaru.

And after some research, and several test drives in Subarus, I found myself focusing on the Subaru Outback.

Having tested them out, and doing plenty of research I thought this was the best ideal vehicle.

Subaru Outback, side.

I thought it was everything I wanted, and for a time it was.

It was something sporty, well, sportier than what I'd had previously, fun, and a sunroof!

It was a petrol engine, something I'd not had for more than 15 years. I'd mostly preferenced diesels for their range and fuel availability. 

But I'd made a decision, I wanted a change. And it was to a Subaru Outback.

And for a time, I actually really liked it, the all-wheel drive really made it feel planted on the road. It was fun to drive. There was great utility to having a lifted wagon. Although after having driven utes for the better part of 10 years, getting used to now having a boot was something new to remember and to use. 

Reverse parked in; Federation Square car park.

After having had utes where to most effectively park I needed to reverse it into a parking spot all of the time, I found I was still reverse parking the Subaru, even though I could easily have driven in nose forward without any issues. And getting to the boot after reversing in was a little more tricky I discovered.

Everything was going swimmingly, I'd done a few of my 'New Adventures'-type day trips and was planning a 'test road trip', probably to Canberra, as it's a great drive either along the Princes Highway and then along the Monaro Highway, or even along the Hume and back through the Yarra Valley, a good short road trip. Maybe even a further afield trip to test its long-range road tripping abilities.

Parked nose-in at the airport.

But then I had to pick my dad up from the airport, and that's when I should have realised that there were problems. Although it was with me, rather than the car, which is almost worst, because I can't blame the vehicle for this failing.

As mentioned in my airport parking blog, the drive up was actually surprisingly easy, an easy enough drive up, free from stop start traffic.

Unfortunately on the return journey, there was a lot of stop-start traffic, and that's when I started to get an ache in my knee. 

I didn't think much of it at the time, I'd been in the garden in the days before, and done some walking and other stuff, plus I'd driven up there. Maybe it was nothing, I didn't think much of it.

Then it was a few weeks later and I was driving back from the city, and again in stop-start traffic, and a little bit of an ache in my right knee and a little bit in my hip. I just thought, again, I'd been out and about walking around the city. Nothing really to be concerned about.

Then these things continued to happen, I thought 'it's a different vehicle, maybe I'll just reset the seat and steering wheel etc'.

Subaru Outback interior

When I'd picked it up the car the sales guy kinda loomed over me to change the seat and steering wheel settings while all I wanted to do was try and relax and work out the best way to sit. (He'd sort of leaned into the driver's window, kinda personal space invading.)

So I set everything back to base setting, lowered the seat back and pushed it all the way back and set the steering wheel to its most neutral position. Got out of the car, locked it, walked around a little bit. 

Then unlocked it, got back in as though it was a new vehicle. 

Then I set it all up, and it was comfortable, and then I went out for a long, slow-ish drive around familiar roads, stopping to adjust the seating etc to be comfortable, as you can only really know how it feels when you're driving, rather than sat in your driveway at a stop.

I thought 'yes, I've fixed it'.

I left it for a few weeks, and it seemed okay, although I was just running errands etc, nothing terribly hard or any lengthy driving.

And then there went a few days where I'd not driven at all. 

However, then I went to see my grandma, and was in some traffic, not exactly stop-start traffic, just general traffic and light-traffic with stop lights.

And then the pain was back, in my right knee, and also travelling up to my hip. 

Now it was about problem solving; what was this pain, what could I do to mitigate it and work out what it was that was wrong.

It was me. 

Long legs, and the more relaxed seating position of a car. It was just not working for my body shape. 

Jeep Wrangler in Tasmania.

Before the Rangers, I'd had a Jeep Wrangler (loved that vehicle, leaked despite replacing all the roof/door seals twice, I’d never have one again, but I absolutely loved it), the Jeep I'd had for a number of years with no concerns comfort wise. It also had quite an upright seating position, you sat and drove it more like sat in a chair than lounging. 

The Rangers too, at least how I had the seat set up, I put it into a similar position as I had in the Jeep, that more upright sort of position with my legs.

With the Subaru it was more of a car-like sitting stretched out experience. Once I worked out this was the problem, I tried to replicate this seating position I'd had in previous vehicles, I couldn't not to the same extent. It's just the wrong shape of vehicle to have that sort of seating. But I tried, and again tried to change the seating position to mitigate the pain I was experiencing.

Then I tried driving it for some time, and it didn't really help, I wondered 'am I tensing now that I've tried it in a different position?', 'is it me now trying too much?' so I reset it again to a more relaxed potion, so I wouldn't need to have as much tension on my leg / hip area, to see if that changed things.

It didn't. 

So then I started to wonder 'is this just in my head?', was I positioning myself weird, tensing oddly, and there was just something that I was doing, or thinking about doing that was causing my body stresses.

So I got others of my family to sit in it, and at first they couldn't see where I was coming from, and then told them to keep switching between brake and accelerator; simulating being in stop-start traffic, and they agreed, that they could see where I was coming from.

Beyond this issue of myself, there was one quite large issue with the Subaru, which I had resolved to live with, although annoying. It was its conservativeness regarding fuel economy and the distance to empty it reported.

It had a 62L tank, and would report about 500km to empty, no matter how I drove it, how I reset the trip computer or fuel efficiency monitor.

And on 1/4 of a tank all it thought it could do was 80km. 

I'd used the trip computer to actually calculate how much it could do, and it was closer to 750km. 

That in itself was not a deal breaker.

The pain, however was not something I could live with.

I'd at that point avoided really going out, unless it was absolutely necessary, because of the pain, and the worry of the extended effects of said pain.

So, much to my disappointment, not to mention annoyance in myself and my body I needed to be rid of the Outback, and return to something familiar. (Not a Jeep Wrangler, although I did, very briefly consider it). 

I've always considered failures as a learning opportunity, albeit the larger ones more than sting, they do inform the future.

Melbourne Airport Terminal Parking

When you park at Melbourne Airport to pick someone up you have a couple of options; the Melbourne Airport Wait Zone, which is free, but you have to contend with the 'Public pick up' which, while free will test your patience quite a bit.

Through the trees, the front of Melbourne Airport

The next realistic option is "Terminal parking" which is the car park located opposite the airport terminal. I've parked here on a number of occasions when picking my dad up from the airport.

The occasion before I parked in the wait zone parking I did just so, parking in the Terminal parking. I discovered that you could pre-pay parking to save some money. (Something I was not aware of prior to that.)

On this occasion I did pre-pay, you get a QR code to scan upon entry and exit, at least that is how it is meant to work in theory.

Melbourne Airport Public pick up zone

In order to book the parking you need to state a time that you're going to arrive and depart, the latter is easy enough; time of flight arrival plus 40 minutes in case of problems. 

Time of arrival, in theory is also easy enough; travel time plus 25 minutes. Because Melbourne traffic is so variable sometimes an accident or incident can quickly add up to mean that you're not going to arrive at your destination at the right time. 

So I'd set my arrival time for 2:30 pm. 

But due to the traffic not being terrible I actually arrived near the airport at 2:00 pm, I knew (because I read the T&Cs) that there was 15 minute leeway for entry, so I went for a drive past the airport.  (This 15 minute leeway window applies to booking of under 4 hours according to their T&Cs, over 4 hours and you get a 2 hour window)

However, in writing this post up I looked through their FAQ at the bottom of the 'Parking refunds' page which states that you can arrive 2 hours before your booked entry time and not incur a fee.

As I'd arrived early, and not wishing to incur a fee, I instead drove past the airport parking turn off, driving past the airport and heading for Sunbury on the Tullamarine Freeway. Then I did a U-turn at the Oaklands Road roundabout, that's also where the aircraft viewing area is for runway 16. In hindsight I should've just parked up there and watched the planes come in.

Ramp up the levels of the car park

I did the U-turn and drove back, turning off at the exit that's simply labelled as "Airport", which takes you past what I'd assume to be the aircraft fuel storage, and around and under the Tullamarine Freeway, pushing you out near the BP and Maccas at the exit of the airport.

I drove up to the entrance to the Terminal car park entrance and scanned my QR code to enter the car park, a little awkward to get your phone under the scanner on the parking machine. But easy enough, to enter, exiting would be another thing however...

View from car park

I elected to go up to Level 3 - the roof, or up to there and then more parking atop that, as in the past that's where people haven't parked, and therefore was easier to park.

Nope, not this time, it was quite full. 

At first I thought it was just that there was building work going on that was using up spaces in the car park. You reach level 3 by going up the circular ramps on the side of the car park (that is if you enter from Arrival Drive).

Level 3 - Section L

I ended up parking in Level 3, section L, with a pleasant view out south east out of the car park. It's under cover of the second part of the muli-storey car park.

First thing I needed to find were toilets, of which there are few within the car park itself, I did briefly consult the National Public Toilet Map app, but it wasn't helpful. I headed towards the terminal, but found that the car park does have toilet facilities. They're located on the ground level. They are functional, but not big, one male, one female and a disabled toilet and each door just goes straight into the toilet, so it's a combo toilet, sink and Dyson airblade dryer. 

