Australia Day 2009 - A ride into the Mountains

Well, having lazed around for the first two days of the Australia Day long weekend, I decided to go for a ride today (Australia Day) into the Blue Mountains. The rest of the family wanted to laze around at home, especially my girls who only have a couple of days to go until schools return after the summer holidays.

Starting out - The Black Power Ranger ??? :)


It was a brilliant day for riding, but was threatening to get very hot during the day. 1/8th cloud cover and that was beautiful fluffy cumulus cloud. I headed out at 10.00am over to Lithgow via the Great Western Highway, where I stopped for the mandatory coffee. Had I been riding a Ducati, it would have been a Latte, but seeing as its a Suzuki, I have a flat white :) As I was entering Lithgow I spotted an unmarked Highway Patrol car turning in towards Lithgow . I made a mental note to be careful on the bells Line of Road, seeing as it is double demerit points over the long weekend. I expect the road to be pretty heavily policed.

From Lithgow, I headed up the Bells Line of Road, the plan being to ride to Bell and then take the causeway across to Mt. Victoria and then from there on to Blackheath and then Katoomba.
Just leaving Lithgow I came across the unmarked HWP car spotted earlier, parked down a hidden side road with the HWP officers concealed under a very shady poplar tree checking the speed of vehicles in the 50KPH zone with their radar gun. As I went past I gave a friendly wave and continued on up the windy climbing section of the road onto the top of the escarpment heading towards Bell. I past a couple of bikes and signaled the Police ahead and came across another marked HWP car on its way to Lithgow. A good day to not push the speed limit I was thinking - good job too :) The road was pretty busy with quite a lot of 4WDs and campers, quite loikely returning home after the long weekend and perhaps extended summer holidays.

After riding from Bell to Mt. Victoria and then on to Blackheath, I stayed on the highway till Katoomba, did a circuit of the main street to see what was open, before heading down towards Echo Point, where the viewing area and visitors centre is located for the Three Sisters rock formation and tourist attraction.

Echo Point at Katoomba


The viewing platform for the Three Sisters and the Jamison Valley


View of the Jamison Valley with Mt. Solitary


The Three Sisters




Close up showing walking track and bridge onto the Three Sisters


After having a walk around the walking tracks below the lookout, I headed back to the bike, via a cafe, where I bought some iced tea. God it was hot!! I then rode back through Katoomba to Leura, had a small ride around the village and then decided I'd head back to Blackheath for some lunch. I stopped at Blackheath and parked the bike under a very shady tree on the side of the highway and headed over to the Wattle Cafe. I had a Roast Beef, dill pickle, lettuce and sprout sandwich with a mug of coffee and sat outside and watched the world hurry past. There were quite a few people heading in both directions (east towards Sydney and west towards Lithgow and Bathurst) with off-road bikes in tow. It seems to be a very popular past-time these days.

The Wattle Cafe, Blackheath


After lunch, I headed back to Mt. Victoria and from there back along the causeway to Bell then on to Lithgow, following a HWP car for the last 10kms of the trip. From Lithgow I then took the highway back to Bathurst, deciding to get back early so I could clean the bike and also have a very long cold drink and cold shower :) On the way back to Bathurst I passed a HWP motorcycle and got a wave off the rider. That is my first wave from a Police motorcycle, things can't be bad :) All in all - 5 hours and just over 250kms travelled. It was about 25 degrees C when I started and it was 31degrees when I got home, so I can't complain, given that on Saturday it was 42 degrees in Sydney.

It was a great Australia Day ride.