It was a very chilly and misty morning when I rolled out from Bathurst, temperature was around 4 degrees and for first time I had to use full finger gloves, they proved to be not so warm, and the chill was painful in the beginning. Later the mist changed to a more smoggy air from the bush fires around Lithgow in east. They had darkened the sky the day before too.

Traveled along the Trunkey road and it was easy and fast cycling in the beginning. Had soon made 40 km and the 6 days that I had calculated for traveled to Canberra looked like a very good margin. 

In Bathurst Julie had convinced me to weight my bags, I didn't really want to know first but changed my mind. Totally bags + cycle weighted around 65 kg (including food and 10 l of waters) and that's the same as my weight. I'm used to the weight of the bike so no problem, but it's really hard to parry if it's starts to fall over. And it's also a bit of work to access the rear bags because they are all so tied up, so usually I only take them off the bike at the end of the day.

Having no extra space for carrying more water I'm now really considering to switching to a trailer when I get to Melbourne. The alternative would be to get rid of some of my current gear and that's is not something that I'm yet prepared to do. A trailer would also mean that I can carry the gear in a more accessible way and bringing with me the extra water I need when getting to more remote areas. 

Cycling all day gives you really big apatite, and I have now found a new favorite snack. I missed butter on the bread and have now found that olive oil is a good substitute. Vegemite is an Australian specialty, made from leftover brewers' yeast extract. It has a special taste and I can't say I liked it the first time I tried it. But with butter it's not that bad, not sweet but a bit high on salt contents.

Have had continuing problems with water leaking from the Ortlieb water sacks. I have four of their 10 L sacks and a couple of them have leaked from the caps. The issue is to get the sealer ring flat and tight in big cap. It doesn't leak much but enough to cause some trouble with wet gear and you don't want to loose any water that you been carrying. So a bit irritating, but if you are very careful when closing the cap you can minimize the leaks. 

I knew that it would be a big descent when getting to the Abercrombie river and then once you crossed the river a steep ascent to gain back all the altitude you lost on the way down. 

The day was really hot and first I planned to stay at one of the free camp sites at the Abercrombie river. But decided instead to stop just before beginning the descent and stay at the camping place at the Abercrombie caves. Was a bit of a gamble because didn't knew anything about the camping spot and prices, only that it was in the National park. 

Going down the steep 2 km to the camping spot would mean no return, it would be to late and hard to climb up again. But it turned out to be a very good idea, because it was a lovely camping area and I had it completely for myself, no other caravans or tents. Only shared it with lots of kangaroos. I've seen many already so no novelty any longer but the kangaroos here were not afraid, just lying 10 meters from the tent.

But there are a back side with all the kangaroos, their back side. Lots of poo everywhere so had to really pick your spot when you sat down etc.

Stayed there to after lunch the next day, checking equipment and trying to replace the zipper in my wind jacket. Even if I got good grades from the needlework in school I was not even halfway through replacing the zipper after 3 hours...but my thumb was sore :) 

Had a very sweaty climb up from the Caves, but it was quite Ok and not long to go before coming to Tuena which were my next destination.

In Tuena I discovered that the maintenance I had done on the stove had not only been good. Maybe just a coincidence but now it wouldn't function as normally,i.e. had big yellow flames instead of the normally blue. Which meant no more cooked meals before I could get spare parts. No problems really, because the couscous is fine to eat without boiling the water. 

The road from Tuena to Crookwell was mixed gravel and bitumen, and it's was very much up and down. Also unusually heavy traffic for being such a small road and all the vehicles created big dust clouds. Closer to Crookwell the road got all sealed.

My destination for the day was Grabben Gullen and I camped next to the Hall on a perfect flat lawn. In the evening I could see lightnings in the distance and later that night it began to rain. The rainy weather continued all night and lasted until late afternoon. Not heavy rain but passing showers so was not that bad for cycling. 

Next stop was Gundaroo and outside the local store I met a man that had worked at the Australian embassy in Stockholm, Sweden back in 1961-62! Interesting to hear his memories of Stockholm.

