Daytrip: Canberra – Orion Beach
In Canberra taking a daytrip to the “coast” usually means loading up the car and taking a 90-120 minute drive to Batemans Bay. We went a little further afield doubling the distance and duration to sit upon the shores of Jervis Bay on the picturesque Orion Beach.
The TomTom mapping on the built in Satnav was oddly convinced to take the middle of three routes, while we were going to follow the highlighted (and more familiar) route following the well trodden Kings Highway to Batemans Bay and then turning left and following the Princes Highway for the remaining distance.
As you’d expect the journey along the coast passes through many towns as it winds from hinterland to the shoreline on a slow progression north. We took a quick comfort stop in Ulladulla, where the highway virtually touches the sea. While the photo shows a magnificent hue it can’t portray the howling blasts of wind coming off the water.
Ulladulla also marks the beginning of the end of the journey with only about 30 minutes of travel left to the clusters of towns around Jervis Bay.
Orion Beach
Looking at the pictures above you’d be right in thinking “it looks suspiciously late in the day” and you’d be right as Orion Beach wasn’t our only reason to trek all the way to Jervis Bay – but it was the ultimate goal of the trip to plant our feet in the ocean after many months of land-locked living in Canberra.
The beach itself is a narrow strip of sand and rock features along the shores of Jervis Bay. With and incoming tide and a strong wind the waters were murky, washing away the traces of the days activities.
So how did the GT220 go?
I’ve written other posts here about the long-legged touring ability of the Renault Megane GT220 and once again it failed to disappoint with a good compromise between stability over many varied road surfaces and comfort. The F4RT provides a seriously “adequate” overtaking power while offering reasonably good economy. Given the rather steep terrain and high average speeds over it running around the 8L/100km is not bad.
On the return journey the magically bright Bi-Xenon headlights turned the night into daylight letting us pick-out the roadside dangers of wildlife before they crossed our paths. The brakes pulling us up with metres of space when the inevitable rabbit hopped across the road in our path.
In one way this daytrip is the warmup and practice for a longer roadtrip planned for later this year where we’re looking at travelling around 3500km as we complete the South Eastern triangle between Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne.
