This video follows the spectacular southbound ride along Sydney-Newcastle Freeway, from the Mooney Mooney Bridge, down to the Hawkesbury River and beyond.
+Freewayjim : Yeah, the camcorder doesn't really do the freeway justice. So much fun...New South Wales sure had their hands full, constructing this freeway. Thanks for watching, dude!
I drive this freeway to work from the Central Coast where this video started in to Sydney. It's a great freeway except unlike US cities it terminates at the outskirts. Good job Brent.
+leroyybrown : It sure will be nice, when the NorthConnex tunnel to link together the M2 Hills Motorway and Sydney-Newcastle Freeway, opens to traffic in 2019!
This freeway is just wicked! :) 3:45 Interesting way to illustrate an exit! Much more explanatory than the duds of advanced exit signs you see in the us; all they give you is a lousy exit tab and sometimes not even then!
Most definitely an engineering marvel. I recommend checking out the Mooney Mooney Bridge on wikipedia (the one featured in the beginning of this video). It's over 300 feet high.
Beautiful scenery out there! Looks different from the landscape here in the USA. I still want to visit Australia someday in the future. I have a few friends who live there. :-)
+wawonas : Thanks! You're in a semi-tropical landscape, where this freeway goes through, so you definitely do see some trees that you would expect to find in more tropical areas...along with the accompanying humidity.
Hey there Myeasha! I actually did a video, driving into the heart of Sydney, which includes footage of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I'll provide the direct RU-vid link to the video right now for your convenience. In the future, I'll be showcasing a downtown Sydney freeway video. Anyway, link to the Sydney video is below. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3uShcm7xjq8.html
I've never been to Australia but it seems like everything about the country is pretty similar to the US except them using the British system and different accent.
+Tat Hui : Yeah...to be honest, I couldn't really tell the difference between the US and Australia during my first 48 hours. Felt like I flew for 15 hours in the air and landed back in the US, lol. The differences are really social and cultural, which you start picking up on, although I find that Aussie's tend to have more in common with Californians, than Californians do with folks out in the Midwest or east coast. As for the driving itself, yeah, pretty much everything is the same...same types of signs, the fonts on the signs (Highway Gothic font)...just that you can't turn left on red, unless signs specifically state that you can, and from what I later learned...I guess U-Turns at traffic lights are also illegal, unless signed otherwise. Thanks for watching!
+brunoignaciogi : Hey there. I've driven about 13,000 kilometers in Canada, and another 2,000 in Mexico, so using the metric system is easy for me...it also helped that metric was taught, alongside the imperial system while I was growing up in grade school.
When I first drove this section of this freeway I was going North. It was my first time not only driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car.....................but............. in the United States if you are on a multiple lane road and if you are the slow driver, you stay in the far right hand lane. Being a tourist I wanted to drive slower than the rest of the traffic so I stayed in the right hand lane on this freeway. I got lots of honks from people and finally I realized that all of the trucks going up the hills were in the left lane. I had my sister look in our tourist book and she found a section on driving that said slow traffic stays in the left lane.
Intersting question If I may please, here is the U.S.A. on our speedometers in our vehicles have the numbers for the MPH's they are always the biggest numbers with the KPH's in smaller size, since over there it 's totally the opposite, that must mean the speedometers in your vehicles over these must be the opposite as well with the bigger number being the KPH's, is this correct?????
+Andrew Silva That is correct. In Canada, where our speed limits are metric, speedometers list the speeds in km/h larger on the outside, while the corresponding speeds in mph are displayed on the inside and are smaller.
+Andrew Silva : Yup. If you buy a new vehicle in a country that uses kilometres, those will be featured on top of the circular speedometer gauge, with speeds in MPH listed on the inside. To be honest, I didn't see MPH listed at all on the speedometer in my Toyota Corolla hatchback rental. It's probably because Toyota doesn't expect vehicles sold in Australia to ever leave the mainland, so MPH would never be a necessity.
+Andrew Silva All the vehicles I've ever been in here in Australia have had the speedometer in KM/H only ( lived in Australia 27 years). I guess some pre-1970s vehicles may have MPH however.
Awesome man. Love seeing new landscapes I haven't seen before. Interestingly it looks like this freeway ends in surface streets before it reaches downtown Sydney or intersects another freeway. (M2). I wonder if they have plans to extend it at some point?