Terminal car park toilets

The men's toilet (as they tend to do) smelt of urine, so unsure how often they're cleaned. These car park toilets certainly had an air of being less cared for than those within the terminal building itself.

Terminal car park map in lift.

Having relieved my bladder I went back up to level 3 to time how long it takes to walk from the lifts to the edge of the terminal car park, where I'd parked. Because my dad loves to complain and I knew he'd find any opportunity to complain about stuff. So I set a timer and set about walking back to my car to check how long it would take. 

2 minutes 30 seconds.

The car park spaces are of a decent size, especially if you park next to a support column where there is extra room on one side of the space.

US-style pick up truck in spot.

But even if you're driving a large American-style pick up truck, they will still fit relatively well. 

All that I saw were reversed in, which I used to do when I had my Ford Ranger, as it's the most effective way to get the vehicle into a tight spot and fit it properly.

On Level 2 of the car park there is "Premium" and Valet parking, where the car park appears to have been renovated, with paint on the concrete and a more fancy walk way painted blue that is separated from the road with barriers.

Interior of Melbourne Airport

After waiting around for about and hour and a half or so until dad's flight landed, it was time to exit. I had my phone and the QR code held on it ready to scan at the exit and the screen said "Ticket Not Valid". I tried again, and again and then it said I needed to pay a further $30. 

Which means essentially I had paid twice and it ended up costing me about the same as I would have paid had I just rocked up and paid to get in.

Immediately upon returning home I submitted a refund request on Melbourne Airport's website, submitting both the booking number for my QR code entry and a photo of the receipt from the machine upon my exit.

The processing time for this, as listed on their website is 8-9 business days, which is a surprisingly long amount of time, not even 7 business days, but 8-9.

After 10 business days I sent another request with the reference number, and was issued with another "A case has been opened for your request".

14 business days on from sending the first parking refund message and they refunded the money I had to pay to exit.

The result of all this? 

Well, I probably won't pre-pay for the parking, as it seems to be fraught with mistakes, and by the time you want to exit, you just want to leave. And at the ticket machine there's no apparent option other than to pay the additional fee.

Maybe if I get there early I'll go and sit in the aircraft viewing area?

Or maybe I'll drive out further to Bulla or something. 

I won't park and wander the airport, and I'll just adjust my time to arrive accordingly. 

I'll obviously still need to park in the airport, but it'll be a much, much shorter time.

Noojee Trestle Rail Bridge

in

It would have been a nice set of driver's roads, had I not been stuck behind a Hyundai SUV, who seemed to slam on the brakes every time they approached something that might vaguely be considered a corner.

There's something odd, in an interesting way about Neerim South and the area around it, it's all got a very designed feel in a weird sort of way. It made me think of a British town, not a fancy old one, just a newer one, I couldn't quite put my finger on what made it feel like that. Perhaps it was the well kept 1970s-style houses, tree lined streets, and a lot of European trees around leading up to Neerim South and other towns nearby.

To get to that point I had to go along the South Gippsland Highway, which feels like it gets worse each time I'm driving on it, and therefore there's not really much to say about that part of the journey, it is what it is.

Although whenever I'm on the South Gippsland Highway I'm always tempted by the donut van at the Koo Wee Rup observation tower. Have yet to actually stop, as it often feels like it's at the start of my journey and my adventure is the journey to the destination as much as the destination, and I shouldn't be stopping anywhere on the way there as that's a sort of delay to the goal of the day.

But I also think that if I'm going to have a doughnut it needs to be great as a treat sort of thing, and a lot of them are just okay. Growing up there was a doughnut van at Frankston trash and treasure market, and I'd always remember how yellow the dough was, how oddly shaped they were and how molten the jam was within, and crispy on the outside. A lot of doughnut vans their doughnuts are so perfectly shaped, industrially produced uniformity.

Anyway, the rail trestle bridge.

The car park.

Driving into the trestle bridge car park the road weaves around a few trees, there's parking for probably 10-12 cars, although the day I went there were only 4 cars parked quite spread out.

There are three paths to the top of the bridge, standing looking at the bridge there's the left path, that crosses a creek and then goes up a set of stone stairs that are set into the hill, this is undercover of the trees and ferns around 

Then there's the right path which is much more open, and also goes up stone stairs.

And a third which weaves its way around the landscape up to the top.

I took the left path because there were some people taking the other right path. 

I think I chose right, both paths have steep stairs, but going down the more open set of stairs is better than the darker path of ferns and trees.

The bridge itself is impressive in its size and construction. There is a disconcerting 'Bridge Capacity Maximum 10 Persons' sign, and walking along it, you certainly feel the age of the bridge. Or at least below my feet, wearing skate shoes the wooden panels certainly felt old and well worn and a little loose in sections. I could certainly appreciate you wouldn't want more than 10 people on the bridge's surface larking about.

There are two picnic tables at the bottom opposite the car park, one accessed via some steps and also a path that would let you access the two.

Upper Yarra Reservoir

in

Upper Yarra Reservoir

I went for drive up to the Upper Yarra Reservoir, heading up Eastlink it was surprisingly busy for a week day. The route up was basically the same up to Mount Donna Buang that I did a few weeks ago.

Except in Warburton I continued along the C511 - Woods Point Road. Which continued to be a nice driver's road.

Then the road splits off with Woods Point Road continuing on the left and Upper Yarra Dam Road continuing straight ahead. 

There is a gate as you approach the reservoir with some speed humps also.

Sign: Upper Yarra Drinking Water Catchment “No People, No Dogs, No Fishing, No Swimming, No Shooting”.

You can tell you're approaching a dam that was built in the mid 20th century because you first see some sculpted grounds and well established European trees, the Maroondah Dam also has this feature nearby of mature non-native trees. Although there are fewer here than there.

I didn't realise there were camp grounds next to the reservoir, and basically in the shadow of the dam / reservoir wall. There were some people, maybe half a dozen people max with tents set up around this area. 

It was nice, there was big sign saying (amongst others) "No People", that this was a drinking water catchment area.

There's a concrete spill way, which apparently is not the source of the Yarra, but kinda feels like if the Yarra River is separated by a large reservoir that would make it a different river, or a tributary or something like that. But I'm not a hydrologist.

I took some photos, had a little bit of a look around, and then departed.

Ford Ranger 2018 2.0 Bi-Turbo

I'd had my Ford Ranger Wildtrak 2018 since new, and I'd previously had a first generation Ford Ranger the "PXI", which was great. It was the vehicle I used to go to Woomera, to go along the Eyre Highway to Perth and back, I did the Western Explorer road in that Ranger. It was comfortable, easy to drive and predictable.

But it was also a little bit of a 'parts bin job', that first generation didn't have CarPlay, didn't have a digital speedo, the centre console area was from the Transit, while the dash was from a Focus.

So I decided to upgrade to in 2018 to upgrade to the 2.0 Bi-Turbo, thinking that more efficient, plus that 10-speed auto would make things better.

It...wasn't amazing.

I'd been on a road trip to Tasmania before the pandemic in 2019, and Canberra in 2021, and in 2022.

But there were some issues which manifested shortly after I bought it, the 10-speed auto was somewhat indecisive, it seemed like it didn't like you driving the vehicle in some circumstances. I got used to as soon as I was on a freeway or highway of putting it in cruise control, because letting it do its thing was much easier for me than having it hunt around for the gears if I was the one in control of the throttle.

I had become accustomed to this issue, the foibles of the gearbox, I'd learnt how and when it would do its weird gearshift.

But then on a recent trip up to Ikea, I was sitting in the middle lane on the Princes Highway and as I went from a standstill at the traffic lights and put my foot slowly on the accelerator pedal it just seemed to rev up through the rev range and then really, really hesitate and then it was a thump and it changed gear. Almost like it was ready to stall. It didn't, but it did worry me. 

After stopping at Ikea, turning it off and waiting 10 minutes I restarted to see if there were any warning lights or any indications that there was anything wrong. There wasn't, so I went about my day's intent and bought some reasonably priced flat-pack furniture and returned home.

Turned out that reasonably priced piece of furniture which had poor reviews because it was hard to put together, was not an exaggeration, it was really hard to put together, nigh on impossible. So I was back up on the Princes Highway the following day to return it, and while on the way there I experienced no transmission shifting issues this time. However, I did not feel as comfortable as I had done so. 

I went on to drive it a bit, did my failed trip and another trip to Canberra.

It went in for a service after that trip and I mentioned the gearbox problems to them, and they did a software update. 

Which turned out to be one of the worst things they could have done. Yes, before the software update it was a little unpredictable at times, it was a little weird, but like an old car I'd worked out how to work with it, how to live with its problems. 

But now, it was just worse. 

Instead of changing gears smoothly, it would hold onto the gears for a moment or two too long then jerk and gear change. And the most annoying thing is that it was in the 40-60 kilometre speed range, the speed where you're most commonly going to be doing that around and about, or when you're driving off at the lights.

I went back to Ford and mentioned this, and asked if they could downgrade the software, at least I knew how it worked, even if it wasn't great. I didn't expect they would be able to do that, downgrading a computer's operating system or a phone's is a bit of an ordeal, doing it to software in a vehicle's subsystem like the gearbox control I suspected was something that they wouldn't be able to do. And no was the answer, but I had to ask.

