Hugh Spear's Blog

Lithgow to Mittagong Day 3 - Tuglow River Campground to Mittagong, 130kms.

I awoke early, just after 5am to the sound of heavy vehicles. I realised that the logging truck on a hill above my camp, had started work again. 

I turned on my head torch and whereas the previous morning I could see condensation on the inside of the tent, ready to drip down on me, this time it was ice. My phone has a temperature gauge, which said -7 degrees celsius. I lay there pondering. It wouldn't be light for another hour or so, it wouldn't be warm for a few more hours and as I was in a bit of a valley, it would take even longer to dry my gear. To add to that, I had already been in my sleeping bag for 12 hours. I didn't really want to hang around that long.

I thought about my journey ahead. It would take me maybe 45 minutes of cycling on rough tracks, to get onto the original route, but there was a good chance that then I would be cycling on sealed roads where I could make faster progress than on tracks.

From there it was about 60 kms to Wombeyan Caves. Surely I could cover that distance in 5 hours as a maximum. If I started cycling by 6:30am, then I could be at the caves by noon. I assumed that the caves were a tourist destination and so, like Jenolan Caves, would be served by sealed roads and have some amenities, such as gift shops and cafes. From Wombeyan Caves it would be about 70kms to Mittagong station. I would hope to be able to cover that distance before it was too dark, but in any case I had lights. So in my mind, it was perfectly possible to cycle the distance needed to get home without spending another night in the cold. That would also mean not needing to worry about drying my gear. I would just pack it away as best I could and worry about drying it when safely back at home. 

At the same time as working out the logistics of getting home without spending another night out, I also was fast realising that bikepacking in remote areas, at quite high altitudes, in state forests with total fire bans, alone, in the Winter, was not feeling like the most fun thing in the world. The cold and resultant condensation and dew were one thing, but the day length was a critical factor. It was dark for so long, and cold for so long that you really struggled with the whole experience. 

So I made my decision. I would pack and cycle, no morning cup of tea, no porridge, nothing. Just pack and ride. I sat in my tent and got dressed and packed what I could before emerging. 

Once out of the tent, I could tell that all the water in my water bottles was frozen. I just hoped that the ice had not cracked the bottles. I had maybe 3 litres of water, and thought I would need every last drop of that.

I was dressed in everything I had. The only thing I wasn't wearing was my half-fingered gloves (and therefore I left one there by accident), and my spare socks.  This is my list of the clothing I was wearing that morning:

1. Thermal vest.
2. Merino long sleeve top.
3. Merino cycling jersey.
4. Thick arm warmers.
5. RAB microlight jacket.
6. Cycling gilet.
7. 2XU leggings.
8. Mountain biking shorts (with padded rear).
9. Thick hiking socks.
10. Saloman Goretex hiking boots.
11. Saloman gaiters.
12. Vaude full finger thermal cycling gloves.

 I cycled in the early morning light on the Tuglow Forest Road.  The conditions were sub-freezing as I made my way over some fairly rough firetrails. I was only half sure of my route at this point and was too cold to stop for long. I turned from the Tuglow Forest Road to the Ginkin Forest Road, and  eventually I reached Mount Werong Road, a sealed road, and headed in the wrong direction for about 5 minutes to join Shooters Hill road, before my Garmin bike computer found my route and told me to turn around. 

Cycling then South on the Mount Werong Road, I went past signs to the Oberon Correctional Centre, a minimum security prision.  It was still very cold, but I could see that the sunlight would hit me soon. I was out of forest and into almost wide plains. I started to hear thunder and wondered whether a large lorry was on the road just over the hill. But when I crested the hill I found a herd of giant kangaroos pounding the ground as they headed across my road in large numbers. I wish I had stopped and photographed them, but it was still too cold. One of the highlights of my trip was then seeing a large wombat run across the road about 50 metres ahead of me. 

Gradually I moved into the forest and entered the Kanangra-Boyd National Park. 

 It was now about 9am, and I could tell my water had thawed, so I stopped to make some tea and porridge.

I was now pretty close to Mount Werong, and did eventually pass the campsite of the same name. It looks like a good one to use. 

 As I had made an early start, and had been pretty much plodding along with very few stops, I realised that I might reach the Wombeyan Caves by about 1pm. I took heart from that and felt that once there, there would be only about 70 kms to go and if the terrain was good I could cover that in maybe four hours, meaning that I'd only be cycling in the dark for about an hour. 

The road down to Wombeyan Caves was sealed and in good condition. I got down to the campground and sort out some of my gear and had a bit more to eat. Then after asking a car driver for a photo, set off for Mittagong.

 The sealed road quickly became a track again, and my speed slowed accordingly. 

But the scenery was spectacular. 

The road seemed to go on forever, and as I was cycling slower and slower, it really was a long time in the saddle. But I knew there would be an end to the cycling at some point.

Eventually I pulled into Mittagong in darkness with the air cooling rapidly. I found the train station and as there was about 30 minutes before my train, I dropped into the kebab shop a few minutes away and treated myself to a full doner with a ginger beer. I reckoned I'd earned it.  I'd spent the best part of 10 hours in the saddle and covered about 130 kms. I leaned a lesson about doing this sort of trip on my own, when the day length is so short, and camping in forests where I couldn't light fires. The trip would have been so much better three months earlier or later than mid-Winter.

Lithgow to Mittagong Day 2 - Lake Lyell to Tuglow River Campground, 73kms.

It hadn't been a great night in my new tent, with new sleep mat and new sleeping bag. There was a lot of nylon against nylon and as I hadn't pitched my tent level, I found myself pressing against one side and the end of the tent. There was a lot of condensation inside the tent, and a lot of dew outside. So I was generally damp, and not really ready for a long day.