From Gundaroo it was only 40 km left to Canberra and I tried to get there as soon possible. The road was alright and with about 13 km to go I entered Australia Capital Territory. The sign marking the border was very discrete and easy to miss. 

Cycled via Queanbeyan and the International airport and it was easy cycling into the city with very well marked bicycle paths/lanes all the way from the suburbs into the city center. 

I am terrible behind schedule updating the webpage so I will do a quick summery of much of the tour so can get a more up to date version soon online. Otherwise it will just feel hopeless being so late...

Traveled from Comara along the Armidale-Kempsey road to Kempsey and then continued on to Crescent head. It was really a highlight seeing the Pacific again. We had done lots of inland touring and seen the dividing range and all the farmlands. But there are something special with the sea and beaches. We just wanted to run down and dive into the water. But the weather was not so warm and the wind was chilly so we ended up with only taking photos of it. 

Next stop was Port Macquarie where we stayed with Chris who were nice to host us for three nights. He lived next to the Lighthouse beach and cycling along the Ocean road with it's views over all beaches were fantastic. Really enjoyed it, the city itself was nothing special.

Our plan was then to travel south along the coast to Diamond head. But we only got just south of Laurieton. The Dimond head road was in a bad condition, big big washboards and not fun to cycle. There were also bush fires south so we decided to go back and inland instead. 'We heard later that the Dimond head was closed and the camping areas was evacuated because of the smoke from the fires. Scary with all the fires and this was first time we got somewhere near whit what is a reality for so many in Australia. 

From the Pacific we climbed up to Comboyne plataue +700 meters above sea level, passed some areas of hazard control burnt forests where the smoke still came from the stubs. 

Then via Krambach and the Manning Hill road to Bulahdelah. Found a nice camp spot at the top of the Manning hill.

From Bulahdelah we took the Booral road towards stroud and Dungog. Camped when we reached the Nerong State forest. Nice spot which we shared with a Goanna. On the night Phim waked up and felt a strong smell of smoke. Was dark then so we couldn't see anything just smelled the smoke. Camping in the forest and being slow cyclist it was a bit scary, nobody knew either where we were camping.

Luckily we could get internet access on our phone and I could read that the smoke must be coming from a +1000 ha bush fire north in the Myall river state forest. Was a bit shaky moment before we found it out. After that incident we have kept an eye on the RSF website for fire updates when we are planning our continuing tour. 

In Dungong and Maitland we stayed with friends for some nights before Phim catched the train for Sydney and her flight to Bangkok.

Leaving alone from Maitland felt strange and sad. After spending the last month 24// together when we cycled around NSW I was now riding on my own. 

I started out in a high speed along the Old North road, determined to avoid the highways. According to Google maps the road would be a dead end but the local maps that I got showed that the road would joint with another road and that I could cycle on it. I decided to trust the local map....

Wrong decision. The road became narrower and narrower and were then just a tiny gravel road before it came to an abrupt end. I had to go back, don't like backtracking but this was just 4 km so was really no issue. In the end it turned out good because it forced me to go out on the New England highway. My initial plan was to turn off the highway again as soon as I could. But this early Sunday morning it was not much traffic and almost no trucks on the road. So it was quite OK cycling it. And it was much faster then the other roads.

Decided to push on and get to the point where the highway splits into New England Highway and Golden highway. Reached the junction by lunch time. Last hour it was a bit windy, but I could still make good progress. But during my lunch break the wind grew stronger

Had about 40 km left to Jerrys plains where I had planned to camp for the night. It would be very tough and slow cycling. The winds were now so strong that I even had to use the low gears to get forward on the downhill sections. Don't know how strong the winds were but the forecast said that the gusts were +30 km/h something. It was mixed headwind or head/side winds. 

A handful of times I just had to stop and hold the bike to stay on the road. So strong where the gusts. It was a painful slow progress but eventually I reached Jerrys plans after 89 km of cycling. The longest distance done so far on the trip. 

Next day the weather was better, still windy but not as bad as previous day. Continued on the highway and even if it now was Monday it was not too bad with traffic and therefore I stayed on it until I came to Denman. From there I could continue on Yarrawa road and Bylong valley road.

