Sydney to Melbourne and back to Sydney - ideas?

[rdvmonasterio]

Hi all,

I am taking off mid November on a cycle tour to Melbourne and back to Sydney.

I am planning on going as follows (ideas / advice welcome as this is my first tour)

Train to Mittagong
Mittagong to Nowra
Nowra to Braidwood along Nerriga rd etc
Braidwood to Cooma (I'd like to stop for a camp somewhere in between)
Cooma to Eden (I'd like to stop for a camp somewhere in between)
Eden to Cann River
Cann River to Orbost
Orbost to Bairnsdale, then on to Melbourne (Catch a train somewhere to Melbourne)

on the way back

Lilydale to Healesville, Alexandra, Mansfield
Mansfield to Myrtleford - Tallangatta - Corryong - Jindabyne
around Lake Eucumbene and up to Tumut
then on to Wee Jasper then down Mountain Creek rd to Canberra, and back to Sydney along some unplanned route as yet.

I am giving myself 1 month

What do you think? Much appreciated

Ronald

[Uncle Just]

For a first tour it is ambitious in one month particularly as you will traverse some very hilly, read mountainous country. If you are young and fit, have an appropriate bike and some very good wet weather gear just in case, then it's doable. If not use the train as you said. But why rush it? The country you will traverse is varied and demands taking it in. There are so many beautiful areas to see. Just have look at Warren H's pictures!! Stunning country. I would counsel possibly doing just one way for a first tour.

I'll deal with the second part of the planned trip back to Sydney as I've ridden through that country on route to Qld and on other tours.....
Lilydale, Healesville to Alexandra you will be on the Maroondah Hwy of which the section from Healesville to Narbethong is the worst. You go over the Black Spur which is a twisty single lane in each direction and carries trucks, very fast boy racer motorbikes and cars. Not ideal. You may be lucky or you could ride the rail trail to Warburton and take the 8kms steep climb to Cement Creek then ride the beautiful low trafficed and unsealed in places Acheron Way and come out just after Narbethong.
Further on avoid the narrow hwy to Mansfield and take the Spring Creek Road about 6kms west of Alex which comes out about 7kms from Bonnie Doon where there is a railtrail to Mansfield. Head to Whitfield on the delightful C521 with views across to Cobbler and Mt Buller. You can take the rail trail to Beechworth which is a nice place to stop then head out through Yackandandah another nice town. Once you've arrived at Tallangatta the fun begins as it gets very steep to Koetong and undulates to Corryong. Are you riding up to Thredbo? If so it will be a very, very hard ride fully laden from Khancoban to Dead Horse Gap. You could go via Cabramurra and up to Tumut but still some hard climbing in places. From Tumut you have several choices to Wee Jasper. We took the very steep in sections sealed Bombowlee Creek Road and turned right on to the Wee Jasper Road which turns left again onto a rough gravel road just past Argalong to the Yass road. Wee Jasper is accessible down this sweeping gravel road. Pity "The Stables" at WJ is now closed as it was a gastronomic experience. You could continue avoiding the turn off to WJ by taking the Brindabella road to Canberra but you would have to bush camp I imagine. It's remote country and being high up, if the weather turns you will need good equipment. (We approached Tumut from the south via Walwa and Tumbarumba.)

Approaches to Sydney are well documented elsewhere on BNA with searching. I favour the southern highlands via Bundanoon and Jamberoo Pass then taking the coastal path through Wollongong, RNP to Bundeena and ferry to Cronulla.

Whatever you decide and I'm sure more experienced tourers will have ideas, have a great time.

[RonK]

Looks an interesting circuit, but I'm not sure that it's a good idea to be riding in a westerly direction across Gippsland, it could be quite windy.

According to Google maps your route is likely to be around 2200kms. With no rest days you will have to cover 75km every day to complete the loop in 30 days. It's a fairly hilly route you have chosen so you might find that fairly demanding on a loaded bike...