They did take it under warranty for a day and checked it. When I got it back they said there was nothing wrong with it, that it was functioning as expected. They topped up the transmission oil though.

This...improved things? For a time, but it still wasn't pleasant. It was okay.

I had lost trust in the vehicle to be consistent and therefore safe. I didn't ever want to be in traffic and it be shifting unpredictably, and that was one of my concerns with its unpredictability.

There were other smaller, though no less irritating things that also contributed to this decision to change it for something else.

There was a rattle / buzzing noise around the start stop button, it was from one of the plastic panels not sitting perfectly fine, and only started to make this noise when the ute had been in the sun for a while. I narrowed it down that the temperature had to be at least 22ºC exterior temperature as indicated on the dash before it started to make this noise. I did mention this when it went in for a service, and they said they fixed it...however while it happened less, it would still happen, and thumping it with my leg (which had previously stopped it) no longer did anything.

There was also a noise, a buzz / rattle noise from...'somewhere on the passenger side' of the cabin, I thought it was somewhere near the A-pillar. But with passengers, who could hear it, but couldn't work out where it was coming from. It was much more of an intermittent fault, and therefore hard to explain.

There was also a buzzing from the centre of the dash, near the windscreen only when the windscreen de-mister was on heat and on a high temperature – so if in cold weather and de-misting the windscreen. Again I suspect that was just the plastics reacting to the heat.

I dealt with these by either having audio playing loud enough not to hear it, or to have the aircon on high on a hot day to cool the cabin down so these things plastic things didn't do their buzzing thing.

But as someone who wants a good road tripping vehicle, many of these things added up, and made me think that a Ranger wasn't the best vehicle for me...or so I'd thought.

Melbourne EV Show 2023

I wouldn't bother. If you're interested in a particular EV brand, seek them out in their respective show rooms or where ever, but don't bother here.

View as you walk into the Melbourne EV Show 2023

I'm relatively interested in EVs, read about and watch YouTube videos about them (and internal combustion engine cars too), not exactly a "motoring enthusiast" as the Shannons adverts go, but I'm informed enough. 

I saw an email a week or so ago from the RACV about the Melbourne EV Show at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre (or Jeff's Shed as I still think of it as). I did look at the website before going, so was aware that there weren't going to be all of the major car brands there, but still hoped that there would be something of interest.

For starters it's not exactly cheap to get in $32 for an adult. Back in the day that might've been a showbag of promotional stuff or something, but now that gets you nothing except the ticket. 

The show itself was in the end of the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, and took up maybe a quarter of the space. 

Of the major car brands there was; Peugeot, Hyundai, Kia, Polestar, GWM, Audi, plus Zagame which had; McLaren, Cupra and Fiat and Abarth on show. There was also car clubs like the Tesla Owner's Club present as well. Along with other EV things like scooters and bikes which I'm not really that interested in. Plus JAC Motors had two trucks on show.

I had a look around all the vehicles that were on show and had a sit in several of them.

One which I was interested to have a look at and sit in was the Hyundai Ioniq 5, as it's a design which has fascinated me since it came out, and because I had wanted to have a test drive in one. However according to Hyundai you can't, you have to pre-order one and then they'll let you test drive it. 

But there was one here so I thought I could sit in it, and have a feel and see how the switchgear and everything felt.

So I was sat in one and put my foot on the brake as I sat in it (habit mostly), and it prominently said in the dash "key not in vehicle", so I felt safe switching the driving modes around just to see how the dash responded and how the display changed in the different driving modes. Then I thought I'd try putting it into drive to see if any of the animation changed or something, and nothing happened, obviously because the key was not in the vehicle, so I moved to get out of the vehicle, taking my foot off the brake...and then the car started to creep forwards. I pushed my foot quite quickly onto the brake and fumbled around with the gear selector to put it back into, well I couldn't find park but I put it in neutral in the panic.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 N

Suddenly a rep for Hyundai appeared and I explained what happened, he hunted through the glove box, and couldn't find the key and then someone brought the key over from a locked box somewhere. He seemed as puzzled as I was, and I kept apologising for what happened.

He couldn't work it out how it managed to move without the key inside it.

But he explained "the Minister was here earlier and it must have been left in an on position". Which I guess was fortunate discovery by accident that I did it and they discovered it, and that it wasn't a child or something that was messing around with it, because it could have ended very differently.

So I guess I have test driven an Ioniq 5, all of about 5 centimetres. 

So that gave me a rush of panic and adrenalin.

After that I wandered around to the other brands. 

I quite like Peugeot's 508 PHEV Sportswagon, it's got the added practicality of a wagon, and is from a European car brand, and a little bit left of field being a French car brand. 

Also the e-208 PHEV was also a nice looking small hatch. 

The Peugeot Partner Van which I also had a sit in, that did not have a comfortable driving position. I think were I looking for a van the Ford e-Transit would be a better van. It perhaps might be okay for short drives.

Polestar 3

There were a lot of people at the Polestar stand, there was only their upcoming vehicle the Polestar 3, which is due next year. The Polestar 2 you need to go to their 'Polestar Spaces' to see.

The Polestar 3 is a small SUV type design, from what I could see it looks nice. Although from a design perspective I think I prefer the Polestar 2.

One stand that had a lot of people at it was the GWM Ora, known in some markets as the 'Ora Funky Cat', although here it's just called the Ora, but it keeps its logo of an exclamation mark. It's one of the smaller EVs and probably one of the cheapest on offer, it looked quite popular with the older people at the show.

Talk with headphones

There were talks going on at the show, with an interesting format that it was all done with wireless headphones, so you could sit there listening to the bloke and there was no loud speaker sort of arrangement, just the bloke on stage talking into a microphone and everyone sitting there watching him with headphones on. It was nice. Although I really hope (but kinda doubt) that they clean the headphones after each performance.

I was surprised by the Kia stand, the EV9 and EV6. I'd seen the EV6 before in a Ford / Kia dealership area and didn't think I lot of it. But seeing the GT-line version and sitting in it in person really changed my perspective on it, it's actually quite a nice looking vehicle. I also appreciate what Kia are going for with their EV9 SUV, it's a much more boxy sort of look, in the same sort of realm as a traditional Land Rover Defender or a Jeep Wrangler.

Audi RS e-tron GT

I was also surprised by the Audi RS e-tron GT, which I had seen in reviews both video and print, but it always looked really big in those. But in person, it's large, as it's a four-seater car, but it's not huge. There was a Porsche Taycan nearby and that did look big.

The interior of the Audi is like all Audis, it was well considered, everything and how it works for the driver has been considered. 

The screens are a little smaller than some – like Polestar who go for a large centre screen and then a screen in front of the driver. But it lends itself to a driver-focused car in the Audi. 

EV Land Rover

There were some interesting stands on conversions of internal combustion engine cars – Land Rovers and a conversion for a Mini. 

However, having walked around the show for about an hour, I felt like I'd had my fill and it was a little bit underwhelming.

If you're interested in experiencing or looking into an EV in more detail go to that brand's car dealership or show room, 'space' as Polestar call them or 'experience centre' as BYD calls them. I think you'd get a better experience than at the EV show.

Chadstone Car Park C during early 2023 works

EDIT: Information below is no longer valid as of November 2023, as the layout of this car park / its entrance has now changed.

My preference for parking when I visit Chadstone is Car Park C, what has often been known as the "Coles Car Park", this is accessible from Warrigal Road, via Middle Road and City Circuit. 

It's my preference as I'm usually getting to Chadstone from the Monash Freeway, so am exiting onto Warrigal Road for Chadstone.

Currently there are building works and road works ongoing at Chadstone and will be for the next 6+ months moving forward. 

At the moment all traffic on Middle Road is funnelled either left or right at the traffic light intersection, there is no forward traffic allowed. 

If you're visiting Chadstone and intending to park in Car Park C; when turning onto Middle Road from Warrigal Road turn right from the farthest right of the right turning lanes and keep to that lane as you go around the corner. You'll be next to the median strip as you get onto Middle Road (and inevitably be sat waiting at the traffic lights).

First entrance, do not enter here, but exit here when you leave.

Turn right from the far right lane onto City Circuit. Don't be tempted to get into the left lane and do not try to enter the car park from the first entrance. That's what everyone tries to do.

Don't panic, it does look like the other entrance of Car Park C (there used to be two one after the other on City Circuit) is blocked, that's because it is. 

One way road - City Circuit. Car park entrance is just after this bend.

Additionally the road becomes one way as it goes around the corner. 

Follow City Circuit around the corner and there is a second entrance into Car Park C. Turn left here (around the road works barriers) and then immediately turn right and go up the ramp to level 3 of the car park. 

It's generally not as busy up here because everyone goes in on the lower level, does several loops and then, and only after a few more loops do they get up to level 3. 

Level 4 used to be accessible but has been blocked for building works.

Car Park C ramp to level 3.

Also, if you're driving a 4x4-type ute or SUV don't panic...too much, I drive a Ford Ranger and it fits into Car Park C. It doesn't look like it, especially when you're driving up the ramp and looking at the scratches on the roof, but it does. However always double check the height of your vehicle and the height of the car park (2.0 metres). 

