A perfect piece of flowing tarmac in the middle of nowhere? Sounds almost too good to be true - so here's how to get there!
Drive screens on Channel 9 at 10 am each Sunday. The full episode will be available to video on 9Now after it airs.
Discovering our hidden stretch of driving bliss requires a reasonable adventure out of Melbourne.
Take the Maroondah Highway from town, through Healesville and the Black Spur (a brilliant drive in its own right) and head for Marysville on the C512.
From here, continue along the C512 past the turnoff to Lake Mountain (where the road changes to the C513) to the intersection at Cumberland Junction on the Reefton Spur, or C511.
The road changes from tarmac to gravel about 1km in, and then you have a 30km stretch of graded but unsealed road along the C511 toward Woods Point. The road is in pretty good condition, and if you take it easy there is no need for a four-wheel drive.
Allow about 2.5hrs from Melbourne to this point.
You can’t miss the transfer from gravel to tarmac, as the change will trade your jittery and noisy cabin for a smooth and quiet one. The surrounding forest opens into a clearing and there is a large gravel area if you wish to stop to collect your thoughts before what comes next.
The paved section runs for exactly 7km and features flowing curves and gentle undulations.
The speed limit is 100km/h, but we’d suggest keeping things around the 80km/h mark as some of the corners are quite tight and blind, and you may meet a logging truck coming the other way.
Things end as abruptly as they began with the road returning to gravel in ‘The Oaks’, which is the original site of the Upper Thompson township.
There is a turnoff toward Thompson itself, but this is also unsealed, leaving our brilliant stretch of road the only paved tarmac for miles.
You can continue on through Matlock and Woods Point, which in turn open up other possibilities for an adventure deeper into the high-country forests or back toward civilisation around the southern edge of Lake Eildon.
But that’s a story for another day…
Google maps link for this route (From Melbourne)
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