Sunday 13th March, 2011
Weather predictions were not good for today, but then they had not been good for the past week, and the predictions had been wrong every day. I decided to head off early and have some breakfast before the weather changed. At 8.00am it was a lovely sunny morning.
I went down the old Princes highway, off to Appin and through Douglas Park and out to Picton to r. coffee for breakfast where Ryan and the staff take good care of me. I have been working my way through the breakfast menu at this place and today I spied the Eggs Benedict. A dish I normally avoid because it is not the healthiest option, but it is bloody nice. The r. did not disappoint. Two large flat whites to wash it down, a browse through the Sunday Paper and I ventured outside to see what the weather had done.
The weather had improved. It was a beautiful sunny day. I decided to ride out to Nattai. One of my favourite places. You head Northwest from Picton on Barkers Lodge Road. This is a beautiful road through valleys and over hills with farmland on each side of the road, very little traffic and always a few other bikes around. The speed limit is 80 kph until you reach Mowbray Park, which is just a few houses, and then it increases to 100kph. Sitting on 100 kph, or a little bit more, on these roads is a great way to kill some time. Lovely windy roads, rolling hills, great scenery and a sense of being hundreds of miles away from a city. Fantastic.
Eventually you come to the small town of Oakdale and turn left on to Burragorang Road. In 10 minutes you come to the tiny village of Nattai. Village may be overdoing it a bit. There are no shops. Just a row of houses. Left over from coal mining days. At the end of the houses you enter the Burragorang State Recreation Area and climb slowly until you reach some picnic grounds with BBQ and toilet facilities, and right at the end of the road and the top of the hill, the most beautiful scenery opens out before you. Lake Burragorang. Created when the Warragamba Dam was built and the water backed up to fill the valleys. From the lookout you can see across the lake to the Blue Mountains on the other side and Blue Mountains National Park which stretches away to the west as far as the eye can see. It really is breathtaking. See the photos for a better idea.
After a half hour of gazing, taking photos and re-reading the information boards at the lookout I head back into Oakdale. You can continue straight through Oakdale and onto the Oaks, but I’ll save that for another day. This time I had enjoyed Barkers Lodge road so much I decided to go back the same way.
Back through Picton and out Remembrance Drive this time towards Camden and turning off on Finns Road which takes you back to Douglas Park.
Back through Appin and Wilton, Bull tops, Helensburgh and down to Bald Hill at Stanwell Tops. This is another amazingly beautiful place. And on a Sunday afternoon there are plenty of bikes, cars and a few hang gliders about.
Bald Hill is commemorated as the spot Lawrence Hargraves used to test his kites, which played an important part in the early progress to manned flights. There is plenty of information about him at Bald Hill.
From here you can see all the way down the coast to Wollongong to the South and the bottom end of the royal National Park to the North.
Back on the bike and through the National Park towards home. The Royal National Park is a trip I have probably done on average once a week for the last 3 years. I will never get tired of it. It was a great training ground when I first returned to riding. It was the scene of my only fall (so far) since returning to riding. The park is in 3 distinct phases. Coming from the south you travel along Lady Wakehurst drive which winds through semi rain forest. Tall lush trees forming a canopy right of the road in many places, up and down hills and often following a rivulet which flows all the way to Audley and becomes the Hacking River.
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| Road throgh the Royal National Park |
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| Royal - National Park - 2nd oldest national park in the world |
Then you come to an intersection. MacKell Ave goes off to the left taking you up to Waterfall and onto the Princes Highway. Going right puts you on to Sir Bertram Stevens Drive and takes you into the 2nd phase of the Royal. Here you climb up to the plateau and the country opens out into heath lands and you travel some long straight stretches of road before coming to the turnoffs for Wattamolla and Bundeena. Then the 3rd phase begins, winding up and down hills until you come to Audley , cross the river and make the final climb up to the highway at Sutherland. I love the fact that you come straight out of the park into the outskirts of Sydney. It’s 10 minutes to home from there on. Another lovely day on the Thunderbird.
very descriptive for other riders following in your tyre tracks and the eggs Benedict sound great.
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