Note, when exiting do not go out the way you came in as that will deposit you back onto City Circuit and you can't go back around that one way section. Instead at the bottom of the ramp turn right, then left and then follow the car park around to right and then left you can exit, there's signs or you'll see cars coming in. This will let you exit out the first car park entrance, the one everyone was using to get into the car park. Then you can depart wherever from there.

Mount Donna Buang

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There wasn't much to see from the viewing platform, it being a cloudy day. But it was still bracing to get to the top.

It was a surprisingly easy drive from EastLink to Warburton. Along Canterbury Road for a lot, then York Road into Mount Evelyn, through the slightly awkward roundabout in Wandin North and onto the Warbuton Highway, then it's just on that all the way to its namesake.

It was about 15ºC in Warburton, but as I drove up the road the degrees started to come off the temperature, until when I reached the top it was 5ºC with a decent breeze dropping the temperature even more. 

Donna Buang Road is in good condition, about 3/4 of the way up there was road works, it was pretty significant road works as well. It reduced the road to one lane, controlled by traffic lights. It looked like they were rebuilding the road from somewhere at least 5 metres below the surface of the road, as there was a digger at what I assumed was 'ground' level and its arm barely came up to the road surface. Once you turn on to what is listed on Google as 'Rd 2' and is marked as being the road to the summit, the surface remains good, and the speed limit is 80 kilometres (as is most of Donna Buang Road), however some sticks that had fallen onto the road, nothing huge, but you'd certainly notice it in a non-4x4 type of vehicle. Given there was no traffic it was easily avoided.

About half way up the road there was a huge parking area, and a toilet block.

After that it's a short drive up to the lookout itself. 

The lookout is a set of stairs up to where you can (presumedly) see the view all around the mountain. Unfortunately today was cloudy, although it still afforded a bracing view.

The climb up was easy enough, although the wind and temperature at the top was quite brisk.

I met some cyclists at the bottom of the lookout, they'd cycled all the way up there, I took their photo for them holding their bikes in front of the sign. According to Wikipedia it's a challenging route averaging 6.2% climb over 16.6 kilometres.

I had a little bit of a wander around, there's a toilet block up there, with a large LPG tank beside it, I wonder for hot water for the toilets? I walked and nearly tripped down the stairs that led to the (closed) toboggan run. The stairs' treads are very shallow, not sure if that's so if they're covered in snow they're easier to transverse, but I elected not to explore them further.

In Warburton I stopped to take a few photos of an older building located at 3475 Warburton Highway. It's clearly a 1930s style building, from the look of it I thought it might be a government or council building, or perhaps a former hospital, it had this practical sense to it. Upon writing this up it seems it was a Weet-Bix factory – 'Sanitarium Health Food factory', the factory closed in the 1990s, and in 2016 it was supposedly under development to become accommodation, but had been hit with delays.

When I stopped and took some photos today there was some evidence of some demolition out the back / side of the property which had been fenced off with temporary fencing and the windows, at least on the first level had been boarded up. 

The driveway hadn't been blocked, I could drive in, although I kept to the front area of the building.

It's got a great many older trees that have been planted out the front and even a garden bench for sitting under the trees. This was why I thought it might be government or medical in history rather than a factory. 

I also took some photos with my Instax camera, both the wide one (still loaded with black and white film) and I've also bought a new one which takes square film. I quite like the quality the camera and film gives the images.

Canberra 2023-08 -4- Return

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I awoke and remained in bed, having gotten to bed pretty early the previous night, but not quite ready to arise at whatever o’clock it was (it was about 5 am), and decided to roll over and try to sleep or watch some YouTube or something.

Eventually I dragged myself out of bed into the quite cold space of the guest house. The fire had gone out I'd messed up the air intake on the fire; closed it a little bit too much down it seemed, leaving a bit of an unburnt log within. However the small oil-filled bar heater was only just keeping back the worst of the cold.

The previous night I had already tidied away everything I could. I have a separate dirty clothes bag to my clean bag, so that was waiting near the door for my PJs to go in before being chucked in the back of my ute. I'd boxed up my snacks container that contained snacks, biscuits, tea, sugar, my mug and emergency trangia as well. My remaining clean clothes were in my Big Bull roll-up bag.

Quickly dressing and re-packing everything I made ready to leave, getting my bags and other stuff out into my ute I firstly marvelled at the frost that was on my ute’s tray, and then realised the large amount of frost on my ute's windscreen would actually need melting before I left.

Starting my ute I sat with the windscreen de-mister / heater on full power for more than 10 minutes as I waited for the frost to melt to enough depart. According to my ute it was -3º outside. 

I think this might be the coldest I’ve begun to drive in.

When I was in Tasmania it definitely got cold enough to snow while I was driving, but not so still and cold. 

It certainly felt quite cold as I waited for things to start to defrost. 

Then after enough time had passed to warm the vehicle enough to get the wipers to free the frost I departed. 

Within Canberra it wasn’t too bad, I’m not sure if that’s what passes for peak hour, but none of the traffic had gotten to a stop, or stop start sort of position, all of the traffic was moving pretty well.

I had to get from Beltana Road, Pialligo to the start of the Barton Highway in Lyneham.

The route (the same as I took to get to the AirBnB on Monday) was Fairbairne Avenue, past the War Memorial and onto Limestone Avenue, along that past some nice examples of Australian inner-surburbia architecture and then left at Wakefield Avenue. Crossing the tram tracks onto Northbourne Avenue and then north up to the Barton Highway.

Then it was just a case of following the Barton Highway all the way until it met the Hume Freeway.

However, leaving Canberra on the Barton Highway I encountered one of the least comfortable conditions to drive in; fog. Thick fog.

Can’t really do anything about fog, and especially on the Barton Highway which is undergoing upgrade, so there’s very few safe places to pull over.

And really unlike really heavy rain, which you can pull over and wait for it to pass (I have done so in the past when I’ve not felt safe), fog isn't going to disappear quickly, unless there's a breeze or a sudden burst of sunshine to get it moving, and there was not a lot of either this morning.

As got further along the Barton, thankfully the fog did start to lift.

And once the Barton became a separated road with a median strip it had pretty much entirely lifted. 

Entering onto the Hume I stayed on it for long enough to get to Yass, where I stopped at the McDonald’s in Yass for breakfast. 

A little over 180 kilometres later I stopped at the Little Billabong Rest Area, to pee and have a little bit of a walk and stretch. Without having taken photos and it being geotagged I’m not sure if I’d actually be able to say where it was that I stopped. 

I had decided that I would not be driving to the end of the Hume Freeway, and would not be using the Western Ring Road to come home. Given the experience of my last return from Canberra and my general dislike for the Western Ring Road I elected instead for the B300, the Melba Highway and other related roads.

The B300 is rougher, I think it’s gotten worse since the last time I drove on it. It is a much more visually interesting drive however, going through townships, past paddocks, abandoned farm houses. Driving past bodies of water, and changes of elevation. 

I stopped at Bonnie Doon, mostly as I was stuck behind someone doing just under the speed limit, although not quite enough to overtake safely.

I took some photos, stretched a little bit and had a bit of a snack and a little drink of water before returning to the drive home. 

On the Maroondah Highway, approaching Ringwood was the only place were the traffic got really heavy, which was surprising as I didn’t think it was quite peak hour time just yet at around 4:00 pm ish.

If you're on the Maroondah Highway heading for EastLink at the turn off for the Ringwood Bypass stay in the left-most right turning lane when you're turning on and stay in that lane. Otherwise you'll have to get from other lanes into that to get onto EastLink, in heavy traffic that's going to be more tricky. 

My day finished, at home, having left Canberra decently well rested, I hadn't needed to take any power nap breaks like the last time. Yes, I was tired after the drive, but not as much as I had been the last time. And especially so, that I hadn't needed to contend with the Western Ring Road, and associated roads in the midst of peak hour upon my return.

Canberra 2023-08 -1- Hume Highway

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The Western Ring Road remains my most hated road, I hate driving on it. Everyone is so aggressive.

I entered the road and stayed in the far left lane, merging onto the road I saw a guy in a white 1990s Ford ute who seemed to accelerate towards me, then proceed to tailgate me for 30 seconds before swerving into the middle lanes and continue to accelerate before getting stuck behind a truck.

Like, mate you saw me, I’m in a Ford Ranger ute, it’s not as though you’re going to intimidate me, and you accelerated up, why…? 

Also the design of the Western Ring Road is just not great, it feels like it’s from another era with different considerations of safety and design. 

I made the mistake of being in the far left lane and then needing to change lanes before Sydney Road. 

It was a relief getting onto the Hume.

It was nice as I went further north to see that the the canola in bloom. It always puts a smile on my face to see the sea of bloom. And especially so when there’s a sea of bloom next to a field of green that hasn’t yet to bloom, it’s this intense colour contrast. 

The drive up to Canberra was fairly simple, there was a little bit of rain after I crossed into New South Wales. 

I stopped a couple of times on the way there, mostly to pee, dunno why I needed to empty my bladder more this time around. Firstly in Victoria at the Wandong Rest Area.

At Mullengandra rest stop I used the number on the side of the toilets to report that one was blocked and the one I used the tap was loose, so when you pushed it, it didn’t stay on.

I think it’s a good system, it being there so you can report it.

