Day 12 - Wollongong - Sydney

Thursday 18th February 2010

I left Wollongong about 9am after breakfast, heading north along the excellent system of bike paths in the area:



Above is the coastal bike path from Wollongong. The Port Kembla steelworks is in the background.

The bike path follows the seafront for about 15kms, ending just beyond Thirroul. It’s well surfaced all the way and passes by some beautiful beaches:

However after Thirroul the path finishes and I was back on the road, beginning a steep ascent towards Bald Hill summit. It was a slog to get up to the top but the view was fantastic:

At this summit there’s a memorial to Lawrence Hargrave, an aviation pioneer who did many experiments with gliders from there:

The route continues through the Royal National Park, which for the next 10kms or so was dense forest:

Then there was another very steep ascent until another summit is reached, and the road continues for a while fairly flat. From here the skyscrapers of Sydney became visible in the distance even though they were still some 50kms away:

Eventually there was a very steep descent leading down to Bundeena. I had a quick sandwich here while waiting for the ferry over to Cronulla:

The ferry ride lasted about 15 minutes and once in Cronulla I had to make my way into the centre of Sydney, through various suburbs, without a proper map. I took a stupid wrong turn at Captain Cook Drive and wasted about half an hour going 7km the wrong way and having to retrace my route again when I realised my mistake. Then I saw signs to the city bike path which was actually quite well signposted all the way into town. It took me over Captain Cook Bridge:

…past the airport:

Then the route led up Anzac Parade and into Oxford Street where the Sydney Tower started to loom large ahead:

Within minutes I had arrived outside the Queen Victoria Building, the iconic landmark in the centre of Sydney:

To get back to my friends’ house where I’m staying I had to ride over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, along the bike path:

And that was the end of the journey. Distance covered today, including the accidental detour, was 125kms, and the total for the whole trip from Melbourne was 1340kms, covered in 12 days giving an average daily distance of 111kms. I had no punctures or any other mechanical problems apart from wearing out a set of brake blocks. And no injuries to myself either!

So - a thoroughly successful and enjoyable trip, mostly with good weather apart from a couple of wet days. Certainly a much tougher route than the Sydney-Brisbane ride I did last year. I hope to do another big ride in Australia next year; the Lonely Planet guide has plenty more to choose from.

Thanks for reading!
　

Day 11 - Woolamia - Woolongong

Wednesday 17th February 2010


I got up at 7.30 and went with Chris and Rebecca into Huskisson for a tasty breakfast of pancakes and strawberries. It was a beautiful sunny day, already getting warm. We took this photo by the bay there:

Huskisson’s a pleasant place but there were no old buildings left, the architecture isn‘t very interesting.. After breakfast I came back to look around Chris’s garden and admire his tree house:

I was on the road again by about 10 am. After 10km I was back on the Princes Highway again. In this section, the hard shoulder was only a few inches wide which made it rather unsafe for cycling, in view of the speed of the passing traffic:

After about 20kms I passed through Nowra and crossed the bridge over the Shoalhaven River:

The route then turned off the highway to follow the course of the Shoalhaven River east towards the coast, about 15kms. Along this road I was able to visit 2 excellent wineries and enjoy tastings there. The first one, the Two Figs winery, was high up on a peak which afforded superb views in either direction, towards the coast and back towards Nowra:

…so it was a bit of a trek to get up there, but worth the effort:

The other winery I visited, a bit further along, was called the Coolangatta winery which also supplied me with tastings of some very enjoyable wines. By this time I’d had quite a lot of alcohol, and needed some food. The road for the next few kms was nice and shady which was very welcome as it was getting very hot by now.

I stopped off for a steak sandwich at Gerroa. There were some great view to be had of the beach there:

The route took me back onto the Princes Highway again for a while until I reached Kiama, where I turned off to take a look at the famous blow hole there - a hole in the rocks where the sea explodes through at intervals causing a large splash:

I had a brief look around the town as well, it’s an attractive place:

Then it was back on the highway again aqs far as Woolongong where I’d decided to spend the night. I arrived there about 8pm, having taken in the sunset over Lake Illawarra:

I checked into the aptly named Downtown Motel which was the first place I found near the centre, and went for a very tasty Thai meal at one of the many nearby restaurants.

