3 months touring Australia - Where would you go?

[madgicaldragon]

We are doing some planning for a 3 month Touring trip in Australia and are looking for suggestions on where to tour.

We are looking to travel sometime between April and say July (2010). We would like to have 15-20 days on the bike per month averaging around 65-75km per day and of course see as much as possible. This is a self supported trip using panniers and a Bob (equipment is less of a concern vs where to visit/ride).

If you were planning a three month trip where would you go? What routes and time lines can you share with us?

Thank you,

[MTBRuss]

Hi madgiccaldragon,

What is your interest: Coastline, outback, rainforests. Do you have a preference for largely on-road? Do you mind venturing off-road? Just a word of warning: distances in outback Australia could be overwhleming if you're only planning 65-75km per day. In a lot of lesser populated places in Australia, it is not uncommon to need to travel 200km + between very basic service stations.

We can make some suggestions if you're a bit more specific about your interests.

Hope we can help. Cheers, Russ.

[madgicaldragon]

Thank you so much for your questions.

We are really open to anything and that is partly what makes it hard to decide on where to go. We don't want to hang out in cities. Beauty is what drives us so national parks are a plus. We would rather see the outback or coastal hideaways than spend time in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth...... I would love to see "the rock", the mountains, the GBR and rain forest..........Biking, Hiking, Rock climbing, Scuba Diving, Kayaking or whatever.

We will be set up so we can go off road or on road as needed. We would rather take a smooth single track vs hours and hours on a heavily traveled road. We are both big cyclists so if we have to plan a century day or two in a row we would not be against that. We were really just looking that out of a 30day period we would like to be traveling a max of 20 days. You could look at it the reverse that we would like no less than 10 down days in a month. Those could be in one spot or on the road as we travel. So if we figure out the destinations we can figure out the time it would take to bike to it.

I would like to get a few dives in. I can't see myself traveling all the way to the wonderful Australia and not do a few dives. I would like to do the GBR or go to the west coast.

I guess what we are looking for are some ideas of possible trip options that we can do in that time amount of time. We keep finding people who are out there or have done this but they have taken way more time then we want to put in one spot. I mean there is soooo much. I thought about doing a loop from say Sydney to Alice Springs to maybe Melbourne back to sydney. Or we looked at going across from Perth over to Alice springs over to Sydney. However, neither one of those gets us up to the GBR.

We are also looking at spending some time in NZ, Fiji and maybe even do the Manali to Leh road in India (HOWEVER, to get more time in OZ and NZ we might forgo that part. We have a total plan of about 6 months but were looking to put 3-4 of those in OZ.

I hope that rambling session helps you help us!

[Kalgrm]

G'day Magicaldragon,

Welcome to the forum.

I can't offer much advice other than "don't try to do everything". The distances between places is the thing which catches most overseas visitors out when they visit Oz, so just getting from place to place will chew into your leisure time at each place to a much greater degree than you may think. For instance, Perth to Alice to Sydney will be around 5000km on road or 4000km if you go straight through. That's 60 to 90 days at 60km per day, non-stop, and you'll be carrying 30 litres of water each for some legs of the trip.

If I had my choice for a cycling/leisure tour in Oz, I'd spend 4 to 6 weeks in Tasmania, then fly up to GBR and ride in Queensland for a while.

Cheers,
Graeme

[madgicaldragon]

I totally get it and I really appreciate your advice. I do want to do that Taz area. So we might do that. I mean if I do go to Fiji I can dive there so maybe it is TAZ and then Alice springs. Thanks again. Ah to dream, right?

[hartleymartin]

Where would I go? I'd start in my front drive-way and go where-ever I end up! Perhaps I have gypsy ancestors...