I didn’t see anyone else making a report, everyone else was just going in, doing their business and then leaving, or maybe walking around and chucking some rubbish away.

I was going to stop at the same Coles Express as I did on my last attempt to come to Canberra, at Gundagai, but decided as I had a little bit more fuel I could make it to Canberra. That fuel stop would have made me arrive an extra 10-15 minutes later, and I’d already stopped more than I would have liked.

Arriving into Canberra it was raining off and on as I made my way through the outskirts of the city.

I was glad of having CarPlay and Google Maps open. I had already looked at the route, and even written myself notes, although mostly the writing of the notes was so so I had it in my head, having already looked at things. However driving through Canberra it was good to have something guiding my way.

Arriving in Pialligo the road that my AirBnB was on I found had become a one way road, they seemed to be upgrading the road. But nevertheless I continued along the road, easily finding the address, and was grateful of the detailed instructions provided by the AirBnB host.

Canberra road trip failure 2023-07

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Failure is always an option.

I see things, even failures as learning experiences, as even if it's a mistake, or something like that, there's something to be gained from the experience, even if it's just not to do it again, and to know what not to do.

Some time ago, when I did a road trip to Perth and back I stayed the night at Border Village, at one of the worst motels I've ever stayed at. It was a partitioned demountable, and...it left me feeling somewhat out of sorts, just...it was clean, more or less, but left me feeling just out of sorts. It didn't ruin the trip for me, and I had a few more stops between it and home. But it did change where I stayed the following night, and it shaped the decisions of where to stay going forward.

Recently I had intended to go to Canberra, I've never been in the winter and thought it'd be an interesting experience, alas it wasn't meant to be.

I booked an tiny house airbnb 'Tiny Baxter' - out at a winery opposite Lake George.

It's one of those that are based on a trailer chassis, for all good reasons I understand, cost and council permits; those two affect the costs of things like that. I know enough about permits, costs and all that to know why decisions like that are made.

I'd stayed in a tiny house on my last venture to Canberra, but that one was rather more permanent than 'Tiny Baxter'.

Lake George

The failings of this trip are mostly in my court, as I knew some of the failings of the location before going.

And I learnt some things about myself. 

In my past longer road trips 8-9 hours I knew was the absolute maximum for one day's driving. 

I now realise that 8 hours is the absolute hard max especially on a poor night's sleep. 

After an absolutely poor night's sleep at the tiny house, a persistent headache and...I just couldn't go ahead with anything I'd planned. 

I didn't have anything pre-booked, aside from the accommodation, so I decided to count this as a loss, and a learning experience and return home, there is no point in pushing through if you're not going to enjoy things. A road trip, holiday or what not isn't something to force through. I was looking at experiences, seeing things and if I'm not going to enjoy it, then I shouldn't push myself through it.

Day 1 - On the way up 

I stopped more times than I have in the past going along the Hume Freeway, more breaks that I had felt I needed in the past.

Rest Stop at Balmattum.

I knew I wanted to stop at Maccas Yass on the way there, just because I didn't want to cook that night, I'd brought two meals with me to cook at my accommodation, and figured the first night could be an early meal at Maccas. 

I also knew that I didn't want to be arriving at the accommodation in the dark, not just because of the difficulties of arriving in the dark, but also the roads to get from the Hume to Lake George went through farming country with a some scrub and bush land throughout; I had no desire to hit a kangaroo in the twilight of an evening. Which shaped what time I needed to leave from home etc.

Arriving it looked as it did in the photos, and the first thing I did after brining in my bags was to turn the reverse cycle on; a Euromatic reverse cycle, which as the compressor turned on the side of the tiny house vibrated a bit, not exactly the smoothest of processes.

Making myself a cup of tea I took in the space. I had assumed, as at home that the aircon would be able to push out a decent amount of heat before turning off, alas not, I cranked the temperature up to quite a high state, and it did heat the bedroom area quite effectively, but the downstairs area less so.

The bathroom was fine and present, and the toilet was an experience.

A composting toilet, again it's something I knew about, having watched enough tiny house videos on YouTube to have heard all about a composting toilet, and had read the listing, or others like it. 

A convenient way to not have to deal with sewage, septic tank or the cassette toilet that comes in some motorhomes. The reality is rather less ideal, there's a fan somewhere in the back that's obviously keeping air around it circulating and a box of wood shavings that was used to cover up your 'deposits', and an enzyme water to spray on everything to keep it all moving, the enzyme water was distilled water and vinegar. 

There was only half roll of toilet paper on the toilet roll holder, I hunted through all the cupboards and couldn't find any more in the whole tiny house.

I would describe a composting toilet as a long drop toilet, made small, it's marginally better than that. Although sitting onto it, it's all plastic so there's quite a creaky feeling to it.

With a headache coming on, and pretty tired from the drive all I wanted was to pop some panadol and have a hot shower to wash away the day's driving and relax in time for an early night.

I had read the instructions messaged to me; that the hot water sometimes take a little time to turn on, and to wait. I took some panadol, hopeful of a warming shower while it acted.

So I turned it on and waited, and it remained cold, I waited some more, and it didn't.

So I turned it off, and waited the then turned it on, and waited again...and nothing, just more and more cold.

Bathroom sliding door that would trap fingers as I closed it.

I didn't want to go to bed dirty from the day's driving, I really wanted to try and ease my headache which was approaching a migraine level of pain. I'd already tripped up (and down the stairs) in my dazed tired state. 

Now, I texted my hosts, as the messages from Tiny Away (the management that ran the tiny house) kept insisting I text them rather than it all going through the app, which seemed counter to airbnb's policies of the past, that it all should go through the app so it was all recorded, but whatever.

Texted them at a bit past 7:30 pm, it would turn out I wouldn't receive a message until 6 am the following day. (Thankfully I left my phone in do not disturb)

I made myself another cup of tea and turned the heater up a bit more, to not much warmth where I was sat on the sofa. 

I found while sat there a door snake, which I realised was necessary as there was a little gap between the door and floor of the tiny house which did let some cold in, or heat escape whichever, I pushed that door snake in there.

So I sat looking at airbnb and other accommodation offerings nearby, but unfortunately I was quite in the middle of not very much, and had little desire to drive off in a huff in the middle of the night. 

But I did think about it, and acknowledge that it's a trait of mine to just up and go in a bit of a huff. However I was determined to try and make it work, and as the panadol slowly ebbed away the worst of the pain I did continue to look around for other accommodation, I thought 'maybe I could make the trip work, just elsewhere tomorrow?'.

Going along with it all I looked elsewhere, but it had taken me a while to plan and plot how I was going to do this trip to be comfortable and everything, and now I was trying to do it in a tired state, in an amount of pain.

As I started to realise my mood was turning sour I had mostly decided that this would be a one night thing.

I decided to try the hot water one final time, turning the shower on there was nothing, just more, and more, and more cold water, but at this point I had become fed up and worried less about the waste of water, so let it go for much longer than the previous attempts.

Then, I felt a little change in the atmosphere of the bathroom, ...yes, a bit of hot water started to flow, good. I texted the host apologising for my previous text and also sent a message to Tiny Away also apologising for my annoyed tone.

Showering I could feel some circulation and warmth coming to my fingers as I showered, having sat in the cold lounge area of the tiny house while I typed away trying to find an alternative.

Finishing the shower and donning my PJs I went up stairs, grabbing my water bottle and the foil packet of panadol, just in case. It had now been 2 hours since I'd taken it, and I hoped I would be able to get to sleep, I still hoped, maybe I would find a solution and be fine tomorrow. 

Lying down in bed I suddenly became aware of the traffic noise from the Federal Highway.

Again this is something I knew of from the reviews of this particular tiny house, one of the reviews had mentioned the noise outside but inside was fine.

It wasn't.

I can deal with traffic noise, that's not inherently the problem, it's the uneven sounds of droning or whatever it was, along with the low frequency engine breaking noises that were somewhat disruptive.

I had noticed the noise driving along, something about how the road had been laid means vehicles make a slight droning noise in parts, and this was quite prevalent at night as trucks drove along it, sometimes from the sound of it using their engine brakes too.

No matter I thought, I'd just put a podcast on and drift off.

Then, maybe an hour later I needed to go down for a pee. I nearly fell down the stairs again in my bleary half dozy state, going back up the stairs I stubbed my toe and crawled into bed, hoping the residual heat would stay, but alas no, I had a cold nose which would not go away, but I tried, and then relented and put the heater back on. 

Bathed in a blue light from the aircon and plastic walls.

Now the tiny house was bathed in blue light from the front of the aircon which displayed the temperature on the front of the aircon head unit. Combined with the sound of the aircon, and the traffic noise I lay in the bed.

Now I was just waiting, in pain until the four hours were up so I could take another of the panadol, hopeful there would be some respite from the pain. (Tip for those in pain and taking stuff like panadol, set the stopwatch on your phone, that way you can hit lap, so you can keep track of how much you've taken over a period of time)

After getting to a half sleep for some hours I had to pee again, and again nearly fell down the stairs, crawling back into bed, I got some sleep.

Day 2 - Cancellation and return

Awakening again this time around 6 in the morning I tried to return to some further sleep.

