Transferring a car from Melbourne to Canberra

I got lucky, and I was chosen to transfer a car from Melbourne to Canberra. I got extra lucky, as the company gave me 3 days to do so. The drive from Melbourne to Canberra takes only around 6 hours and 45 minutes, so I had plenty of time to see the sights on the way.

Actually, in 2018 I have already done this journey nearly twice. First time after my arrival with three other backpackers, we spent almost a week on the way to Sydney and visited Canberra as well. We drove quite a lot on the coast and did some trips to the mountains as well. Later in 2018 I went to the coast again with two of my Finnish friends, so this time I wanted to make sure I go somewhere a little bit new.

Back to transferring a car. Before arriving to Australia for the second time, my friend in Australia told me about a site transfercars.com.au. From the website you can see what rental companies offer cars to be transferred to other cities really cheaply. There are other sites as well - for example Apollo campers has their own transfer car site. Usually you get the car basically free (I paid $3 dollars for 3 days), and in some cases you can buy extra days with a little bit more money. Also, some companies reimburse parts of the gas as well but it all depends on the offer.

The catch is, that you usually have to drive quite fast, so there is no time to do any sight seeing. This time, as there are not many backpackers trying to get to Canberra, I got 3 whole days to transfer the car there, which was amazing, BUT I didn't get to know what kind of a car it was before picking it up.

Again, I got really lucky, as it was a bigger Toyota RAV4 2wd drive. First thing, after picking up the car, I drove to a close by Kmart and bought a sleeping bag and a mattress as my plan was to spend the nights in the car. And a nice shirt as well. I needed one more warm shirt... I also went to get some dinner and snacks and breakfast for the upcoming days and then started my drive.

I spent the first hours stuck in traffic on the highway near Melbourne because of an accident, but after I got away from the cityscape, I made my way easily to Yarra Ranges National Park. It started to be sunset already, so I planned to just find a good camping spot and sleep well and wake up early in the morning to do lots of exploring.

As in 2018, I had downloaded an app called WikiCamps. It shows all the rest stops and camping sites around Australia and New Zealand and you can also filter them according to what you want there to be. Some camping sites might cost something, some only have toilets, some might offer showers and fresh water etc.

A picture of my first camping site.

Me and my rav4 climbed up all the way to Lake Mountain Alpine Resort parking lot. I saw from the app that the reviews were really good, but what I didn't come to think was that as the resort is a ski resort, and it is already autumn, the air was quite cold. It was around 7.30PM when I arrived there, and the temperature was around 8C. I had chosen a sleeping bag that was meant for minimum of 8C, so I knew I might be a little cold in the night.

Nevermind, I decided to stay. There was no one else - only me in the middle of the night on top of the mountain on a parking lot. The Alpine Resort parking spots were free to use for camping and over night stays and the resort left all their toilet and shower doors open for the nightly visitors as well, which was amazing. Warm and clean toilets and showers free to use!

During the night I woke up a couple of times because I felt cold. I got up, added some layers and got back to sleep. One time I laid awake for a moment and was wondering if I should feel scared or not. I was alone in a car in a place with no other people for many miles. On the other hand, that is exactly why I didn't feel scared. There actually was no one else, and I got to sleep calmly and fearlessly. If there would be other people staying at the camp site, I might be more worried and scared - I am not afraid of animals or the darkness but sometimes other people.

In the morning I woke up around 7AM, still no one at the site. Got myself ready and climbed to the summit of Lake Mountain. I was hungry, but I had some breakfast in the car. After returning from the short hike, I noticed many new cars. It was 8.30AM and the resort workers had arrived to open up the cafe and mountain bike rental office.

I decided to go for breakfast in the cafe instead of eating it in the car. The people working at the resort were extremely nice, and we had a chat about the night. They offered me a job after hearing that I had spent the night in the car - winter season was arriving and they were getting busier and needed helping hands who would live at the ski resort. I said I would consider it.

After breakfast I continued walking. There were many ski routes that now were open for walking and bicycling. I thought I would take a quick small walk and return to the car, but as I kept walking, I kept deciding to 'walk just a little bit further, what is around that corner...'. In the end I walked a total of 9km before 11.30AM.

It was time to head down the mountain, and to the route I had planned on driving already the day before but ran out of time. Lady Talbot Drive started just 25 minutes away from the resort. It was a small road that went up the hills and had many stops on the way. As my car wasn't a 4WD, I could only drive up to a certain point, until I needed to turn back to avoid being stuck in the roads.

I stopped twice on the way. First to take a 2km walk to the Keppel Falls and second to see the Taggerty River Cascades. The road went on, but I also didn't have anymore time, as I had a lot of driving to do, so I headed down the mountain.

On the drive down I reached Reefton Lookout. It was amazing. I stopped there with a local motorcyclist who told me that these kinds of days make Melbourne and surroundings really worth living in. The sun was shining and the views were stunning. I did still wonder, that right now it felt like these kinds of days were maybe only once a week, since otherwise the weather had been cold and rainy. I think i was so dazzeled by the scenery that I ended up not taking a picture of it.

Next stop, a short walk in the Rainforest Gallery and then I drove all the way to Warragul to have dinner with my friend Teyu who was working on a farm nearby.

After some grocery shopping and dinner, I headed out to find a good spot for the night. I ended up driving almost 2 hours to Providence Ponds rest area, which was just a rest stop for drivers next to the highway. It was almost midnight when I arrived and there were a couple of other cars as well. The rest stop had toilets with a few spiders in them, but it was manageable.

Didn't sleep well during the night, so wake up early and started to drive. I hadn't planned much, what to do on the road trip, but realised that I had spent way too much time in Yarra, and since I wasn't using the northern high way, the drive from the rest stop to Canberra would still take around 5,5 hours and I had 1 night left.

So I started driving and decided to just stop if there were sings for attractions or sites. I drove a couple of hours and started to feel so sleepy that I just stopped on another highway rest stop and slept for a couple of hours more. I felt refreshed after the nap and continued my way until I saw a sign for McKenzie River Rainforest Walk.

It wasn't a long walk, around 1,5 km, but it was nice to get to stretch my feet a little bit. The rainforest route looked a bit rough because of the wind and rain on the area, but at the same time it was very lush and green with two suspension bridges on the way.

My original plan, that I made up on the way, was to drive to this small pub near the highway that had great ratings for a rest stop. I could stay there for the night, enjoy some dinner at the pub and then continue in the morning. But I was way too early. I reached the pub already around 4.45Pm and didn't want to stop so early. As I had some energy in me, I decided to keep on driving all the way to Canberra and Namagdi National Park.

I went for a short evening stroll at Namadgi National Park south of Canberra and then headed to the city to see it from the Mount Ainslie Lookout during sunset. Canberra looked quite nice! The sun painted the city with purple.

Then it was time to have dinner in the city centre. It was hectic, there were so many cars looking for parking spots that I took around 20 minutes to find one. It was completely worth it, as the local Korean restaurants dish was so delicious and warm. The restaurant was full, so I enjoyed the spicy and hot dish outside in the cool air.

Again, after some grocery shopping and filling up the tank, I headed north to Anderson VC Rest Area next to Lake George. I arrived around 9PM, so it was already dark. There were a few other cars and campers around, but everyone seemed to be sleeping already. This was one of the rest stops that I had reception, so I was ready to get into my sleeping bag and watch some Netflix. As it happens, I probably watched around 10 minutes before I fell asleep.

In the morning I woke up relaxed and drove back to Canberra to return the car. I enjoyed every minute of this short roadtrip and hopefully I can do it again in the future. Maybe with a little less driving and more hiking and roaming in the nature.