Dream Vacation

[swimmer_spe]

I have always wanted to dive the Great Barrier Reef. Ever since I was a kid, my goal has been to get certified so that I can.

As I start to save for it, I started thinking about more.

So, here are some thoughs and questions I have.

I plan to fly into Cairns. Spend a few days there diving. I will rent a RV (or as you call it, caravan) and drive south to Sydney. and fly out of there.

Alternatively, I could fly into a northern city, like Brisbane and rent an RV and drive around the entire coast, diving along the way.

Realisticly speaking:
Driving 8 hours a day, how long would it take to get from Cairns to Sydney?
Driving 8 hours a day, How long would it take to drive the entire coast of Australia?

Besides the GBR, what are the top dive sites between Cairns and Sydney? What about in the entire country?

What time of year is the best time? I am not concerned about the heat. If I am not in the water, I am in the air conditioned RV. I care more about adverse weather, most abundant life, busy travel times, etc.

I figure this is a few years off, and about a $10,000 trip.

Thank you for yoru help.

 

[bracko]

caravan and RV are two different things. I refer to them as motor homes or camper vans

the distance is close enough to 3,000km to not split hairs. the roads from Cairns to Brisbane aren't the best so you're not going to drive constantly at 100km/hr or anything like it. Also there are a few places you'd like to stop off and take some time to see.

from brisbane the roads are a lot better but similarly there are a lot of (I would argue more) places to stop and spend time.

if you've got $10k I would take it slowly and spend a month doing it.

The coast from Sydney to Melbourne is arguably more beautiful I think and definitely shouldn't be missed. places like Jarvis Bay you can spend weeks at and still be in awe.

 

[alcina]

1 - 10Gs won't likely do it
2 - driving around Australia isn't all coastal and it's a friggin' long way. Most people take six + months to do it. And there isn't diving everywhere. North of Ningaloo Reef on the West Coast there isn't much. A couple of live aboards maybe, but they don't run all the time and absolutely require advanced planning. Remember, Australia is about the size of the continental US and barren, with town few and far between.
3 - you can use google to enter two points and it will tell you how far it is driving etc. If you're going to drive from Cairns to Sydney, I'd think you'd want to stop along the way and see the sights, not simply drive. If all you're going to do is drive, I'd say fly instead.
4 - time of year depends on your dive destinations and wet season if you're going to drive along the top. What do you want to see? We dive all year round here on Ningaloo and it's awesome; we get a variety of seasonal creatures so if they are on your list, you'll need to plan for those months.
5 - you say you don't care about the heat, but you and your car will if you're driving north of me or inland at all in our summer the heat here is incomparable.

You have a few years, so hit the net and start narrowing things down and looking at details of distances and climate etc. It'll be an awesome trip!

 

[vladimir]

Australia has some great diving, but it's not on the Great Barrier Reef, for the most part. I call it the Good Barrier Reef. If I had time for that trip I'd talk to Alcina (above) a lot about Ningaloo, and I'd arrange a liveaboard (and a flight) to the Coral Sea (I like Mike Ball). You could probably do that within your $10K budget, and use the leftover $500 to drive around British Columbia in a camper.

 

[Darnold9999]

Did a similar trip a few years back. (about 8) Decided to skip the drive from Cairns to Brisbane and fly, then drive from Brisbane to Sydney. As someone else said it is a long drive and the roads are not great and in iur view not a lot to see in comparison to further south. Did a couple of trips out to the Barrier Reef and then a 3 day liveaboard with Mike Ball From Code Hole south. All in cost was about double your budget for two people, but our flights were not part of the budget as we went on points and only one of us dove.

Fabulous trip, but in hindsight I would change a couple of things. First skip the daytrip diving from Cairns and do a liveaboard, as suggested above the Barrier Reef that you can do as a day trip from Cairns is not very good. I did no diving on the dive from Brisbane south and would in retrospect have liked to do more. We rented a car and stayed in hotels - an RV might be better we did not consider it.

Be aware that you can't dive the Barrier Reef as a shore dive, you need a boat and around Cairns the trip is over an hour on a very fast boat.

Also as mentioned before Australia is HUGE, a lot like Canada from that perspective. You can only visit a small part of it in a month and driving 8 hours a day really isn't seeing the country.

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

You can get some very cheap domestic fares from Brisbane to vairns and this will be less than fuel. Use the time to do a live aboard course and maybe one of the overnight trip suggested above. Or some land tours.
However lots of great stops on the way up, but don't under estimate how big this place is and how long it will take you to drive it. many do

 

[swimmer_spe]

I moved from one coast of Canada to the other. My employer gave me 12 days to do it in. At 6000 km, I still had plenty of time to enjoy the sites.

Checking how far Highway 1 in Australia is, I do not feel that would be my trip.

Sydney is about 2700 km via Brisbane, as per Google Maps.

So, driving straight for 8 hours a day, That would be 5 days.

I do plan on doing a live aboard.

The reason I am thinking of driving instead of flying is I do not want to waste time on waiting to fly.

So, drive a couple hundred km, park, and dive, and continue.

From Cairns to Brisbane, what is the posted speed limit? Can you travel at that speed?

From Brisbane south, what is the speed limit?

I am figuring 80km/hr.

What about dive sites?

I know here, I can tell you all of them. I also can tell you which are the ones you need to dive.

 

[Tortuga68]

I know here, I can tell you all of them. I also can tell you which are the ones you need to dive.

Depends what you like, which I don't think you shared yet

 

[swimmer_spe]

I want to see variety of marine life. Any really cool wrecks Any interesting geological features (narrow deep valleys, etc)

 

[alcina]

I don't understand the desire to drive 8 hours a day. If you're going to do that, even standing in the damn airport lines and flying will give you more time to DO things at destinations. If I were going to drive, I'd only drive a short distance each day and spend hours or the whole day, depending, at the things to do and see. But whatever floats your boat, it's your dream holiday.

I know here, I can tell you all of them.

hehehe, you haven't even begun to dive yet!! There's always something cool to see on a dive site, and you might just stumble onto a new one

You haven't really narrowed down what your desired must see list is, so it seems you will be happy to just go and enjoy. Don't stress about what dive sites, just go with the flow and the charter companies will drop you in the best water at the time. Further south, you'll likely want a couple of days at Southwest Rocks/Fish Rock Cave. Liveaboard on the Great Barrier I'd say head out as far as you can. Plenty of great diving on the East Coast - try to find some local groups and start interacting with them. WA has a great FB photo group and I'd think there would be ones for areas on the East Coast, too.

If you have specific animals such as whale sharks, grey nurses, minke whales, sea dragons etc we might be able to provide more detailed info and simple google searches will help with times of years and most productive areas to maximise your chances.

There's plenty of cave diving around the traps, if you are properly trained before you arrive (or if you want to do some training here). Not a huge number of wrecks, but there are a few in WA and I'm sure the other coasters will chime in for what's what there.