Total distance today - 109kms. From here to Sydney is only another 80 or so kms so my journey will definitely end tomorrow!

Day 10 - Bodalla - Woolamia

Tuesday 16th February 2010

I was out of Bodalla just after 7am, pausing briefly to look at the view of the lake:
Although it was dry, the sky was dark with heavy clouds and it looked as though further rainfall was likely. I had arranged to spend this evening at the house of a friend, in Woolamia, near Huskisson, some 160kms away - I’d hoped at the time I made the arrangement to have been at least 50kms further on than I was - this was prior to yesterday’s delay.

I thought I’d see if I could make it all the way to Woolamia in a day - at least I’d give it my best shot. I didn’t know what the terrain ahead was like but I found soon enough that the Princes Highway was quite undulating, not flat at all:

The highway crossed frequently over creeks which were still very swollen with flood water:

And there were still a number of blocked side roads due to fallen trees:

I stopped off briefly for breakfast at Moruya, after about 20kms. Not much of interest there, it’s a typical small town with a highway running through it. By this time things had brightened up quite a lot and it looked like I might get a rain-free day.

I reached Bateman’s Bay (55kms) around 11am and immediately looked for a cycle shop as all my brakes were making horrible grating noises and were no longer very effective; I knew that the brake blocks needed replacing urgently, there were some huge hills on the route and I needed to be able to stop. When I removed the old blocks the metal was indeed showing through on all of them - it showed clearly how much braking I’d been doing over all the big hills since descending from the Alpine peaks:

Not a good idea to let your brake blocks get this worn before replacing them.

I stopped a while for lunch in Bateman’s Bay and took a quick look at the waterfront:

Then I was off again, still heading up the main Princes Highway road - there is no alternative at this stage of the route; fortunately the road wasn’t too busy. The next main town is Ulladulla (105km) which I reached around 4pm. This was a quite attractive place but I didn’t have time to stop for longer than a few minutes, for a quick drink and a photo of the bay:

About 20kms further on I passed through Milton which had a few historic buildings:

There were some steep climbs in the next 20kms, some of which were so long I had to walk the bike up them, however inevitably they led to some great downhills, one of which I reached a maximum speed of 68kph on - about 42mph which was fun!

I also ran into the first cycle tourists I’d seen on the whole journey - a couple of Dutch cyclists on Challenge recumbent bikes. They were headed in the opposite direction, to Melbourne from Sydney so we were able to swap info on the route with each other.

By about 5pm I knew I was going to make it to Woolamia before it got too dark, provided I kept on going. I turned off the Princes Highway at Tomerong and from there it was another 10kms or so on back roads till I reached my friend Chris’s house, just as it was getting dark. I was welcomed in by Chris and his partner Rebecca and their friends Steve and Lara and we all enjoyed an excellent dinner washed down with a decent Valpolicella.

Total distance covered today - 169kms which has more than made up for yesterday’s lack of progress. Feeling good again now.

Day 9 - Narooma - Bodalla

Monday 15th February 2010


I soooo don’t want to talk about today. I’d much rather skip over it and pretend it never happened. But it did, and to maintain the flow of the narrative I suppose I will have to relate the details.

After experiencing pretty foul weather since Jindabyne, I’d convinced myself that things were going to improve, and even if they didn’t, I’d made fairly decent progress yesterday in the rain so I expected to cover another decent distance today, rain or no rain. It had rained very hard overnight and was still raining when I awoke at 8am. I spent a while reading emails waiting for the situation to improve and by 10 am it stopped raining so I set out again on the main Princes Highway. I passed by this interesting old cinema, and now wish I’d spent the day there instead:



Leaving Narooma I crossed the entrance to the Wagonga inlet:

But within half an hour the rain had started again, and it got heavier and heavier. I came across this obviously very recent fatal accident on the road:

A bit further on it started to rain so hard that I had to seek shelter. I was close to a turnoff from the highway leading to a rest area with some small wooden shelters. I got under one of these shelters intending to wait till the heavy rain stopped.