I tried wiping my tent and shaking the flysheet, but everything was so damp that I ended up waiting for the sun to rise and dry things off. I eventually got started just after 9am.

My journey today was almost all on sealed roads. There was about 3 kms of gravel just after the camp ground. I had fitted Schwalbe Smart Sam tyres to my 700c wheels. They are 1.75" or 47mm and about the widest tyres I could find for a 700c wheel. I had already purchased some Mondial Marathon 35c tyres for these wheels, but felt they were not wide enough. Today I was feeling that I could have been on 28mm tyres. 

I reached Jenolan Caves by about 12:30pm, lunch time. I took the opportunity to have a sit-down meal in the 'bistro' there. It was a nice hearty meal for a mere $12.50. Then before I set off up the long and winding road to the summit, and onto the Great Dividing Range, I decided to see whether I could stay at the Jenolan Cabins, which were about 11kms away, but probably a hour of cycling as the hill was rather steep.

I got a voicemail response, and left a message. Then I had a call back and the owner of the cabins said she would be away for about two hours as she had to meet someone at Mount Victoria. She said I could stay and wait outside the cabins. 

I headed up the hill, and even though it was long (4.3kms) and steep (average of 12%), I made it up and was feeling quite fresh. So I arrived at Jenolan Cabins within an hour at around 2:30pm, and decided that I'd rather get at least another hour of my journey out of the way than spend $125 on a dry room for the night. I kept cycling.

Gradually the sealed roads turned to flat gravel and then corrugated gravel and hard packed mud, then finally just old tracks in the state forest. I did not know where to camp on my route, but had Guidebook 10 from the Bicentennial National Trail and knew that there was a campground along the Tuglow river. Fortunately, I had digital topographic maps on my smartphone and had previously marked the exact location of the camp ground. So I cycled away from the conventional route and into the state forest (Vulcan or Gurnang - I'm not certain which). 

I reached the spot where my phone said the campsite should be, and it was just a small wood (copse) next to a stream. I could see animals had been corralled here, so assumed it was the right place and pitched my tent.  I was careful this time to find a flat spot. I decided not to cook a meal, but to just have a cup-a-soup and a cup of tea. I'd eaten a few hours earlier and it was getting dark rapidly, and cooling considerably. I was at about 1,05om and once the sun had gone it got dark and very cold quickly.

By 5:30pm I was snugly wrapped in my down sleeping bag and inside my tent. I listened to my iPod for about 20 minutes, before the battery ran too low. I had a general shortage of battery reserve on my phone and Garmin Edge 500 cycle computer. So decided to conserve energy and just sleep. The phone and Garmin were more than just lifestyle toys on this journey; I had the whole course saved on the Garmin, so that would get me to Mittagong Station, and I had my digitised topographic maps on the phone which also had GPS and a compass. I would need that to find my way back to the route saved on the Garmin.

The night was uneventful for the most part, but for somewhere in the middle of nowhere, it was surprisingly noisy. If I did not know otherwise, I would swear that I was surrounded by grazing livestock. Many of the native animals are nocturnal. I had already seen a few wombat holes, and unfortunately several wombat carcasses at the roadside, so I knew they were around.  My previous evening was punctuated with the sounds of ducks foraging for food all around my tent and inside my flysheet. Tonight was just as noisy. But I knew (and hoped) that the animals were harmless and did not consider me a threat.

  Lithgow to Mittagong Day 3

Lithgow to Mittagong - Day 1

This trip was inspired by two others. Chris from Omafiets bike shop has described his journey here, and he was in turn inspired by Arran Pearson's crazy account of the same journey in a single day. 

The cycling starts at Lithgow railway station and finishes at Mittagong railway station.

Before my start however, I had a warm-up ride along the Anderson Fire Trail and the Oaks fire trail which took my friend Paul Leach and I from Wentworth Falls to Glenbrook. We actually started at Leura railway station as we'd parked in Glenbrook and took the train up to Wentworth Falls, but missed out stop, so got going from the next stop Leura.

Here is the outline of our 'prologue' to my solo trip. 

 It was a fun ride, and as my bike was unladen, I enjoyed the freedom of moving fast and with greater agility than I would have later. 

 Here is a photo of Paul crossing a creek along the Anderson fire trail. It was a fun trail, much more interesting that The Oaks and with a little more in the way of challenges.

We arrived at Glenbrook station, where we had parked, at about 12:30pm and we had about 50 minutes until my train left for Lithgow. But I needed about half of that time to pack all the bags onto my bike, get changed and top-up my bottles with water from a large bladder I had left in the car.

There was just enough time for a coffee and a cake, before I headed back down the the station and said goodbye to Paul. 

The local trains around Sydney are pretty relaxed about bikes travelling when it isn't rush hour. This was the Queen's Birthday public holiday, so the trains were mainly being used by tourists.

It is a slow train up to Lithgow, stopping at just about every station, but the countryside is so beautiful that you don't mind one bit. I suppose I was slightly apprehensive  about journey ahead. I had cycled, packed my bike, camped and cooked. But not put the whole thing together. 

This afternoon I had just a short cycle from Lithgow, so that I could unpack, put up my tent and get a meal cooked before it was too dark. 

So once the train arrived into Lithgow at about 3:20pm, I had about 30 minutes of cycling before reaching Lake Lyell, my home for my first night. This was a campsite and cost me $22 for a waterfront spot. I paid another $20 for 20kgs of firewood. 

I pitched my tent, and while I boiled my billy can, I set about getting my fire going. It was a lovely evening, but as the sun dipped behind the hills I started to feel the temperature drop almost immediately.

Fortunately I had a fire, and could sit out with my curry for quite a while into the evening. 

Even so, I was probably asleep by 8pm.

Lithgow to Mittagong Day 2