[Addictr3]

I want to come

[stubbie]

As Uncle Just said, Healeville to Narbethong via the Black Spur is steep, narrow and winding, with logging trucks thrown in.
I'm told the Tallarook-Mansfield railtrail may be open by the end of the year so perhaps consider Lilydale-Castella-Yea or Healesville-Toolangi-Castella-Yea (longer but less traffic), then rail trail to Mansfield.

[rdvmonasterio]

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. There is much to think about.

How safe/doable would be a ride from Cooma to Cann River on the Monaro Highway OR

Cooma to Bombala, then down to Orbost through Bonang Highway.

[WarrenH]

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. There is much to think about.

How safe/doable would be a ride from Cooma to Cann River on the Monaro Highway OR

Cooma to Bombala, then down to Orbost through Bonang Highway.

Cooma to Cann River, the quality of the road is excellent but until the Vic Border, speaking about a highway, one would say, "This is not the widest of roads to share with big trucks!" If you don't already (?) look at street view on Google Maps and check out the road shoulders.

When the trucks pass you doing Mark Warp 3 ... wow! Sit in their vacuum. Do you know the country south of Cooma? ... it is the land that the gods forgot to put trees on and those that did, turned every tree into a twisted, tormented horror. It is a bleached grass moon scape until close to the turnoff. When you reach the turnoff, to Bombala, it it is basically down hill to Cann River from there, sort of. The road is good, but the logging truck drivers are up them selves. They have only one attitude, to do the most number of trips that they can do in a day. You will experience this, its guaranteed, or I'll refund your deposit ... in full. Wait until you reach close to the Eden turnoff ... that is where they're going, to Twofold Bay.

Public Enemy #1 and all doubles. Check out the width of this monster and again on Google Maps, check out the widths of the shoulders. Bombala is Timber Town. Two years ago, I saw a load like this every 7 minutes, like clockwork.




Bonang Highway, again narrow and not unlike my description above, but with more trees and more logging trucks heading to Eden. Bonang and Bendock are also timber towns. There are lots of plantations down that way.

One thing that I've noticed this year, above all other years, is the reduction in car traffic on regional roads. It is very noticeable. Noticeable how trucks rule. School holidays are back to being normal car traffic. Avoiding the starting and the finishing periods of school holidays, is a good idea ... but logging trucks don't go on holidays.

Have a good ride. Your route is terrific ... you will morph into a mountain goat during the ride. But do it quickly, it will pay.

Warren.

PS, If you haven't seen the wood piles at Twofold Bay and wonder where the trucks that keep passing you are heading? ... here comes another one.

[rdvmonasterio]

Anywhere interesting to stay between Braidwood and Cooma? I have a Tent and gear. Or is the route, 136km, doable in one hit, and then rest in Cooma

[WarrenH]

Braidwood to Cooma via Snowball and Countegany on the Snowball Road, Badja Road and Numeralla Road? If that's your planned route, the road is dirt soon after the turnoff to Captains Flat. If you are heading to Captains Flat and across the Tinderries to Michelago then south to Cooma, that is also on dirt all the way to Michelago. Both ways are on magic roads though wild country, well worth the effort. The weather forecast for the SE from now until to Christmas is for reasonably dry weather. None of the low level crossings should slow you down, too much.

I'd just camp on the side of the road or in the bush in places like Berlang State Forest, Deua National Park, Badja Swamps Nature Reserve and Badja State Forest. There are 13 Travelling Stock Reserves that cyclists can camp in, after ringing the Cooma LHPA Office, if going via Snowball.

Warren.

[rdvmonasterio]

Thanks Warren

I am using schwalbe marathon tyres, will these handle the dirt roads as you described betwern Braidwood and Coom? Or should i get knoobblier ones

[WarrenH]

The road down through Snowball is getting to be in bad shape because of the logging trucks now using it. In the wet it can be pretty ordinary but as an off-road cyclist, I think the road is improving and becoming more interesting.

