The Long Way Euround – Day 5: Gippsland and Monaro Drive

Day five of the Long Way Euround takes us back towards Sydney via Gippsland and the Monaro region of southern NSW.   After an action packed day on Day 4, today was a little more relaxed, but we still had a museum to visit and over 600km of driving to do. As this is the penultimate day of the trip, we are on our way back to Sydney.

We started early in eastern Melbourne with some car repairs on the 500SL.   Even after tightening the hoses yesterday, it was still leaking power steering fluid.  We finally found out why.   The second generation cars had an additional spoiler at the front.   This had been attached with screws.  One of the screws was touching the cooler line for the power steering.  Every time the spoiler flexed over a bump, the screw would rub against the line.  After years of doing that, it had finally worn a hole.   The temporary solution was to cut a section of hose and cable tie it to the line to cover the ‘wound’.   This stanched the bleeding at least until the end of the trip.

The 380SEC continued to require a bypass for the fuel pump relay, but the owner of that car is getting his process down to get it restarted when needed.  It still does not like to idle for long periods of time, but runs very well when on the open road.   The bypass must have a lot of current going through it, as the connections are starting to melt a little.   It hadn’t blown the 25 amp fuse, but that has started to melt too.   This seems more current than I would expect a Bosch fuel pump to draw and may be part of the issue.

My car started out ok, but the wheel bearing noise became quite bad as we drove out of Melbourne.   So bad, that I phoned a friend in the MBCV to find contacts for mechanics in the Mornington Peninsula area.   At this point I was convinced I would have to leave the car in Melbourne.

However, being a Sydney car, the threat of staying in Melbourne for a few more weeks was enough to get the wheel bearing to quieten down, and so since It was behaving itself, we continued.  It seems to very much dislike city driving with turns and stop/start, but tolerate quite well cruising at 90km/h.

After we left Melbourne, we hugged the coast as we drove through Gippsland.  It was quite a windy and rainy day today, so there was quite a swell out on the ocean as we drove past.   The country was lush and green and there was a lot of cattle farming.

Our first stop was Inverloch where we sampled another local bakery called Slice of Heaven.   The pies were very good, and the Vanilla slice was the best I’ve sampled on the trip.   It was also Inverloch were I made the decision to keep going with the 450SLC.

Even in the rain the roads were quite good and we cruised along at a fairly leisurely pace.   Since I was trying to be gentle on my car, I returned the best fuel economy figures since I purchased it, all those years ago – 13.1 liters per 100kms.

Our next stop was Maffra, where we visited the Gippsland Vehicle Collection.   This is a nice museum with a rotating collection.   As of October 2024, they have 20th century sports cars on display.  I’ve covered the museum separately.

After the museum, we had lunch at the Maffra bakery.  We first looked at a fish and chip shop that was heavily advertised, but didn’t take our fancy.   The pies were excellent at the bakery, and the Vanilla slice was good too.

We kept going, as I was keen not to do the Monaro highway at night in the rain.

After Maffra, we continued to Orbost via Lakes Entrance.   Going through Orbost brought back memories of limping the green 280CE into town on the first of these trips a couple of years ago.   We continued to cruise along, the scenery quite good and the roads good to drive on in this weather.

After Orbost farmland started to give way to the National Park.   The road was quite wet so we had to slow down.    We were all getting quite tired by now, from our busy day yesterday.  A few of us got some snacks to re-energize, and there were a couple of power naps by the side of the road.   The countryside became more hilly, and densely forested with very large trees.  The road was windy, and It would be far more fun to drive on had the weather been good.   This is the second time I’ve driven this route in bad weather.   At least I had light this time.

We turned off at the Monaro highway, which climbs fairly steeply through dense forest.   Even in the wet it was a good road to drive on, and in the dry it would be a great driving road.   As we got closer to our destination in Bombala, the forest suddenly gave way open country and sheep farms.    We finally cruised into Bombala at around 6:15PM, right on time.   Originally, we had planned to fuel up ready for the morning, but the main service station was closed, and the other one only carried diesel.

We checked into the local pub where we are staying and went for dinner, which was quite good.   Tomorrow is the final day of our trip.