The Tiny House just prior to my departure.

I had by this point decided to cut my losses and go home, count this as a learning experience and re-plan and decide what to do, and what I would do differently this time.

I was going to cancel the reservation just before I departed, but decided, mostly because I could see the hosts' house from the tiny house and in case I was delayed departing didn't want the possibility of confrontation and query. Instead I drove down the road, pulling into a rest area overlooking Lake George and then hit cancel on the reservation, alas no refund for it. I knew there'd be no refund when I booked it, so there was no real annoyance or complaint there.

The drive home was...not great. Still some pain from the night before, a headache combined with neck pain from a poor sleeping position.

I had to have a few power naps on the way back, those signs that say 'yawning take a power nap now' or 'tired eyes' etc, they seemed more prevalent, more insistent than in the past, or perhaps just more relevant to me this time. 

I heeded their warnings nevertheless.

It also seemed there were more, better sign-posted rest areas along the Hume, with blue 'Exit' signs into rest areas, contrasted against the green 'Exit'-the freeway road signs.  

Holbrook submarine

I stopped at Holbrook to look at the submarine, well actually if I'm honest it was to pee and stretch my legs a little bit. There were half a dozen other cars of people doing the same.

Used to be Holbrook was the last town yet to be bypassed, I'd driven through there several times in the past going to Canberra or further north, now it looks a lot quieter. 

As I towards the Western Ring Road, Google Maps informed me of the increasingly congested traffic situation. My power naps having pushed back my arrival to Melbourne's outskirts from 'just before peak hour' to 'around peak hour', which was unfortunate. 

I tend to plan meticulously for my road trips, right down to writing notes for myself, even if I don't actually look at them at rest stops etc, it's having planned them enough. But then I also put it into Maps, just so I have an estimated arrival time etc.

But now, this time I put my hands in Google Maps' hands, just because the alternative offered would be 45 minutes faster than going along the Western Ring Road, Tullamarine Freeway etc. Got to see various examples of Victoria's "big build" projects as I skirted around the congested areas. 

Now having returned home I am planning a new different trip to Canberra, either doing as I had the last time I went to Canberra, in between the lockdowns of 2021, or perhaps staying outside Canberra, further out than I did this time, while still a reasonable distance to the capital.

Lake Mountain

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I had been meaning to go and have a look at Lake Mountain for some time. I've never been up there. As a kid when we 'went to the snow' as a family it was to Mount Baw Baw. 

I saw the forecast last week for this week, and today the weather was clear of rain; sunny and 8ºC, the following day would be cloudy, so knew as we're heading towards winter that I'd want to take the opportunity to go and have a look before the roads closed to general traffic. 

I know I could go in the winter, but then I'd need to carry snow chains and pay an entry fee, plus I didn't actually want to do any on-mountain stuff, mostly I wanted it as a destination to explore the roads and landscape there, and have a little bit of a wander.

I always consider the odd cut off when travelling on the Maroondah Highway between the suburbs and the countryside that is Lillydale and the turn off for the Warburton Highway. Once you go over that hill and you're on the other side there's little indication that there's a bustling suburb behind you.

Then it's a journey through farmland and lots of wineries, I passed one that had a helicopter parked in the front grounds.

Selover's Lookout, Healesville

And given the architecture of many of these wineries, these aren't cheap wines. Or maybe they are inexpensive wines that just have lots of throughput? I doubt it, there was some with quite fancy exterior architecture. One that looked like a long semi-circular building. Not unlike a Nissen hut or an airship hangar, although super fancy and architecturally designed, rather than utilitarian.  

The Maroondah Highway (B360) between Healesville and Narbethong is awesome, some majestic driving roads that work its way through rainforest. Towering eucalyptus trees and ferns thick on both sides of the road. And it's 80 km along all of this, which to be completely honest is about the maximum I was comfortable doing in my Ford Ranger ute. On the way up I might've been able to do that except I was stuck behind a nervous (new) MG driver who seemed to panic brake at every corner, on the way back down I felt like I was cooking my brakes a bit to stay under 80 km.

You then turn off onto the B512 Marysville Road heading for Marysville, which somewhat surprisingly is 100 km. On the way there I think it would have been a good drive, but I was still stuck behind the nervous MG driver, and they stuck at about 97 km; not quite low enough for me to overtake, especially on unfamiliar roads.

A decent amount of elevation changes, enough that I was yawning / swallowing to clear my ears a bit.

I'd never been to Marysville before the Black Saturday bushfires, so had nothing to really frame my view of the town. There's numerous new buildings, but a surprisingly amount of older plants that are still growing around the town.

Thinking of plants, that's one thing I love doing drives and road trips in autumn, all the European trees are full of autumnal colours; deep oranges and reds, and the streets full of leaves. It's majestic, but must annoy some people / the council needing to clear all these leaves up.

Lake Mountain Road and Marysville Woods Point Road

Continuing through Marysville and onto the C512 Marysville-Woods Point Road, the sunlight was very dappled as I drove along the road. 

Lake Mountain Road, start

When you reach the turn off for Lake Mountain Road which continues to be the C512, you know it immediately because the road lines change from white to yellow. 

There's a gate at the start of the road, and the speed limit is 80 km.

Immediately I thought 'that's a lot' as the road starts out very narrow, it's still wide enough for two lanes, but just, you wouldn't want to be cars towing something passing at a few points along this road. The road does widen up a little bit more beyond these first couple of narrow corners. 

Start of Lake Mountain Road

After the entrance / ticket box (only manned during winter) there's a couple of parking spots along the way up to the top of Lake Mountain.

Annoyingly Wikipedia is conflicted about the name of Lake Mountain, it might be named for George Lake, the surveyor-general of the area, although this is un-cited, or because of the "tarns, ponds and bogs near the summit", which is at least cited, but only with one citation, and according to the citation it's a reference from one book, itself was published in 2003. It's not available online, but I still have my doubts about it. Mostly as there isn't really anywhere for there to be a decent body of water on Lake Mountain. And if it was a tarn, pond or bog, wouldn't "Boggy Mountain" have been a better moniker? 

Lake Mountain map

Everywhere states basically the same thing "There is no lake on Lake Mountain, instead it was named for George Lake, who was surveyor general at the time." In some brief research it seems a lot of sites state something to this affect, a lot of them word-for-word. Which is odd, there also doesn't seem to be a good reference for George Lake, I feel like this is going to be a separate research topic to look into.

Driving up to the base of the Lake Mountain Alpine Resort there is a cafe and there are some activities on going during the non-winter periods. There were some flying fox / zip-line activities I could see from the car park, and there were some people doing some sort of ride along on an inflatable tube.

I indulged in neither of these things, nor did I investigate the cafe. 

The journey, the road trip, driving etc is the more important, more enlightening part, that the destination for me. Driving gives me time to consider the landscape, time to ponder in my head, to enjoy the distance, and think about spaces in between.

All that said, I did have a little bit of a wander. Despite it being 8ºC outside, and a little bit of a breeze which I did feel somewhat on my legs, the sun was out and I was wearing a...autumnal-thickness jacket over a t-shirt, along with a scarf I felt was enough. With the sun out it was quite pleasant. 

Walking around I saw the operators at Lake Mountain have been collecting any of the snow that has been falling and piling it up, it was mostly covered in white tarps. I guess any snow that falls they collect and save for the snow season, any snow they don't need to wait for / make is money / time saved.

Having seen some snow and not feeling like I wanted to indulge in any of the activities on offer, I returned to my ute and began my journey home.

The traffic had really started to pick up when I was driving through Chirnside Park. On the Maroondah Highway home I did at least remember I needed to be in the right lane because you need to turn right onto the Ringwood Bypass (route 62), there is a long diagonal arrow lane heading towards the traffic lights and right turn. 

But because of the amount of traffic going at 80 km, if you don't know it's there, even with Google Maps / Apple Maps / GPS navigation it feels like it doesn't tell you soon enough that you need to be in the right lane, especially if you're cruising along in the far left lane, that's two lanes you need to get across to get to the third outer lane.

On the Ringwood Bypass my inclination is to get into the far left lane in order to be ready to turn off onto the M3. But during busier times the traffic to turn off onto Warrandyte Road and Ringwood Street often backs up onto the bypass itself, so you're better off to be in the lane second from the far left. Then after Ringwood Street (or the second intersection on the bypass), you need to take the M3 exit and then keep right in order to stay on it. 

I will probably return to Lake Mountain at some point, if only to walk the summit. Although any summiting of any of the snow mountains around will be an adventure left for the summer.

Blue Rock Lake

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I went to Blue Rock Lake spillway via Shady Creek, just so there was a bit more variety of roads travelled to get there. 

It's a nice drive along Old Sale Road, with speeds varying 80 km to 100 km, dropping down to 60 around the townships. And had a variety of farming landscapes (along with some bush) and elevation changes.

The townships are interesting, lots with old oaks and other European-type trees, at the moment their leaves are turning autumnal, turning orange and yellow and starting to drop all around them.

Driving through it was still a nice enough day, the sun was shining, there was a decent breeze, but nothing to really worry about.

