Whether you are in Sydney in Australia on holiday or you live there it is always a good idea to hop in a car and discover Sydney’s surroundings during a long weekend road trip.
The possibilities are almost endless as the road network in Australia is amazing, not to mention the variety of wildlife, flora and fauna is just jaw dropping.
Driving from Sydney to Balranald could be a great option as driving along the country roads out of Sydney you will discover the early history of this huge country.
I spent nine days in Australia and decided that for the last four days of my trip I would drive out of Sydney and go up north to Balranald to visit the Mungo National Park.
My visit Sydney in Australia was during the International Fertilizer Association‘s annual conference and I took a few days off after the event. This was my first trip to Australia and I wanted to make the most of my time down under.
Australia Road Trip Cost
A long weekend road trip from Sydney shouldn’t cost the earth as fuel is relatively cheap, food is abundant and hotels are generally low cost.
I rented a car from Ace Rental Cars, which is a local Australian car rental company. Ace Rentals have great deals and the staff are very friendly so I would recommend it for anyone planning a road trip in New South Wales. Ace Rental Cars offer a pick up service from the airport as their office is not on the actual airport premises, so leave your arrival time with them and they will come to pick you up.
Otherwise these were the costings for the Australian work & holiday trip:
- Hotel: no cost as I was sleeping in the car and the rest was paid by work
- Car Rental: AUD $103 plus $6.50/day for zero excess insurance
- Food: $15-20/day
- Extras: sleeping bag and towel for sleeping in the car
Places To Visit Around Sydney
My first stop after Sydney was the Royal National Park. The beach at the Royal National Park in Australia’s southern coast is amazing and the sand and cliffs are simply breathtaking.
As I was driving through the forest in the Royal National Park south of Sydney and let the window down, the fresh sea breeze entered the car and I instantly felt more relaxed! I could feel right on my skin why everyone in Australia is so laid back and happy: the sun shines almost every day and the quality of life is exceptional.
The road in the national park was very quiet and after a short drive I reached the sea where the sand was slightly coarse but still soft and fluffy. I had never walked in sand like this before! Every step I took the sand was crunching under my feet and I slightly sunk into it, all the while listening to the crushing waves in the near distance.
The sun was shining on full blast, so I parked up the car, threw the shoes in the boot and went for a long walk on the beach. As it was mid-afternoon during the week, there were hardly any other people so it felt like the entire beach was completely mine.
I laid down and sunbathed for a while listening to the waves crushing into the land and watched the birds fly around, enjoying this amazing Australian scenery.
Wollongong and Sutton Forest
By the time I left Royal National Park it was getting dark so I put the pedal to the metal! As I was driving across the mountains I was getting more and more sleepy so I pulled over and had a short nap in a lay-by.
In fact, I spent all three nights in the car in Australia! After about an hour’s sleep I drove on to Sutton Forest where I had a not-so-good dinner at a roadside diner for about AU$14.
Although the food wasn’t amazing, I had a great laugh at what happened while I ordered the food! I went to buy the dinner at the counter and then I sat down to chill while I was waiting for my steak to arrive. There was no table service, instead the chef shouted out to the clients to come pick up their food.
So when he shouted “steak ready” I came to pick it up and started chomping on it when an angry cashier came over to tell me off! I was like, “what have I done? I’ve paid for it and eating it now…” So she told me that it was another customers…! Obviously I didn’t notice the other guy hiding behind the column, so he had to wait another 10 minutes for his food!
About an hour after Sutton Forest I had to stop again in a layover to sleep as I was exhausted. This place was a bit more spooky than the last place where I slept in the car as it was next to the dual carriageway. I turned the engine off and pulled the window down to get some fresh air and to listen to the wildlife.
I had never heard anything like those birds and insects before: it was like hearing an orchestra from outer space for me! Being a small town boy from Hungary where all you hear at night are owls and crickets it was magical for me to hear such a varied display of sounds.
Sleeping in the Car During a Road Trip
While it makes any road trip cheap, the problem with sleeping in the car is that it is uncomfortable and can be dangerous (and illegal in some places). Also, it gets very cold at night no matter where you are and the two combined makes for very poor sleep.
This was the case for me in the middle of New South Wales in the car park of a dual carriageway! I kept turning and tossing and hardly slept. For the first night I did not have a sleeping bag either, so every hour or so I had to get up and turn the engine on to make it a bit warmer.
Also, you can imagine that I jumped up every time I heard a truck drive past or another car stop for a break, thinking they will kidnap and rape me and that will be it!
For three more road trips following Australia I slept in the car to save money but after the third I decided that I would never do it again. Sleeping in the car during a road trip is just not worth the hassle and there are so many cheap motels to sleep in almost everywhere in the world…
Plus, resting in a motel with a shower is much more comfortable than sleeping in the car during a holiday which should be full of fun and relaxation! An added bonus is that if you have a proper rest in a motel or hotel, you will not be dozing off the next day during driving.
So, while sleeping in the car during a road trip might sound fun, I would recommend you get yourself a cheap motel room and sleep properly before getting on the road nice and early the next day. Anyhow, I’ve slept in the car a few times and it’s fine, especially if you are very tired: a quick 30-60 minute drive might save your life!
