Paddy's River/Cotter Rd - Canberra

taipan168 · Postby **taipan168** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 2:10 pm

Visited Canberra for a weekend last month and whilst the other half was catching up with a friend for coffee, I came across the Paddy's River Rd drive via a Google search - also known as Tourist Drive 5.

Don't have any pictures unfortunately, but it was a really nice top-down drive, mostly 100km/h with a mix of some twisties, ups and downs and longer sweepers. Starts just off the Tuggeranong Parkway, goes up through Stromlo, past the CSIRO observatory, down to Tharwa then back into civilisation via the Monaro Hwy. Took about an hour all up and was mostly traffic-free other than quite a few cyclists.

Wouldn't go out of my way to do the drive if I wasn't already in Canberra, but for anybody already there with a bit of time to kill it was good fun.

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 2:56 pm

I was looking at that same route on my phone last time we visited my sister there, but didn't get time to check it out. Will give it a go next time :-)

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MX593 · Postby **MX593** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 3:47 pm

I do it often as the start is only a 10 minute drive from home.
Watch out for bicycles, slow drivers, deep pot holes and some big bumps. Low MX5s can bottom out.
I've never seen a policeman and it's a popular early morning run (fang) for local sport bikes and MX5s.
The no through roads on the mountain side are good value too. Corin Dam Road and Honeysuckle Creek Road are great hill climbs and some nice picnic spots too.
I should add to keep an eye out for roos too. As with most runs around Canberra, they can be thick at sunup/sundown but can pop-up at any time of day.