An hour later it was still raining very hard and a creek had formed alongside the main road as floodwaters drained; the depth of this water made entry and exit to and from the rest area impossible. Knowing I was going to be there a while I got a novel out of my pannier and started reading it, however shortly the rain got so bad that water was splashing all over the pages.
I waited and waited under this shelter, and after about 3 hours watching the flood getting worse and worse some kind people invited me into their campervan where it was much drier. We all waited several more hours until the rain intensity finally decreased around 6.30 pm. The flood retreated sufficiently to allow me to leave the carpark, and after 6 hours there I was very keen to escape. Back on the highway there was no other traffic in either direction for the first few km and I was worried that the road ahead was blocked; however then I saw another car coming from the other direction. After about 30 minutes I reached the next town, Bodalla - the only accommodation there was the Bodalla Arms Hotel - not the most comfortable place I’ve stayed in but at least it was dry inside. I got a few cans of beer at the bar, took them to my room, and tried to blot the whole day out of my memory.

Bodalla Arms Hotel

Distance covered today - a pathetic 20kms. Really depressing.

Day 8 - Bega - Narooma

Sunday 14th February 2010

The weather hasn’t improved. It was already wet by the time I got up (8am, rather late) and the dark clouds made it obvious that rain was going to last all day. Although Bega is a pleasant enough small town with some nice period architecture, there was no point in staying any longer; I simply had to face another day’s riding in the rain. Once I got started it actually wasn’t too unpleasant, it was quite warm and humid so there was no chance of me catching pneumonia even though I was soaked through in the first 10kms or so.

Princes Highway - Bega main street

From Bega the route goes east towards the coast, crossing over another mountain - Dr George Mountain - which was quite long and steep, the road over the top of it being unsealed and hence very muddy for most of the way:

This mountain is shrouded in forest and it would have been a scenic ride if it hadn't been wet and misty. Once over the mountain and heading north along a minor road which appeared on the map to run close to the coastline, I expected to see the ocean - but in fact this road is still some 3kms or so inland and the visibility wasn’t good enough to see anything much. After I’d gone about 25kms I came to the Mimosa Winery and obviously had to stop and see what tastings they were offering, which turned out to include a very agreeable chambourcin which I would happily recommend but it’s not sold anywhere outside the winery itself. There was a lovely restaurant there high up overlooking the forest-covered mountain and I was tempted to stop for lunch but felt I’d better get a few more kms further on before resting.

Mimosa winery

Eventually after another 10kms or so I got my first sighting of the Pacific Ocean on this ride:

I continued on to the next town, Bermagui - a pretty town famous for its fishing. It was still raining hard. I stopped for a decent marlin and chips at an oceanfront café there:

The route continued to traverse over tree-covered mountains:

Below is Dromedary mountain - visibility was so poor that it was not possible to get a decent photo, sadly:

Shortly after this the route rejoined the main Princes Highway (Route 1) - in this section it’s a fairly narrow road with a not particularly wide hard shoulder, so not particularly safe for cycling on; however traffic was pretty quiet. Below is the entrance to Corunna Lake:

It actually dried up for about the last half hour of the ride, before I arrived in Narooma at about 6.30. Narooma’s a nice small town in an attractive setting on the Wagonga inlet. There was no shortage of accommodation available and I checked into the excellent Holiday Lodge Motor Inn where the kind owner immediately offered to dry all my wet clothes for me. I had a very good steak and chips in Lynch’s hotel, with a couple of glasses of a fine cabernet sauvignon from the Margaret River.

Total distance covered today 91kms.