Breakfast in Wagga Wagga
When I finally decided that I had enough of turning the engine on and off for heat, I drove for another two hours until I became super sleepy again. By then I was off the dual carriageway in the middle of nowhere, so I ended up sleeping in the car outside someone’s farm again.
When I woke up I drove all the way to Wagga Wagga, which was another half an hour away. Wagga Wagga is a pleasant place but definitely not a tourist trap! Wagga Wagga is basically an agricultural town, about two or three hours driving from Sydney.
It looks like a nice town and there are many historic buildings left over from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I had breakfast here and then I had a short walk around the old district and drove on towards Balranald.
Balranald, the Entrance to Mungo National Park
Balranald is where the wetlands meet real Australian Outback. The surrounding areas are absolutely gorgeous with the wide open spaces and the red and orange hue over almost everything. Most people work in farming or produce cotton here, so you will see a lot of tour operators offering farm tours and so on. I had lunch here in a bakery, walked around the city center area (took about 10 minutes) and then headed out to Mungo National Park on the local dirt roads after filling up my tank.
While I was in Balranald I also bought a sleeping bag and a towel in one of the local dollar stores as I did not want to shiver through another night sleeping in the car again. I was also quite keen on cleaning myself a bit and brushing my teeth, hence the towel! 🙂
Spending the Night at Mungo National Park
Mungo National Park is the sacred land of the local aboriginal tribe. Walking around Mungo National Park was quite stunning! Seeing the dried out lake and the mounds of clay plus sand in the sunset was breathtaking! Drive to Mungo National Park from Balranald took about one and a half hours on good quality dirt roads.
The local government of Balranald and farmers maintain these roads and there are strict rules as to how you can use them. For example, driving on the dirt roads is forbidden while it is raining as the rains can ruin the road’s foundations. If they catch you doing it you can be fined big bucks!
Once I arrived at Mungo National Park I dropped the car off at the entrance and went for a long walk in this sacred site.
According to the Australian National Park Service, “Aboriginal people have walked here since the Dreamtime. Scientists have discovered artefacts of this ancient culture dating back over 50,000 years across the expanses of the last ice age.
“This makes Mungo one of the oldest places outside of Africa to have been occupied by modern humans since ancient times.”
Mungo National Park was an absolutely amazing place and in the end I spent the night sleeping in the desert here! The milions of stars above me dotted along the sky were totally amazing and againt I’d never seen anything like this before!
While I was driving around between the various locations of Mungo National Park, the sun started to set over the horizon. I will never forget how the kangaroos and ostriches ran along the road as I drove slowly, soaking in the sun and scenery!
Visiting Carcoar in New South Wales
I woke up early in the morning and drove all day from Mungo National Park to arrive in Lithgow for my last night in Australia. Driving to Lithgow from Mungo National Park took me through Griffith, West Wyalong and Bathhurst, small towns founded during the last centuries when sheep herding and cotton production helped this region become wealthy.
Those times seem to be long gone and my impression was that many of these places in New South Wales rely on weekend tourism from Sydney and Canberra. The smaller family farms have been taken over by large firms cultivating thousands of acres of land, much of it surrounded by tall fencing and lines of eucalyptus trees.
My favourite small towns in Australia was Carcoar, a beautiful remnant from an age gone by. Carcoar is in the New South Wales Central Tablelands, about 260 kilometers West of Sydney. If you are driving from Bathurst, Orange or Cowra, it takes about 40 minutes from each of these places to reach Carcoar.
The Europeans first settled in Carcoar in 1821. It was in Carcoar where the region’s wealthiest landowner, Thomas Icely of Coombing Park lived. Carcoar is the third oldest settlement West of the Blue Mountains National Park so it is well worth a visit to soak in that real Australian small-town sentiment from the 19th century.
Lithgow & The Blue Mountains National Park
I spent a good couple of hours walking around Carcoar and then had lunch at the local burger joint ran by a Scottish couple. After Carcoar I drove through Bathhurst where I was lucky to be able to drive on the sports car circuit. The Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit is normally for high speed races by professionals but the race course seems to form part of the city’s road network so I was able to drive around on it. Check out my driving in the video below:
After Bathurst I put the pedal to the metal as it was getting late. Driving to Lithgow from Bathurst took me through some more spectacular scenery of rolling hills and grassy lands, arriving at my destination after sunset. For dinner I decided to buy some Australian local specialities from the supermarket and then put myself away for the night by a roadside on the outskirts of town.
Sleeping In The Car Through The Night!
By this point I was so tired that I slept through the night without waking up very much at all. In fact, in the morning I woke up to the birds singing so loudly that I could not go back to sleep so I headed down to the Blue Mountain National Park instead.
The Blue Mountain National Park looks very similar to Big Bend National Park, except the entire area has dense eucalyptus and other kinds of forests, plus dozens of waterfalls. I spent a good few hours walking around the park and because I arrived super early I was pretty much all on my own.
The fog still covered the drive to the entrance of the park so it was very mystical as I was rolling through the forest towards one of the easily accessible waterfalls. You can see the park on the youtube video above – I had an amazing time there!
After the park I had to put the pedal to the metal as I still had to get to the airport and I knew that driving through the rush hour in Sydney would add an extra hour to my journey. So, after breakfast at a local cafe I headed out towards Richmond and then Sydney Airport, ending my long, weekend road trip from Sydney in style.