+PeteTheChopp : Yup...construction is currently underway to fill in the missing gap between the 2 routes you just mentioned, via a tunnel underneath Pennant Hills Drive/Cumberland Highway (Route A28). Construction should wrap up in 2019. Going to save motorists up to 15 minutes of travel time during peak hours, and will help significantly reduce delays on Pennant Hills drive as well! If you want details, check out the NorthConnex tunnel project, at northconnex.com.au/
+FreewayBrent Awesome. Thanks for the info! I would love to see Australia eventually have freeways that connect all the way from Perth to Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney to Brisbane.
+PeteTheChopp : No problem! VicRoads and South Australia is actually collaborating on converting the existing Western Highway/Dukes Highway into 4 lane sections, parts of them being to freeway status. It's a huge undertaking, and one that isn't cheap. So far, VicRoads has duplicated the section between Ballarat, and Beaufort, while another 75 kilometers are being widened, all the way out to Stawell. They're also building a few freeway bypasses as well. South Australia is converting existing 2 lane sections of highway and adding passing lanes. There are longer-term plans to make the whole thing 4 lanes divided highway/freeway, out toward Adelaide. As for building a freeway between Adelaide and Perth, it'll never happen. There's virtually no traffic out there..most people fly, as it's just way too far and desolate, in between the 2 cities. Finally...by 2019, the entire Pacific Highway/Motorway between Sydney and Brisbane will be at least 4 lanes, divided highway for its entire 600 mile length. Most of it will be of freeway standard. Basically, there won't be a single traffic light between the 2 cities.
+Joe Maldonado: I sure did! I have many more videos to work on (currently working on video #3. I released a video late last month, showcasing the awesome drive across the West Gate Bridge & West Gate Freeway into the heart of Melbourne, in case you want to check it out. I'll provide you the direct link here. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1N06_VPb19g.html
Thanks! To be honest, I picked it up pretty much as soon as I picked up the rental car and made my first turn out of the driveway. Probably helped a lot that the lane markings and signage are virtually identical to the US and Canada.
Great ride Brent! I have always wanted to visit Australia! I'm glad you were able to. Glad the weather for the trip was mostly in your favor! Looking forward to more! Mark in Iowa.
+Mark Smith : Thanks! I'll be heading back out there in April...my g/f lives in Sydney. Later in the year, we'll do the drive up to Brisbane...I plan on grabbing a lot more footage on that trip.
FreewayBrent That's great Brent! Looking forward to more from "down under"! Just as we are beginning to warm up here in "the States" then! Safe travel back down when you do go! Always appreciate your videos! Mark.
+InterstateJD Thanks, dude! I dunno if you got a chance to see the first Australia video, showcasing the West Gate Bridge & West Gate Freeway into Melbourne, but that's one spectacular ride as well.
Oh yeah, that's an exciting drive. The embellishments seen along some of the freeways such as West Gate or Citylink set them apart from traditional US freeway architecture, and of course the Melbourne skyline views are pretty sweet too. That was a good video!
Mooney Mooney Bridge is 1500 ft long and 250 ft drop. The windsocks are to warn caravanners if the wind gets strong enough to blow them off the bridge. Semis are OK cos of the weight of the truck, but there's not much to hold a caravan down.
+PelicanGuy : Thank you, sir! It is, indeed, an awesome drive...the 7% grade down toward the Mooney Mooney Bridge is especially thrilling. Did you get a chance to check out my other Australia video (so far), showcasing the West Gate Bridge & Freeway in Melbourne? That's now on my top 10 favorites list for urban freeways.
I totally missed your comment until now. Thanks for watching! I might be driving that coastal route in September, when I come back to visit for 2 weeks.
What a gorgeous journey this was. I love the vegetation, and the rock faces: AMAZING! I enjoyed seeing the heavy truck traffic having to work on that road, you could definitely tell some of those grades were incredibly steep. Nice video!
Thanks! Sorry I missed your comment; trying to catch up on at least some of the comments now. Yeah, it's a fantastic drive. A few of the grades are 6-7%...the Mooney Mooney Bridge, which I drove over in the beginning of the video, is over 300 feet in height. Definitely a must-see freeway, if you ever visit Sydney.
Driven the M1 Pacific Freeway up to Brisbane many times, and this part of the road is the best. (although hexham through to Coffs is also pretty good now aswell.). It is funny because this freeway seems to take not long going up north and forever to come back to Sydney. ALSO, we always stop on the good ol Cafe F3 servos on the way up, near Ourimbah.
