Wednesday, Jun 11, 2014 at 11:07
traveling off peak is most definitely the way to go....and that is not only time of year..time of week and time of day can ease the journey.
#1...never travel during school holidays or over long week ends....unless you can some how leverage it....remember holidays drop in different weeks in different states.
You then need to work out how the other peaks lay out from there
A couple of weeks either side school holidays can be big peaks.....as the
grey hairs look after kids during the holidays for families with two working parents.......they will either
home run before or bugger off after.
The end of the school holidays and the first of the cool weather down south can trigger the wholesale northern
turtle migration ( slow and carry their homes on their backs).
Turtle migration season can be not so bad........most turtes are not early risers or late travelers.....ya just need to have an idea when they emerge from their shells and set off.
For example....if traveling in the nort....heading either way..you are wise to be
well past the
whitsunday turn off before 10 am.
If you get away early from many of the major centres you can have the traffic behind you all day.
when we roll out of
brisbane heading north...we recon to be over the
gateway bridge before 5am.....we avoid all the
Brisbane traffic, we are thru gympie before the shops open, and most of the traveling traffic is behind us all day...it just works all the way to Mackay.....if ya don't muck about ya get thru rocky before the schools come out.
We always try to travel on a Monday if we can, because everything is slow getting started on monday.
Don't forget to account for sacrificial anodes......events that draw lots of people to particular locations.......these sacrificial anode events can suck people out of otherwise busy destinations for quite some distance arround.
Not only do they suck people out of
places but out of activities........you may find it easy to get a fishing charter on the day of a big motor race in town for example.
Of course if you can..its worth watching the wind and tide.......not the weather the flow of travelrs and what causes them to move.
If you see a lot of vans heading south...that may be a time to head the other way.
If you hear that the moon phases are favorable for the barra..yeh
well probaly not the time to go to one of the popular barra dams.....every mad bugger will be up there making noise and scareing the fish...you will have better chances next week when it is quieter...and you wont pay over the odds for everthing.
Oh yes this off peak thing is a very serious studdy.
cheers
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534171
Follow Up By: Zippo - Wednesday, Jun 11, 2014 at 11:31
Wednesday, Jun 11, 2014 at 11:31
Sacrificial anodes, indeed! We just tried booking
Camooweal on 1 August (a room, not a site). Nope, the town is fully booked. No-one seems to know what occasion/event caused it, but I guess that doesn't really matter.
In the US we got merrily stuffed around by their Memorial Day weekend. Figured it wouldn't make a big difference to accommodation, but it turned out the town we "needed" on that day has a tradition of a HUGE parade and all the accom is booked out months ahead.
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817754
Follow Up By: pop2jocem - Wednesday, Jun 11, 2014 at 11:50
Wednesday, Jun 11, 2014 at 11:50
Luv ya turn of phrase Bantam. If you aint a novelist you should have been.
Damn good analogy regarding the "sacrificial anodes" lol.
Bloody school holidays, should give the little darlings 8 weeks off once a year and make them turn up at the school every other day.
Bah humbug.
Yeah, gonna keep the research going about off season/peak travel.
Just like dedicated bus lanes during peak times of the day we should have dedicated "
turtle lanes" at certain times of the year.
Hey, the bloody sticknest rat gets special protection, bloody act of parliament and all, what
about us oldies, ain't we a threatened species?
Oh, we aren't aren't we, try towing your "shell" at less than 20 kph over the limit and watch the threats come tumbling in.
Bah humbug I say. (;-))
Cheers
Pop
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817755
Follow Up By: The Bantam - Wednesday, Jun 11, 2014 at 14:23
Wednesday, Jun 11, 2014 at 14:23
Turtle lane INdeed.....any second lane would be a blessing.....how about some passing lanes long enough to pass anything legally.
hardly anybody would care how fast turtles traveled if there where reasonable opportunitries to pass them.
It still amazes many people that highway #1 is still an undivided two lane road that floods for weeks at a time in several
places north of Gympie.
Here is another "off peak tip"......if you want to kill a few meters and get ahead of the traffic...don't stop for lunch arround mid day.
Have a heavy smoko some time earlier, and when ya see all the turtles, tourists and sales reps pulling off to graze.....keep the foot burried....that way you can get a good 3/4 to an hour ahead of em.....if you keep you breaks to 15 to 30 minutes..they will never catch you and you wont have to pass them.
Even being carefull about where you break can make all the difference......most people looking for a break will stop on the incomming side of town.......if you just keep rolling and have ya break on the other side of town.....there is mostly a
rest area each end...as long as you keep your break short...you will be back on the road before they are......this way you can pass 5 or 10 slower vehicles with no effort and no inconvienience.
cheers
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Follow Up By: Steve - Wednesday, Jun 11, 2014 at 20:50
Wednesday, Jun 11, 2014 at 20:50
Rocky....uuuugh.....I don't know if it's just me but after a run from Goondi,
Miles,
Taroom etc it's a bit of a shock to the system pulling up at traffic lights every 100 meters, or so it seems. Can't think of another town that affects me worse although I'm sure there are plenty. Would rather run thru Brissie or
Sydney on the motorway, at least there's momentum and movement.
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817797