Following on from Aussie-ITR's thread I thought I'd start a new thread to carry on the (text) discussion. Whilst Aussie-ITR has put up some great photos they do take a long time to download.

This is a cut'N'paste from the last post on the thread with all the photos. I thought I'd start it here again so the non-cable people could participate in the discussion.

Aussie-ITR, Great photos What camera did you use?

AustBlue, not 100% sure what you mean by "quality". If you mean the chemical composition of the asphalt then it's OK. Certainly not up to Hume Highway standards but more than satisfactory for the task at hand.

If by "quality" you mean fun to drive, then it's one of the best in Australia. Right up there with Mt Panorama and some of the Targa Tasmania sections.

Go to http://www.hsccv.org.au and click on "where to drive".

I must also report with great sadness that there is a current recommendation before the Vic Traffic authorities to impose an 80 Km/Hr limit on the section from Torquay to Apollo Bay. The reason given for this abomination is that approx 25-30 motorcyclists have been killed on that section of road over the last 5 years.

There were some articles about this in the Age about the same time as the S2000 shooting in Melbourne.

Aussie-ITR then replied

as if the 80km/h speed limit is going to stop any motor bike deaths.... they wouldn't be obeying the current 100km/h speed limit and there are not that many places were it can be enforced; cause the roads are so twisty/tight!!

I certainly advise any one considering the drive.... to totally ignore it during the summer months and go on a week day during the off season. As you can see the whether was pretty good (although on some of the forrest stages, the roads were a bit damp) and the traffic was minimal with no motor bikes!!

 

I drove from Melbourne to Adelaide. Unfortunately all I could hire was a billoddy Camry. Every corner I wallowed around made me miss the S.

Awesome road, amazing views, and Port Fairy is a great place to stay (The Mill) and there's a really cool pub up the road (The Victoria I think).

Must do it again sometime. This time in the S.

 

Hey AusS....That might have been the Camry i had for the same trip back along the Ocean Road last January from Warrnambool to see the big sprintcar meetings

Have always wanted to do that trip and there we were, 4 petrol-head mates in a billoddy Camry renter

All the same, if anyone hasn't done it, do it......billoddy fantastic, beautiful scenery and the weather was perfect.....

Any Californian friends reading this? ..Sorry guys, have done Pacific Coast Highway 1 and The Great Ocean Road of Victoria beats it. Come over and see for yourselves....

http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au/

http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/Highway1toLeggit.htm

Oop's, hope i haven't started a coastal road debate

 

Yes, the Great Ocean Road (GOR) does have great scenery; and that is why it attracts a lot of tourist traffic in summer and school holidays.

However, I was looking at the issue from a driving point of view. Up until now the speed limit has been 100 Km/Hr which meant that you could have quite a spirited drive with minimal chance of being booked for speeding. If it is made 80 Km/Hr it will just become a revenue raising trap.

 

Whilst I hate to do a TTT I thought I should revive this issue as it is something that will affect us all for all time.

Something irreplaceable will be lost here and we will all be poorer for it.

On a similar note I saw a magazine article (quality not assured) that somebody has put a submission to the NSW traffic authorities to impose a state wide limit of 80Km/Hr. That is, the maximum speed limit ANYWHERE in NSW to be 80. Whilst I don't think it has much chance of being adopted it is a sad reflection of the way things are going.

 

How do you submit one of those suggestions to the NSW traffic authority? I want to a submission to go thru which forces a person to walk in front of a car with one of those xmas bells that a Santa Claus carries screaming at the top of his lungs "Ho Ho Ho, a car is coming". or something like that.

 

Just think about the impact that state wide limit will have on our transport industry. That's 240kms less for every 12hour trip made. Now do you think that this loss will be taken on the chin? It just means more pressure on the drivers to pop pills and speed!

 

Exactly what I was thinking.... and prices of goods, would probably go up (even though I know, truck drivers get paid by the km)!!

 

Well it's now mid-September, the weather must start getting warmer soon and we'll all be looking for somewhere nice to drive. Has anyone been down thru Lorne/Apollo Bay recently?

Has this "punish the many for the sins of the few" act been inflicted on us yet?

 

I think I'll have to a make trip down to GOR very soon just to find that out for you RedRover. All in the name of research for this forum.