On my journey there it did answer one question which I found a little perplexing when looking at Google Maps to plan going out here, or around this area. The traffic layer always showed red/orange around the Brandy Creek-Old Sale Road intersection, which I couldn't fathom. But upon driving through the intersection I found that it's got a new large roundabout on it.

Then I remembered something from during the pandemic, during the lockdowns I was idly looking at Google Maps when we were all locked down, and it showed really busy roads around Melbourne. After mentioning it on social media I found out that it's based on averaged historical data so; 'it was busy a few months / year ago therefore it's busy now'. Same with this intersection it seems; showing orange / red but there was no one there. It appears it was a recent upgrade to the road, part of the Victorian Government's regional roads project.

I drove over to the other side of the spillway, there's a tower there. The reservoir itself was started in 1979 and finished in 1984, and the building is very blocky and 80s in its style. <More information>

There were some odd white posts on the bank above the spillway that I wasn't sure what they were.

I also went around to the Blue Rock Lake picnic area which is closer to Willow Grove, the town of the area. 

The picnic area has two boating jetties to one side and then on the other side of the very large car park there are barbecues, a playground, plus a table tennis table. There were a few people there looking at the lake, and several vehicles from Victoria Fisheries. 

I think I preferred the quiet desolation of the spillway to the picnic area. 

Agnes Falls

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Agnes Falls

The area around Agnes Falls is grazing and farm land. Around the falls itself it's a small reserve that is probably how the area looked before farming arrived in the area – according to the information sign that was in 1844.

Agnes Falls is closest to the town of Toora, it took me about 2 and a half hours to get out there.

I've been out to this area in the past, to Port Franklin before, so it's nice recognising the road and area as I drove out there.

Agnes River at bottom of falls

Saw one farm that had a field of corn, never seen a full field of corn growing before. Or it could be maize. I'm pretty sure it was some sort of corn-type of thing growing.

Turning off the South Gippsland Highway towards Agnes Falls takes you past the Toora wind farm. Have seen wind farms in the distance in various places, but this is the closes I've been; driving past them, and they're quite sizeable. 

Driving up Silcocks Hill Road, which is decently steep, but it's sealed, in fact all the roads are sealed to Agnes Falls. You turn from Hazel Park Road onto Agnes River Road and then along Agnes Falls Road. Nice and simple naming conventions there.

Agnes River weir

There is a sign as you drive towards Agnes Falls that says something to the affect of 'warning limited space in car park for turning of long vehicles' - basically there's not a lot of room for anyone towing a caravan to turn around / do a U-turn.

The falls themselves are reached by a path that's 220 metres long, there's two viewing areas to look at the falls from. 

Views from Silcocks Road

Melbourne Airport Wait Zone

Plane just about visible taking off.

Picked my dad up at the airport. In previous times when picking him up I'd park opposite the airport and wait for him, but last time he complained about how much the parking was (even though I said it had already been paid), so this time I thought I'd take advantage of the wait zone car park (also referred to as the "Ring & Ride" or "Airport Wait Parking")

Arriving and turning off on Exit 18 of the Tullamarine Freeway onto Mercer Drive, I didn't immediately want to turn into the waiting zone car park, so continued to the roundabout at the intersection of Mercer Drive and Airport Drive, then turned left onto Airport Drive and went down to the BP which is a short drive down from the Wait Zone on the corner of Airport Drive and Link Road (address: 182-184 Airport Drive, Melbourne Airport)

It's not really on any aerial maps, it seems to have been completed in late 2020. It's viewable on Google Street View and Apple Maps' Look Around. But not their aerial from above offerings. Bing Maps does show it.

I didn't need fuel, just wanted to get a drink, there's a Maccas there as well.

Depending on where you park, wanting to get back to the waiting zone car park will involve a U-turn by going some distance along Airport Drive to the Sharps Road intersection and doing a U-turn there.

Bing Maps helpfully has arrows showing you how to exit. Source.

If instead you leave via the truck parking area, you can exit and turn left onto Watson Drive and turn left onto Link Road, and then turn right back onto Airport Drive. Then you need to do a U-turn at the Mercer Drive / Airport Drive roundabout that you previously turned left at. 

This is because Mercer Drive is a one way road, coming off the freeway, so you have to access the wait zone car park from Airport Drive.

Driving into the wait zone car park is a little...not confusing, but there's a ticket machine, but the boom gate was up and the screen just said "Free Passage" with a smiley face emoji.

So I drove in and parked. While I was parked there I did see a few people driving in and also being confused by the parking machine / lack of the boom gate being down. I guess you don’t expect it to be free immediately. The Melbourne Airport website does say it’s free for 30 minutes, then from 30 minutes to an hour it’s $4. Anything beyond that is charged at the regular parking rate. 

At least that’s what the website says, but I know I was there for more than 40 minutes and didn’t need to pay anything. 

There is very little shade, there’s one or two trees that hang over the car park, but they’re small ones. I saw some people put their windscreen sun protection up to keep the heat out. 

You have the choice of looking out to the other car parks or out into grassland.

It’s surprisingly quiet there, especially considering it’s right next to the airport.

I got out of my ute and had a wander around, there’s not much.

Information board.

There are two bins, they’re unlabelled but there’s looks like there’s one for rubbish and one for recycling, when I dropped my empty can of V into one it sounded like it was the only thing that was in the bin.

There’s a pay station for presumedly when the ticket machine / boom gate is working.

There’s a mid-sized screen showing the arrivals of flights which is almost impossible to view with the sun beating on it.

And there’s an information board of where to go when you leave the waiting zone.

There is no grass around, it’s all compacted sand footpaths. That has not stopped some people letting their dogs shit on the side, I saw two piles that had not been cleared up by their owners (at least I hope it was dogs). 

Incidentally there are no toilets at this car park.

Exit and Entrance.

Then as I readied to leave I did half worry that the boom gate may go down as you approached, as the parking opposite the airport is done via credit card and reading your number plate, and thought they might have applied a similar process here. But it seemed not. (I had tried to watch people leave, but they seemed to not encounter anything like this)

So I just drove out and headed for the arrivals parking area.

The “Public pick up” was not amazing. Everyone is impatient, while in theory you should be able to drive up and easily park as you do at drop off at the terminal, in practice people are parallel parking. This results in more impatience, and people speeding in right at the 10 km/h speed limit and then getting annoyed by everyone and tooting their horns in impatience. There is a 1 minute limit for pickup.

Mount Sugarloaf

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Mount Sugarloaf is a short drive from Kinglake. 

It's nice, if underwhelming. 

The drive to Mount Sugarloaf takes you through the the outer reaches of Kinglake West which is small township of houses on National Park Road. 

Then you go into Kinglake National Park.

It's a short drive along a sealed road up to the lookout. There is a sign that says no busses (or rather it's a sign with a picture of a bus and circle with a line through it). 

It's quite a nice picturesque drive up to the lookout. Speed limit is 60 kilometres, until you're near the end, where it drops to 40 km/h and there's quite a tight bend in the road.

Melbourne just about visible (with a x30 zoom)

At the lookout you can just about see Melbourne, and you can sort of see the surrounding areas, although the trees are blocking a lot of the view.

There was a relatively inviting Mount Sugarloaf walking track leading away from the car park. 

The path goes all the way back to the entrance to the national park area, so I wasn't inclined to take it.

On the drive out I saw a wallaby, had to stop and give way to it, it seemed to not care that I was there.

The road itself has a few holes in it to be aware of, especially one which is a little hard to see on the way out just before the entrance to the national park.

Start of Mount Sugarloaf walking track

On the way there I more or less navigated for myself, I had Google Maps open and it on my phone via CarPlay, but knew where to go. Up EastLink, turn off at Ringwood, along Maroondah Highway and then through Yarra Glen and up the Melba Highway before turning off onto Healesville-Kinglake Road (C724). I knew I needed to basically head north-ish and then turn for Kinglake.

But on the way home I wondered what about the other route that Google Maps offered up. Namely Heidelberg-Kinglake Road (C746).

The 'road narrows' signs should have been a warning.

It was interesting, and I've not often needed to turn the steering wheel in my ute that much going down a hill.

The people cutting the corners as they were going up the road could have been done without if I'm totally honest.

It was an interesting drive. 

The landscape on this road was also much drier compared to the road taken up to Kinglake.

It turns from country blocks to large blocks to the outer suburbs very quickly, and then suddenly you find yourself staring at Eastland Shopping Centre waiting to turn onto the Ringwood Bypass.

Cape Paterson-Inverloch Road

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Shoreline view from Eagles Nest lookout

Went out for a drive, took my car out for a bit of a run.

Was on the warmer side of things, it hit 40ºC as I was driving home. 

Decided to go down to Cape Paterson and go along Cape Paterson-Inverloch Road, which is very pleasant, it's like a mini-Great Ocean Road.

Eagles Nest

I stopped off at the Eagles Nest lookout.

Drove around some of the roads around Korumburra, Kongwak and Loch before making my way home. 

Tasmania road trip 2017 - 4 - To Oatlands

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I didn't take a huge amount of photos on my journey from Strahan to Oatlands to visit the Callington Mill.

What struck me as interesting throughout my time in Tasmania, but especially for my drive from Strahan to Oatlands is the speed limit. Which from Strahan through Queenstown and out the other side was 100 km/h.

