We drive to Brisbane from Melbourne regularly. What we've found works : leave really early (pre-dawn) and leave child asleep / in night nappy as long as possible. Have drinks ready to go with food as soon as possible. Stuff like cut-up apple, dried fruits etc that take a while to eat.
You may hate McDonalds, but seriously, their playgrounds are about 2 hours apart on most major highways. Even if you just grab a coffee there, take the time to stop & play. Plus if you go for the kids' meal (water / apple pieces & nuggets work best for us) then they are great to eat on the drive, and there's a toy there to play with. Something like a magnadoodle is great to draw with - it's big and hard to drop, everything's attached to it. We only got a DVD player for the last trip when Pip was 2 yrs 9 months. Even that becomes "white noise" after a while.
Good luck, and I'm so sorry to hear about your grandfather.
Thanks for all your posts i ended up having to stop over at a hotel for the night. I left at 6pm hoping he would sleep the whole trip we made it 3/4 of the way before he had a meltdown and it just wasn't worth making him go any further, but it did break the bank! The way home was much easier I left at 1 in the arvo and made it home.
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