HOME | NSW

by Al

Continued from Part One ...

We partied hard, with lots of red vino and a bit of a hang over at the end. But the effort was worth it. We left Sydney on a drizzly and cold day for the Blue Mountains. Nothing special, just find the quickest and easiest way out of the big city with nothing more than our noses to guide us, and a keen eye on missing those stupidly expensive toll roads.

We stayed up at the Blue Mountains for a few days with Meredith’s sister and family. They’re touring Australia for a year so it was great to catch up with them. Instead of using the tent we booked a cabin, which was just as well as the weather stayed pretty dreary for the whole time we were there, with an occasional sunny spell just to tease us. Most of the time the place was bloody cold, windy, and wet. On our first day of sight seeing we went out to the famous Three Sisters lookout and all we saw was a valley of dense grey cloud (riveting), well all the valleys on that day were grey. It did make us laugh and gave us a good excuse to go back to the pub for a meal or two, another glass of red and a coffee. The weather did fine up a bit later in the week so we were able to do a couple of walks and see lots of interesting things in the area before we left.

The roads in the Blue Mountains area are pretty good also, although at times they get a bit rough and busy. We couldn’t get over how big (and busy) the Blue Mountains was. It is a beautiful area and really big. I guess we’re too used to Queensland’s pocket sized national parks and state forests! When we go back some time we’ll see if it is a bit quieter off the beaten track – and to see if you can get off the beaten track.

Talking about tracks, we went for a ride on the Lithgow Zig Zag railway. The zig zag rail is an old steam line that is maintained by volunteers. The engineering in the track is quite amazing as it has lots of viaducts and zig zags up and down the hill. The engine pulls the train into a dead-end way station and then has to detach itself, scoot round the front on a service track and re-attach itself to the other end to pull the train to the next zig or zag.

We left the Blue Mountains for Bathurst with no real plan, just a ride down the hill and a visit to a coffee shop that we had enjoyed a few years ago when we were awfully frozen and bloody wet. The ride down past Lithgow was pretty much uneventful, unlike the previous experience where we froze our butts off. We popped into the Bathurst tourist information centre where a young woman new to the area assisted us. She didn’t know much but said she’d been out on a drive on the weekend to Sofala and Hill End and they were great little spots. That was good enough for us, so off we went.

Sofala is a magic spot just by the main road. There are lots of very old things, including buildings and people. We camped the night in a creek bed about 6kms out of town (it’s hard to beat free camping). That night we did a night walk for a few km’s and checked out the kangaroos and scenery in the moonlight. It was magic to be away from other people.

The next day we trekked out to Hill End. The gravel road out that way wasn’t too bad, with just the odd rough spot to test the riding skills. Hill End is just gorgeous and the dog that chauffeured us around was pretty good also. We pulled into the old hospital (now an information centre and museum) to check out what was around. The whole town has been setup as a living museum. Many buildings still exist from the 1870’s gold rush, and they add to the beauty of the place. It will be a big shame when roads into and out of the town are eventually bituminised. We did a quick walk around town and just on closing we called into the bakery for a cake and ended leaving with lots of free home-made pies for tea (bonus). That night we checked out the pub and a wedding next door in the hall.

After some chit chat around a camp fire with some people we met from Brissy we spent the rest of the night freezing our arse of trying to sleep in the tent. That morning we tripped into town for brekkie at the local coffee shop on our packed bikes While we were waiting for the tucker the local lads arrived on their all terrain scooters and did their thang. These were real lads (brought back memories of my childhood when living in the bush). They had been up all night partying, had a couple of hours shut eye, and were back into it by 8am with a pie and stubby.

We left Hill End and headed for Mudgee. The road out was quite rough in spots and lots of traffic that churned up the dust. Other than lots of paddocks, a few trees, and grape vines not much else to add. We stopped at Mudgee for lunch and then headed west for Wellington. The roads out that way tend to straighten a bit, but we found a nice piece that wound its way up through a valley. We stopped at Lake Burrendong. Why? Because we thought it might have water and a good place to camp. The campsite was deserted, the dunnies dirty, and it still cost $15.00 plus shower costs. The lake is basically empty so swimming was out of the question. The best thing about this place was that I was able to charge the phone battery and use the BBQ to cook tea.