Road was alright, sealed all the time but no special views or so but found a really nice camp spot, surrounded by cliffs. Really beautiful and very quiet. But the morning after was really chilly, because of the cliffs the sun never reached my camping spot and it was just a couple of degrees warm. Not since being around Armidale the mornings had been that cold. Was nice getting back on the bike again and generate some heat.

Cycled passed some Wineyards and the usual rural post boxes.

The third day since leaving Maitland would also be a very long day. Couldn't find a place to camp and it was just to continue. Were fences all the way along the road and nowhere to get off the road. Finally very late I got to a place where it was some forest, not an ideal spot but at leas some 10 meters from the road. But tired so really didn't matter, just wanted to have a place to rest. The views would be more impressive, the high almost looked like they caught fire during the sunset. So strong orange/red colors, beautiful 

Another good thing with the camp spot was that it was just before a big climb. The climb it self was just steep in a couple of section but overall it was around 5 km of uphill and 40 sweaty minutes. 

Came to Bylong around noon and it was a perfect stop for a cyclist. Big area under roof with tables, clean toilets, free shower and tap water. Wish all small communities/towns had the same facilities. There was even a cheap general store in Bylong!

From Bylong I continued via some small towns, Rylestone and Kandos before stopping at Illford, which just were a couple of houses,  but they offered a free camp site so was good for an overnight stop. 

The camping area was just next to pasture land and I was stared out by 20 beef cattles when I cooked my dinner and did the dishes. Dinner was pasta and beef sausage,, but I didn't tell them that....

From Illford I took the road via Sofala towards Bathurst. Sofala is an old sleepy gold town. It had it's peak in the 1850-s when gold were discovered in the river and thousands of people came to seek their luck there. Nowadays it has around 200 people living there. The village is situated just next to a river and surrounded by big hills on both sides. Going down was fun but leaving Sofala was a long climb up to the elevation of 1000 meter again. 

The last days had not been windy but now it started to blew again, really strong winds after lunch and I thought it would be a long day before reaching Bathurst. But then I had my "Dr Livingstone" moment.

A car did a U-turn and signaled to me to stop, I was glad for that meant a break in the monotony of fighting against the wind. But when the driver stepped out and said - "Are you Mr Fredrik?". I was really surprised..

- Uhhh... yes. was the only answer I could say while I desperately tried to figure out how she possible could knew that. Cause it's not many people that know me in Australia. 

But I soon got the explanation, it was Julie, the warmshower host I would stay with in Bathurst. She and Andrew were a bit worried because of the strong winds, +50 gusts in Bathurst, and just wanted to see if I was alright and if I needed a lift!!

Such a nice surprise, and so kind of them!! I was very happy to accept leaving all my gear with her and cycle the remaining 30 km without all my luggage. Took me still a couple of hours before to get there. 

Traveled distance: 1357 km
Ride time: 91 hours
Avg speed:15.13 km/h (average from the beginning of the tour)
Highest speed: 57.13 km/h - The bicycle feels very stable even when riding at a high speed, it's more me that feels scared when traveling fast, so I think this record will last for a while.

Bicycle problems: No problems this month.
Number of times to inflate the tires: Nil since leaving Sydney.

Rainy days: 1

Camping:
Couch surfing/warm showers: 7
Staying with friends: 6
Paying camp sites: 1 ($12, choose to stay at Abercrombie caves camping site even if there were three free sites within reach. Was a good camp spot and had it all for my self)
Wild camping/free camp sites: 16

New species of animals seen (the alive ones, not all the road kills we seen or smelled..)
Turtles
Goannas
Deer
Blue-tongued skinks
Flies (mention it as they started to get annoying in the last week and are now a common "company" along the road)

We have now cycled for about a month and a half and covered a distance of 2000 km in NSW. Seen so many nice places and meet many lovely people along the road. And had many nice mornings where we waked up to the sounds of the birds. We have both enjoyed it and it has been a fantastic travel so far. Seen so much and experience so much. But the cycling has also been tough sometimes cycling on steep gravel roads. But we have both showed that we can do it.