Funny you mention Brisbane...I just drove up to Brisbane for the first time on Tuesday, and just got back into Sydney from Brisbane and vicinity about 30 minutes ago. Flying back home to San Francisco tomorrow morning. The upgraded sections of the Pacific Highway are wonderful...many other sections are currently under construction to convert the old 2 lane highway to a modern freeway. I grabbed a bunch of new footage from Brisbane and the Gold Coast area...can't wait to start working on the new videos. Thanks for dropping by and commenting!
Hey FreewayBrent, nice video! If you want a good freeway to drive on, try the hume highway that heads down to Melbourne from Sydney. You probably already know about this though ha ha!
Hey there! Yup, I sure do know about that route all too well, after having driven it from Sydney to Melbourne and back over the course of a week, back in January of this year.
+CptSchmidt : The first of what will probably be a number of trips! I'm in a committed relationship with a gal who lives in Sydney. I released a video from Melbourne about 2 weeks ago, if you want to check that one out as well.
+FreewayBrent I'll check it out, and congratulations :) It would be pretty cool if you did a meet up with GoJo Geoff while you're over there (might be hard though, I know Melbourne isn't exactly close to Sydney).
+NewTestmentistheway us : Thank you! Did you happen to check out my newest video, showcasing the ride into Sydney? If not, here's the video link. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3uShcm7xjq8.html
+tall32guy : Hey there. To be honest...it did feel slightly awkward at first, but it wasn't one bit confusing. My g/f from Sydney remarked being surprised at how quickly I picked up driving on the left. Did you happen to watch my brand new video, of the ride into Sydney? Includes the Sydney Harbour Bridge. If not, here's the video link. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3uShcm7xjq8.html
lol...yes. Long-distance, but it's working out quite well. I'm going back there in a couple of months, and then she's coming here in July for 2-3 weeks.
+Sam Smith : Hey there! Glad you enjoyed. Australia's freeways look pretty much like American ones; just that you're on the other side of the road, lol. Most former BritishAnyway, you'd probably really enjoy my Sydney driving video that I released last month. Here's the direct link. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3uShcm7xjq8.html
FreewayBrent thank you for the link! I LOVED the Sydney harbour bridge :D and exactly, how did you GET the road signs? If you used a website or a app to make the signs please give me a link, becuase I'm interested of roads and I have a Real driving simulator game going on so yea. Anyways I subbed u
+Sam Smith : Thanks! The signs were created in paint.net and MS Powerpoint, although a few logos were copied and pasted from the NSW government highway sign manual. Finally, I did a Melbourne video as well...thought you might want to watch that as well. The West Gate Bridge and West Gate Freeway into the heart of Melbourne. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1N06_VPb19g.html
must be really cool to drive on the left side, like in Australia the uk Japan (not sure about Ireland) and other places.. it was a really awesome cool freeway through the mountains.
The "novelty" of driving on the left is indeed pretty cool. However, even though I didn't have any trouble with picking up driving on the left hand side of the road, I still prefer driving on the right...I'm right-handed, so picking things up like my coffee or iPod when the car is stationary at a light, is a bit trickier with my left hand...lol. I guess I'm just nit-picking here.
+FreewayBrent I'm left handed so I guess whenever I drive I'll suck be case I live where one drives on the right. I don't think it'd trouble driving on the left after a while of getting used to it, but it's true one usually picks up things with the rigjt hand whilst driving.. but I hadn't realised that. so it may be trouble when I'm older. unless I drive in places like Australia, UK Japan which drive on left
+Chris Sellick : Thanks! Did you get a chance to check out my "Driving Into Sydney" video, showcasing the Tullamarine Freeway and Sydney Harbour Bridge? Also uploaded a West Gate Bridge & Freeway video from Melbourne, earlier this year.
Yes,I saw it.These driving videos are ideal.I've subscribed to your videos. I like the high speed too,they are really clear quality.Show the world how its done.You've got a good thing going on there.
Ahh, okay. Yeah, most of my video releases have been from Melbourne. If you want to watch, my favorite ride there is the West Gate Bridge & West Gate Freeway. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1N06_VPb19g.html
Thanks! Hope you've been enjoying the rest of my Australian series of videos...latest one was the Monash Freeway in Melbourne, in case you haven't checked it out yet.
+tigerwesti1 : Thank you! Just released a brand new video of the drive into Sydney, along the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Warringah Freeway, and more. Here's the video link. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3uShcm7xjq8.html
Nah, not really. I have to deal with the same thing, regarding deer bolting straight for the freeway. There's literally thousands of them nearby, and dozens of them are hit every year along Interstate 280 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
