Bathurst to Sofala and return

[Mountcyclo]

Recently went for ride to historic gold era village of Sofala via Limekilns Rd then onto Red Hill Rd which brought me onto the Turon River. A distance of 49kms, Red Hill Rd is unsealed with a good surface.

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At a high point on Red Hill Rd there are some excellent views of the Upper Turon River valley which make the push up one of the steep hills worth the effort.

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A steep run down Red Hill Rd with much braking came out to the Turon River. At this point if continuing accros the Turon River would eventually bring you out to either Lithgow or Sunny Corner village depending on which route taken.
I turned left and rode along the Turon River to Sofala.

[img][IMG]http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/t675/avtokos/Sofala/image008_zpsfe1e7e69.jpg[/img]

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Another 11kms along the scenic road to Sofala, there is one river crossing which fortunately was only 200mm deep according to the guage, I could pedal across with nothing more than wet feet. Care should be taken with these crossings as in rainy weather the river levels can fluctuate rapidly.

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Arrived at the Sofala village which lays claim to being Australia's oldest surviving gold rush era settlement and revived myself with a refreshing ale at the hospidable Sofala pub. Total distance so far 60kms, after slaking my thirst rode about 3kms back down the Turon rd to Ration Hill and camped overnight on the Turon River.

A relaxing place after a long ride and bumped into a couple of friendly locals whom were out for their evening walks. Many interesting talks on the old gold rush days and where to go gold panning.

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Day after stopped at Sofala cafe for breakfast, then after began the slow steep push up Whalans Hill back to Bathurst. After Wattle Flat there is a steep windy downhill run to the plains of Bathurst. From Sofala to Bathurst is about 53 kms.

[slaw]

Nice. Brings back memories of the first MTB race in Australia on those roads and river crossings.

[Mountcyclo]

Those river crossings can get very dangerous in the right weather conditions, I was lucky, they were only 200mm deep.

Only ended up with wet feet for the rest of the day.

One of the most pleasant rides I have undertaken for a long time.

[open roader]

Excellent posting, great illustrative images.

[Mountcyclo]

Thanks for your kind words, only remark re the photos, for some reason photo bucket crops off the right hand part of the photo.

Must admit I am not a fan of the photo bucket website, if nothing else it chews up my computer allocation like anything.

[open roader]

for some reason photo bucket crops off the right hand part of the photo.

You need to re-size the images to 800pixels on the widest side - then they will dispaly correctly on BNA.

[Mountcyclo]

Aha, that's where I went wrong, thanks for your help. Hopefully better photos next time.

Cheers