Now were are in Maitland and are heading for Canberra via Bathurst. Then the Australian alps. Our original plan meant that we would be out cycling for about 1-2 years. It's a long time and also mean that we can't do anything else during that time. We have been talking about what to do after we finished the cycling and we have some ideas of what we want to do.

Phim has been studying for the last three years and are really keen on getting back to work. It has not been an easy decision but we have decided that she will stop cycling now and go back to Thailand. There the plan is to do research for our own business and start a small café.  

We are both eager to have something of our own and this is something that feels really interesting. When she go to Thailand I can focus on the cycling and when finished I hopefully can join a already started business. This mean that we save a lot of time.

But it will feel strange, we've shared all trip so far and will feel really strange continuing alone. Will certainly feel very lonely and quiet. Hopefully it's just for the beginning. Had some rest days now and will start cycling towards Bathurst tomorrow. The positive thing with going alone mean easier planning and just stop whenever you want etc. But also heavier bike as I also need to carry all food now. 

Hopefully the cycling will be very inspiring because need some motivation boost right now :)  

Turning back was so here afterwards actually a good thing. Meant that we cycled other roads that turned out to be much more interesting then the Thunderbolts way. From Bretti Reserve we continued down the Thunderbolts way and then passed Dungog again and on to the Bingleburra road. 

Bingleburra road was a very quiet and beautiful road that winded it's way through to East Gresford. On the road we saw a couple of Brown snakes but didn't stop to try to get a photo of them. Better safe then sorry.

Coming into Gresford we stopped at the local Pub traded dinner vs camping, the owner let us camp in the garden behind the pub. Nice with some variety to our normal food but the portion was not what we were used to so had to eat some sandwiches when back in the tent..

The next towns, Singleton, Muswellbrook and Scone were just places we didn't want to stay longer then necessary in. Mining towns and not much to see but good for some shopping. It was first after we crossed the New England Highway at Scones to get on to the Gundy road that the cycling got interesting again. Dirt road and scenic landscape with some nice wild camping. The climb over Crawney pass offered some slow climbing until we reached the top of the pass, 930 meter above the sea. 

Next stop was Manilla, a minor town. Really dark clouds had built up as we had our lunch break there. Went to the information centre for shelter from the rain and 30 min later the sun was shining again, but small streams of water on the streets. 

Cycling out of Manilla the dark clouds followed us but we were lucky and they blew just passed us. 

We were now heading east for Armidale, via Kingstown. Really nice small gravel roads and could enjoy the cycling. Landscape were farmland again with lots of cattle, also saw our first sheep farms along the road. 

Kingstown were a nice little village and we stayed in the park next to the general store. The road to Armidale were from here much easier to cycle, perfect gravel and we traveled with unusual high speed for us. 

Armidale is located around 1000 m above sea level and the temperature were a bit cooler there. Were -2 as coldest during our stay there and were frost in the grass on the mornings. Stayed at a very nice camp spot 12 km north west of the town near a dam. Took a couple of days of there to explore Armidale. It's a university town with a population of about 25,000. Lots of historical heritage and old buildings. We really enjoyed our stay there and our favorite city so far on our trip. Only negative was the strong wind. Really strong and chilly and almost constant some of the days. 

Were invited to a meeting with the local cycle commuting group, a fun event and they were also kind and let us take part in their competition. We thanked by winning one of the prizes

From Armidale we traveled east on the Waterfall way, views very really impressive with the 220 m heigh waterfalls. 

Turned of onto the Kempsey road, another gravel road. Had some hot days cycling it but the scenery was really rewarding and made it well worth it. Very winding steep roads and no caravans allowed on them due to that. 

A long stretch of the road was following the river and a landscape that reminded of what I think you would found in America. The weather was very warm and the river looked so tempting, we really wanted to go for a swim. But it was always so step edges down to the river so it was something that were impossible until we got near Comara, where a small camp site was located. Took a day of there for relaxing, doing laundry and checking equipment.