If these roads were in my home state of Victoria they would be 80 km/h maximum.
I didn't do much more than 80 along these twisty roads, because it had been raining and because I was driving a large four door 4x4.
I knew to set my own limit, it was nice, knowing I could go faster but I restrained myself, knowing I should do a safe speed that was appropriate for the conditions instead of having that set for my by the government.

Driving out of Queenstown I was heading for Bronte Park and then through the central highlands. It was something of an awkward, though also quite direct way to get to Oatlands from Strahan / Queenstown, and though some exceptionally pretty and remote landscape. The central highlands are probably my favourite part of Tasmania.

Eureka Car Park review

Location:

70 City Road, Southgate (technically)

Entrance actually from Southgate Avenue

No one does reviews of car parks. I know my previous write up of two car parks was essentially for a larger vehicle and this is again more of my noted experience rather than a completely detailed review.

Because there was a cricket thing on at the MCG and having had previous experience with football things making it difficult to park at the Federation Square car park I decided to err on the side of caution and park elsewhere. I didn’t park in the QV which is often my alternative car park location because I was going to be going to the lower end of Elizabeth Street.

The car park I selected was the Eureka Car Park owned / run by Wilson Parking. Their website had a photo of the car park, which I’d also checked out on Google Street View and it listed the height, always something useful to know.

I discovered it was also significantly cheaper than Federation Square being $9.00 on a weekend.

It is a minor detour from CityLink and it also slightly further from the city, if you’re heading to Swanston Street or somewhere like that.

But compared to the $16.00 at Federation Square this is something of a saving.

One thing that it didn’t list, which admittedly would be hard to list on a website where you’re trying to provide good basic information to the potential customer and this was the drivability of the car park.

Left is tight corner

Left is tight corner

Basically I measure this by how easy it is for me to drive my Ford Ranger up / down the levels of the car park.

It was easier than QV car park because of the height of each level meant you could look over the top / around the parked cars to see cars approaching the choke point in the car park which is where the corners are. In the QV car park these corners are very blind and sometimes involve an S bend.

I didn’t go all the way to the top of the Eureka Car Park but I did get to level 5 which is where I parked. I did reverse into the spot with my tow bar basically touching the wall. My vehicle was in...well close enough in. The wheels were basically within the parking spot.

Things of note, there is a ramp immediately after the ticket machine entry. It’s steep. It covers at least one level, probably closer to two as the lift that deposits you on this level (which is the Southbank exit) is level 2. It’s probably as steep as the exit from Jeff’s Shed is. Thankfully you don’t need to stop at the top like you do there. But it is notable in its steepness.

The other notable thing is the lack of stairs. There are two lifts that service the car park and two potential floors to exit the car park. Level 2 deposits you on the same level (after walking down the ramp) that you entered the car park from. It leads to Southbank. The other the ground level leads to the Eureka Skydeck entrance. I left via the former.

Given its relative closeness to the city and the cheaper price compared to Federation Square I think it’s good as an alternative car park to Federation Square, especially when there’s some sort of sporting event on at one of the sports grounds that’s close to the Federation Square carp park.

Parking a big ute in Melbourne

According to the Victorian Planning Provisions 52.06-9 the length of a car park space is a minimum of 6.7 metres for parallel and 4.9 metres for 45º, 60º and 90º parking bays.

I have a four door Ford Ranger. It has a tow bar and a roo bar on it.

According to the Ford Ranger brochure it is 5531 mm long. This doesn’t include the roo or tow bars.

Before getting started here’s the lengths of other utes in a similar class as a four door Ford Ranger:

  • Mitsubishi Triton is 5389 mm long.

  • Holden Colorado is 5347 mm long.

  • Nissan Navara is 5296 mm long.

  • Volkswagen Amarok is 5254 mm long.

  • Isuzu D-Max is 5030 mm long.

Notably, none are as long as the Ford Ranger.

None of these utes’ brochures / websites seem to take into account the addition of a tow bar which many come standard with.

As roo and nudge bars are extra features none list these.

When I first began driving and more importantly parking my Ranger I discovered one very notable thing, which is probably obvious given the dimensions listed on this page so far.

If any car parks are built to absolute minimum regarding their degree-based parking bays there will be trouble because the bay is smaller than the vehicle.

This isn’t too much of a problem when you’re in the suburbs, there’s usually space to park away from everyone. At least I try to park away from the main thoroughfares of car parks so my Ranger is not poking out too much.

In almost all situations in parking bays I have found, and had to learn to reverse park, because I have found it to be quite difficult to get the Ranger into a space where it has some semblance of fitting. Because reversing in means I can get it right up to the line with the aid of sensors and reversing camera.

In Melbourne this becomes even more necessary. In the city you don’t have the luxury of being able to park away from where the busy bits are, in a parking structure there is no ‘quiet’ part in the city. Everyone’s looking for a parking spot.

I have found two locations where I’ve found that I can squeeze a little more space out of a location to fit my large vehicle.

Firstly the Federation Square car park.

Which at first glance doesn’t have any spaces that offer any more room than any other location.

Federation Square car park slatted wall

It is easy to get to, if you’re coming from the south, south east or east. It’s accessible from CityLink via Batman Parade or if not the tollways then going along Wellington Parade and joining Flinders Street from the east.

Inside the parking structure there’s one or two things to note if you’re parking a larger vehicle. Due to the way that the Federation Square car park is constructed you can see there’s gaps between the support bars that hold the structure up. This allows you, if you’re reversing in to get your vehicle back a little further, or more to the point the tow bar back against the metal mesh. It gains you a couple of millimetres here.

Secondly, and this is more for other people, though also for yourself to keep your vehicle out of the way.

The way the Federation Square car park is laid out the ramps leading to each level are not right at the far side wall of the car park (as they are in some car parks). This means there’s about four parking spots on the east side of the car park which aren’t in the way of the car park traffic trying to go up or down the levels of the Federation Square car park. It’s here that I often try to park as they’re easier to reverse into (as it takes me a few goes to get it absolutely right) and here you’re out of the way even if while the wheels may be within the parking spot the car is not.

Federation Square spaces on east beside ramp

Federation Square spaces on east side near ramp/stairwell

Next up is the QV car park.

This is not as easy to get to.

It’s in the middle of Melbourne.

My preferred access is from Russell Street, just after the Lonsdale Street intersection.

It’s an entrance where you have to have some trust that they’ve designed it properly because the turning from the street level looks like a brick wall and you have to turn left into it. <Street View link>

Thankfully it’s actually a lot easier than the blind corner that it is would suggest. Just beware of pedestrians who ignore the fact they often do not have a green crossing signal.

Once inside and down the surprisingly steep ramp down into the car park don’t bother with the first level. Continue down to the second or even third level.

QV car park - extra space

Here you need to find car park spaces along the furthest back wall, they’re thankfully numbered so I can say number 2253 or around abouts that.

These spaces have been drawn onto the floor, but there’s space, overhang behind it which is not counted within the space. This allows people with large vehicles to back (or even drive in forwards as there’s a surprising amount of room) and have your vehicle fit into the space with ease.

These are the only two car parks I’ve parked in with any regularity in Melbourne. As these two are basically perfectly located for a majority of things I might need to do in the CBD.

The other thing to note is height, which does determine from the outset which car parks you can even get into.

Here’s the dimensions for the above utes.

  • Ford Ranger: 1848 mm

  • Volkswagen Amarok: 1834 mm

  • Nissan Navara: 1795 mm

  • Holden Colorado: 1780 mm

  • Mitsubishi Triton: 1780 mm

  • Isuzu D-Max: 1735 mm

Ideally a height limit for a car park would be 2.0 metres. There are a lot of car parks in Melbourne that list their max height as 1.9 metres.

Federation Square car park level 3

As that only leaves 52 mm, I prefer to find car parks with 2.0 metres, that at least gives me 152 mm. Still not a gigantic amount but it’s a little bit better, just in case there’s something rogue hanging down.

Not that this is likely to be an issue, but I used to drive a car that compared to the Ranger was significantly lower. I used to park that in the Victorian Arts Centre which lists their height restriction for their car park as 1.9 metres. That car park in particular feels a lot lower than 1.9 metres.

To wrap up now.

Federation Square’s pros is that it’s easier to get into if you’re coming from the south or east as it’s not within the CBD. Cons are that all the spaces are mostly the same size and any that allow over hang (as I mentioned for the QV) are positioned close to the lifts which means they’re always already taken. Another con is its position. It’s within walking distance of the MCG. This is a problem because it fills up quickly and overflow is in vacant land beside the car park. Not good if you want to park and know your vehicle is securely parked.

QV level 3 car park

QV’s pros are there is overhang which means you can fit larger vehicles into the spots. Cons; it’s in the middle of the CBD, getting into it involves a seemingly narrow turn, exiting involves going up a steep incline (if you exit onto Little Lonsdale street), once within the turns to get down to the second and third levels are somewhat blind and narrow.

But as I said being able to fit my vehicle into the space is a significant plus.

Price wise both Federation Square’s car park’s prices and QV’s car park’s prices are listed on their websites. There’s about $2 difference between them, the only notable thing is that QV’s night rate begins an hour earlier than Federation Square’s.

See also my separate review on the Eureka car park