Our Gold Coast learner drivers can greatly benefit from a longer drive out to Canungra or over Mt Tamborine. This can be a very enjoyable experience, especially when their normal driving environment is bumper to bumper city traffic.
This can give them different skills like overtaking, looking out for wildlife and different road surfaces.
Overtaking on a country road can be much more challenging then just changing lanes and overtaking on our M1. Hopefully they don’t have to do this the first time on their own on their P’s with their friends in the back. Sit back and watch as they will try to overtake for the first time in 5th and wonder why they have no power to back them up! This can be very scary for the passengers and the driver.
We often forget that its not just other cars we need to keep an eye on as live stock straying onto the road can be an issue if your doing the posted speed around a bend.
Our roads on the Gold Coast can be quite good compared to those only 30 minutes further out where country roads can be much narrower and with only a very small shoulder there isn’t much room for error when taking your eyes off the road to enjoy the view.
Going down Mt Tamborine can also be a nervous experience if not gearing down or just leaving it in D giving the brakes a work out. A lot of learners are even unaware they can even control the gears in an auto.
So try and take some time out one weekend to pass on some tips and advise so our learners don’t have to do this for the first time on their own.
We often do these lessons with a 2 hour booking and find even though its not part of the test it is quite often a valuable experience.