The Turpentine Road (the Nerriga to Nowra road) is (now) all tarmac from Nowra to Nerriga but from Nerriga to Braidwood there are still patches of dirt. The logging trucks are using the road here because the pine plantations are now mature.

With so much of your route on tarmac, it is hard to say where the pluses and minuses are with the tyre selection. If you had something like Crossmarks on for the dirt, you will be slower on the tarmac. Sure you'll gain on the dirt over the Marathons, but proportionally loose more time on the long tarmac runs.

Perhaps if you took a spare tyre that could be a Crossmark. If you blew out a Marathon, you could put the Crossmark on the rear for tarmac, and on the front rim if you hit any dodgy dirt.

Being an off road tourer, I have a Rendez on the front for the loose n' steep stuff. I keep a Crossmark on the rear and on my trailer I have a Larson TT. I interchange the Larson TT with the Rendez when I hit the tarmac. A slow combination compared to Marathons on tarmac, but generally a good and safe tyre choice for on the dirt.

When you hit steep dirt, or wet dirt I'm guessing the Marathons will be an issue, if you don't take it easy. Having to move out of the way to let a logging truck pass, do that earlier than later. With Marathons on I'm also guessing that you'll find yourself riding toward the centre of the dirt road more than not ... just for less side slope trouble. The road side camber varies greatly here, both sides of the road.

In this region it tends to be mostly decomposed granite over hard pack clay. Every now and again you will run into long build-ups of gravels that Marathons will give you little traction in. I sometimes come unstuck when I get a bit too cocky even with the Rendez on the front. It is amazing how pea gravel dictates the bike's least best direction.

The Jerangle Road from Captains Flat to Bredbo and then into Cooma on the Billangra Road and Shannon's Flat Road, is another good option. It isn't as spectacular as being beside the Deua/Woila Wilderness (going the Snowball way). It is different being more rural back roads. You will certainly avoid the logging trucks and the Marathons will cope more than adequately.

Near Shannon's Flat. An archetypal dirt road for this region.



There are some good side trips on the Snowball route. The Big Hole and Marble Arch are about 40 ks South of Braidwood and the spectacular Tuross Falls and Tuross Gorge are south of Badja near Countegany. This side of Numeralla there is a gravel pit called, 'HopefullyallthebigbadloggingtrucksareparkedheretodayasIridepast'. You can't miss it, its a good sign.

The Deua/Woila Wilderness on a smoky day.




Warren.

[il padrone]

With so much of you route on tarmac, it is hard to say where the pluses and minuses are with the tyre selection. If you had something like Crossmarks on for the dirt, you will be slower on the tarmac. Sure you'll gain on the dirt over the Marathons, but proportionally loose more time on the long tarmac runs.

That's one of the reasons I've used the Vittoria Randonneur Cross rather than Marathon Plus for rough backtrack and tarmac touring. Both have about equal puncture resistance and wear characteristics. Both run well on tarmac. The Rando Cross has more bite on the dirt. They're about 300-400g lighter too.

Vittoria Randonneur Cross - good bite from side knobs and a centre ridge with guide-lines to keep on track


Marathon Plus - a lighter tread with large flat centre patches

[rdvmonasterio]

Thank you all for your advice. I have decided that given 1 month available to me I would be pushing it to do the round trip and take time to actually enjoy and relax also. So I will do the return journey from Melbourne to Sydney and take the time to take it all in, go a little slower, enjoy some camping and have time to do some outrageous things like a little yoga each morning before heading off.

[WarrenH]

rdvm, I hope you don't mind me saying? ... you are making a good move. There are some nice old high country huts not too far off the road that are good to sit on the verandas of and have your breakfast in the sun and watch the mists moving in and out of the valleys.

I found these photo on Flickr this morning, just to remind you how nice the Snowball route is ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/voodecki/5 ... otostream/ ... http://www.flickr.com/photos/voodecki/5 ... otostream/

... and two from me. The Tinderry Range after rain and in the second image, six ranges over, is Snowball and beyond is the Deua Wilderness. Photo taken from Shanahan's Mountain.






Warren.