Maitland to Bathurst - and my Dr. Livingstone moment.

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

Junction where Golden Highway and New England Highway meets.

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. 

Camping area in Jerrys plains

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!

Rest area 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. 

Rest area in Sofala, next to the river. Old foot bridge on the right in the picture.

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.