Olympic Hwy NSW
Submitted: Tuesday, Jan 03, 2017 at 21:42
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Gezza H
We are heading off from
Glenrowan tomorrow towards
Coffs Harbour. We are thinking we'll take the Olympic Hwy instead of the Hume to avoid
Sydney. Just wondering what the condition of the road is like for towing a van and what your reccomended stop overs would be. We're travelling with kids and a dog, no air con at the moment so would like to stay somewhere with a shower and somewhere to swim. Any info/suggestions you have will be most helpful. Cheers ??
Reply By: Member - Keith P (NSW) - Wednesday, Jan 04, 2017 at 00:28
Wednesday, Jan 04, 2017 at 00:28
Not much of an idea about where to stop ....but maybe a little advice tho.....
Check the road ( Waterfall way ) from Armidale to Coffs ....as it is my understanding that there has been another landslip on
Dorrigo mountain during the wet last year...and it could be a tight squeeze with a van .
You could go the Oxley from
Tamworth to
Wauchope....but the 15 k or so of very tight turns near
Long flat may
test things out.
Or come in on the Golden Highway and then onto
Newcastle expressway and take the turnoff towards Hexham and do the rest of the trip up the Pacific. There is no off ramp from Hunter expressway north at the M1.. so need to turn off somewhere before then off Hunter expressway.
Not sure of road names etc ...but a good map will sort ya.
HTH.
Cheers Keith
AnswerID:
607206
Reply By: Member - Mark (Tamworth NSW) - Wednesday, Jan 04, 2017 at 07:41
Wednesday, Jan 04, 2017 at 07:41
Geeza, the Olympic Way as far as I can remember runs from Albury to Cowra, from Cowra you would need to head onto Canowindra,
Molong,
Wellington,
Gulgong, Coolah, turning right near Premer onto just east of Caroona to Werris Ck, through
Tamworth to Armidale, turning right 10km past
Ebor to Coff's.
I love driving along that route , there's just something about the NSW slopes country I like. The Waterfall Way from Armidale to
Bellingen, I think is the most beautiful west-east drives over the Great Divide in NSW.
There are lots of variants as mentioned, such as detouring via
Newcastle or other coastal roads, though I would only consider the
Sydney option as an alternative
No problem with any of those roads towing a van including the
Dorrigo to
Bellingen section mentioned above (there are traffic lights at one section reducing traffic to one way). You will climb though from 350m at
Tamworth to 1000m up the
New England, peaking at 1350m near
Ebor and do the reverse from
Dorrigo around 800m to 30m at
Bellingen. Apart from the 8km
hill down from
Dorrigo, none of it is tight or twisting, milk tankers do that section every day along with numerous caravans
I can't think of anywhere which would satisfy the twin requirements of swimming and a shower apart from Caravan Parks in towns, perhaps somewhere like
Wellington as a mid way point?
It will be a sorter route, but I guess it will add an hour or max two to your journey instead of the boring but flat Hume and Pacific Highways.
Mark
AnswerID:
607209