Having spent some time looking at maps and reading a number of blogs about possible cycle tours in the New South Wales area, I discovered a few that seemed pretty interesting. However, there turned out to be a major obstacle: buses here do not allow bicycles onboard. The problem with this is that for any of the tours I had read about, the starting point was always somewhere that could only be reached by bus. So....
Back to the drawing board.
This time I decided to start by looking at the train route maps and plan from there. Upon consulting these maps, I decided that I would cycle through the Hunter Valley for 3 very good reasons. 1) the trains run up to the north of the valley and so I could get to my start point easily, 2) Everyone had been banging on about how nice the area was, and 3) It's wine country with free cellar doors, so free wine!
The route I planned was approx 250km, running Muswellbrooke, through Newcastle and then back to Gosford. I figured I'd take 3 or 4 days to do it so I could spend time exploring and be in no rush if I find somewhere I liked. Planning done, I set my date to start, 13th January 2014. Heat Wave Week!
Day 1
Unlike virtually every touring blog I have read, the start of this tour didn't start at the crack of dawn. In fact I had a leisurely morning and just relaxed around the flat as my train wasn't until 2:30pm. The train up to my starting point, Muswellbrooke, only ran twice a day and so I wouldn't arrive at my destination until 6pm that evening.
First station, Gosford, I encountered my first issue. No lift! As anyone that has packed up their bike will know, it gets heavy, so first task was to carry my bike up a few flights of stairs to get to the platform. That done, I just waited for the train and was on my way. Thank god for bungees as without them I'd have had to stand and hold my bike in place for the 4 hour train ride.The train to Newcastle was event free, but then I discovered the problem with trains only running to anywhere twice a day is that everyone gets crammed on to one train and there isn't a lot of room left for bikes, let alone ones with tents, panniers and sleeping bags attached! While people were very accommodating of the bike taking up the very little space left on the standing room only train, I was heavily embarrassed.
Eventually as people started getting off at the different stops along the way, the corridor became less crowded but as we were travelling to what I've been told is bogan country, I was left on the train with just bogans. An interesting experience to say the least.
Having arrived in Muswellbrooke, it was just after 6pm. I only had to do 16km to get to the campsite and had about an hour and a half of daylight left. There was a very strong head wind the whole way and it was my first experience sharing the road with massive trucks. Not a pleasant start to the ride but once I turned off the main road, the wind died down, traffic disappeared and the views become amazing. I nearly doubled my travel time just stopping taking photos and watching the huge coal trains going past.
I arrived at the campsite just after 7pm and was greeted by a big peacock showing all its splender, and the very strong wind was back! I got my tent up as quickly as possible, got my dinner of spaghetti and meatballs cooked, enjoyed 2 cans of Guinness and had an early night.
Day 2
Woke up with the sun at around half 6 or 7am. It was quite overcast and I was glad to feel the wind had died down overnight. I slowly warmed my porridge and backed up my camp. I took a walk around the campsite to wake up and it was the most unusual mix of lovely lake views, interrupted by a massive power station.
I set off at around half 8 to get some miles under my belt before the heat of the
After 40km I reached the small town of Singleton. It was only around midday but I was already feeling tired. I found a small shopping centre and stocked up on water, coke, and then raided a bakery for food. After an extended lunch break, I hit the road again. I had hoped to get to Pokolbin by the end of the day, centre of wine country, and visit a few cellar doors that evening.It was now the warmest part of the day and while the views were great and I was ahead of schedule, I was really starting to struggle, mostly because of dehydration. It was just so warm, I couldn't drink enough to keep up with how much fluid I was losing.
Thankfully I soon got to the turn off for Pokolbin so I knew the free wine must be close. The road now took me past a lot of different vineyards that seemed to go on forever. At one stage the Brokenback mountains loomed and I was worried I was going to have to go over them, but instead of that torture, the Blue Tongue brewery came out of nowhere. A very welcome break. I'm not sure if I was more glad for a pint of beer or the air conditioning. Purely for the air conditioning, of course, I may have stayed for a second. The temperature outside was reaching 45+ degrees
By this stage it was around 3:30pm so I decided that it was time to visit the cellar doors nearby and scout for somewhere to camp. After visiting 3 or 4 cellar doors, I was told about a possible place to camp a few more kilometers down the round, which luckily took me past the cellar door I had hoped to visit when I was planning the trip. After doing some sampling, I bought a bottle of wine for the night ahead and found my place to camp. It was a picnic area but I found a space that was relatively hidden from the road and set up my tent there.
That night I met a French man that was touring around the Hunter Valley in his beaten up estate car, that doubled as his hotel, looking for some fruit picking work. We shared the bottle of wine I bought earlier and chatted using broken English and the occassional, usually incorrect, GCSE french phrases. If only he'd wanted directions to the cinema!
Day 3
I woke up very tired. My legs felt like they didn't have much in them, so I looked at my maps and decided that if I could just get over the mountains ahead, which is only about 50km, I would camp on the other side and take it easy.
First task after breakfast was to get to Cessneck, about 20km down the road. As it turned out it was a pretty gentle cycle over undulating hills, but my legs were so tired, it was hard work. When I arrived, I was wrecked, so when I saw the Golden Arches, I headed straight to them with the instructions, "Give me the largest coke you do and the largest strawberry milkshake". Never has a milkshake/coke combo been so welcomed!
Newly rested, I decided it was time to get on and tackle the mountains. Luckily I knew I didn't have far to go today so could take it nice and easy. Ahead I could see 3 sets of mountains. I just prayed that I didn't have to go over them all!
I did.
The first set of hills wasn't as bad as I had imagined and I found a small town nestled in the middle of mountains. There wasn't anything in the town but I found a shaded spot to rest in and a friendly trucker washing his truck that gave me drinking water to refill my bottles. After 20 minutes I decided to get going again.
This time, the going got a lot tougher. The mountains became steeper and bigger. The heat of the day was upon me but I knew I just had to keep going. At the top of the last set of mountains, I found a petrol station. I was exhausted. The grumpiest worker ever worked in the garage on the hill but I was so tired I didn't care.
It's amasing what chocolate and water can do to revive you. I rested for at least half an hour and then got going again. I wasn't sure what lay ahead but knew that the worst must surely be over by now. The next 10km was very hilly. Nothing very big but just up and down every few hundred meters.
I looked at the map and figured that if I headed towards the coast, I knew from there it was flat and since I'm up in the mountains, it must be mostly downhill from here. I was wrong. I had already come much further than I had planned at the start of the day, but it was only just after midday so thought I might as well go as far as I can so there is less to do the next day. I had previously camped in a town called Toukely so knew if I got there, I knew somewhere to set my tent up. it was only 37km down the road so I decided to go for it. Little did I know how up and down the next 37kms would be. At one point I was starting to feel sick and dizzy. I figured it was the start of heat stroke and dehydration so I stopped, found some shade and took on board as much water as I could. I had left my bike in the sun and when I got back, it was so hot, the LCD screen on my computer had melted and wasn't readable any more. Thankfully cooling it down again fixed it.When I got to Toukley, I knew the next 15 km were flat so tried to contact a friend that lived there to see if I could crash at their place but I heard nothing back. At this point I was within 30km of home and still had 3 hours of daylight so decided to make one last push and get home. The last stretch took everything I had but I got home in just over an hour.
In total, because I chose to go over the mountains, the cycle was only 220km and had taken me just over 2 days of cycling. It was a great trip and a great way to see the Hunter Valley. The only thing I would change is the time of year. The height of summer is so hot and humid, half the weight of the bike is the water you have to carry and even then it never feels like you have enough.
Bring on the next trip!
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