We skipped Lake Burrendong the next day and headed for Parkes and a visit to the dish. We circumnavigated the dish on some gravel rounds. Our map doesn’t have a lot of detail so we missed a couple of short cuts. The dish is an amazing thing; it’s hard to believe it was the star of a movie, but an impressive piece of equipment all the same. We camped at the shire caravan at Parkes. The facilities at the caravan park are pretty good (especially the BBQ). I think the bloke who booked us in was a bit worried about the bikes.

From Parkes we wound our way down through central New South Wales toward Mt Kosciusko. We pulled into a few spots on the way to check out the odd national park, and some back roads between Forbes and Young and a good squiz of the bridges that cross the valley at Gundagai. We intended to stay at Weddin Mountains NP but when we got there the place had just recently been burnt out, there were lots of large ant holes in the dirt, and fresh water was an issue. So we didn’t stay but moved on to Tumut.

We arrived in Tumut and headed out to a camp spot next to a creek about 20kms out of town. The camping spot wasn’t the first one, where all the families were, but further out where the amenities are just enough for tough bikers like us. We stayed a couple of days and did a couple of walks in the area, one of which was part of the Hume and Hovel track. We sat in the creek to clean our arses and freshen up a bit. The dip into the creek was pretty quick (the water was like ice).

From Tumut we headed over Mt Kosciusko in some very cold weather. The bikes went well and loved the climb up the winding road. We checked out a few spots on the way, and pulled into an off shoot for a cuppa in the sun and took some photos of the old gold diggings. We found (I’m sure lots of others have also) an old cart where the wheel axle was embossed with 1901.

We continued on and down the other side of Mt Kosciusko. We should have stopped at Cooma but decided to continue on. It was getting cold even though it was mid afternoon. On the way out of Cooma, on our way to Braidwood, I heard this thump as my tank bag with camera and other bits fell off the back of the bike (Al’s). Although nothing was broken our luck wasn’t going to change that day.

We were trying to find a campsite that was supposed to be just before Braidwood. It was getting very dark, huge clouds were rolling in, lightning was flashing across the horizon, and the road was still dirt. Well, we never found the campsite and eventually ended up in Braidwood on Easter Thursday night, cold but still dry. Luckily we found a room at a motel that was quite happy to extract $100 dollars for the privilege (after the discount) of sleeping the night. The owners obviously have an interesting relationship. Don’t worry we made up for it by having our first shower for a few days (took a bit of time). We had tea down at the RSL club with a decent bottle of red. Well, we had paid more for one nights sleep in a bed that sank in the middle and had to listen to a stream of cars travelling from Canberra to Bateman’s Bay full of bloody pollies. Not impressed.

The next day we headed out from Braidwood (a very interesting historic town) toward Jervis Bay via Charleyong and Nerilga and through Morton National Park. Although the road wasn’t too bad up to the Morton National Park, when we were doing a bit of a climb through a pass we both dropped our bikes about half a meter apart. Luckily both bikes were doing 0 km/hr or close enough to it that nothing was broken. The road in general was pretty rough and on the Cali’s we were often forced to put our feet down and paddle across some newly laid rocky bits. In all it took us 4hrs to complete the 125kms from Braidwood to Jervis Bay. To top it off it started raining while we were still on the dirt. The rain made the clay surface very slick, and we were forced to drop the speed so we could negotiate the slippery bits and road works along the way. We did eventually get to Jervis Bay.

We were heading down the hill toward Jervis Bay and were stopped by a road block that wanted a lot of cash for each vehicle to enter. In addition all the campsites were fully booked so we thought, “Stuff it!” and did a U turn back up the hill and headed for Nowra and a Macca’s for a coffee break to decide what to do next.

At Macca’s we rang our friends in Sydney and checked that it would be OK to head up their way. All clear with our friends we headed north along the highway. Because of our early start we were doing OK for time and got into Sydney, wet and cold just on dark. On the way up we passed a few Easter Friday traffic jams, one of which was 10.5kms long (how’s that).  Luckily we were scooting along in the other direction, against the traffic.  Everything seems to bigger in NSW!

~v7~

Continued in Part Three ...

TOP

NSW Travel Notes