Thursday 18th October - Up to the Blue Mountains on the Big Ring

Thursday 18^th October 

Australian built Drover aircraft at our lunch stop at Bathurst airport

White faced heron looking up at a drone that someone was flying nearby

Sunset over the Blue Mountains

It was cold with a heavy dew at the cabin this morning. Took the bike out to start about 15 km east of Cowra where I gave up yesterday. Rufous Songlarks still calling all around. They really put on a vocal show. Cycle east along the A41 which has a good surface mostly and it is not very windy and there is no headwind today. Main problem is the amount of traffic and narrow shoulders but the drivers have more of a problem with me than the other way around an no-one hits me. Mandy suffers worse when she strips over a bit of metal fastener that is embedded in the tarmac. She grazes and bruises hands/wrists and even gets a cut on her chin. Driving is a bit painful for a bit but manageable as it is an automatic.

The scenery is like England with lots of winding turns and climbs and descents. Without the headwind it is really rather enjoyable. See Superb Parrots including a male in Lyndhurst. Other colourful parrots all around including Eastern and Crimson Rosellas.

There are short spells of light rain and it is more a view of grey hills than blue mountains.

We pass through Blayney which is like a wild west town in style. There is a rule that everyone must park rear end in at 60 degrees to the kerb and it looks really odd seeing everyone parked that way

Next town is the large and very busy Bathurst where the drivers are very aggressive and not at all like the journey so far. Probably what we have to look forward to in Sydney in a couple of days. Distance to Sydney is under 200km and really could be done in a long day from here if needed.

We have lunch at Bathurst airport which has a De Haviland (Australia) Drover parked outside. It is a bit  like a DH Dove but is a tail dragger with three engines. When I was a kid there was a book at home with pictures of children in Australia taking lessons by radio and the flying doctor travelling in DHA Drovers. There is also the odd looking Transavia PL-12 another aircraft of Australian origin and the first time I’ve seen one.

After Bathurst we start climbing in earnest and the highest point of the route today is at the Yetholme Crest shown as 1180 metres. It is well graded and I make it on the big ring with a cog left to go and without getting out of the saddle. Is this all the Blue Mountains has to test me? The route we will take next will climb back out of Lithgow (we dropped down to about 910 metres here) but never above 1086 metres which is just 1 metre more than Mount Snowdon!

Have a quick shower at Lithgow at 5pm hen set of quickly to look for Flame Robin where we’ve seen it reported. We don’t see it at Blast Furnace park in town so we drive out on one of the routes towards Sydney to a picnic spot. Good views and sunset but no bird at first. Then one shows up briefly but oddly for this showy bird he slinks away. It’s a new bird for us though.

Back to town after dark for a Big Mac before getting ready for tomorrow’s day off the bike. We are going to the Capertree Valley just north of here for the scenery and birds.

151.42 km today in 6 hours 21 minutes – an average of 23.7 kph. Total so far 4026.34 km. Cracked the 4000 km and 2500 mile barriers!