I rode this route in reverse from Moss Vale to the start of the Hunt 1000 in Canberra. Gotta say it was spectacular. I haven’t felt like I’ve been able to ride so many rarely used / remote roads surrounded by so much wildlife before. Thanks for putting this together bigadz! If there are other rides half as good as this around ACT/NSW please fill me in!
Awesome! I’m glad you liked it.
Good luck on the ride back to Melbourne.
Looks like rolly didn’t post anything about the aftermath of our Attack of the Buns. I was going through my bike photos for the Tripster build thread and realised about half of them were from this trip so I’m gonna do a massive image dump right here in this thread. Photography 100% guaranteed to not be Bigadz quality.
Day 1: Bungendore to Wog Wog (98km)
Ready to leave Bungendore. Stoke level: high.
All packed and ready to go. Bike even looked clean!
First sighting of gravel.
Big puddle … can’t go over it, can’t go under it, gotta go through it.
Lunch stop at Braidwood.
More bike-posing.
Rolly. Stoke level: screw you I wanna be setting up my tent already.
Posh digs at Wog Wog camp ground.
Photo spam continues!
Day 2: Wog Wog to Sassafras (53km)
Hey there buddy!
River crossing and a chance to refill our water bottles.
Cruising along fire trails. Some of it was easy going, some of it was deceptively hard work.
Scenic rocks over yonder.
View from behind bars.
Somewhere around here we had a moment of “wait, where did the trail go?”
#foreverrollybuttphotos
There were some good views along the way. Stoke level: despite the views, knackered and grumpy by this point. It had taken us all day and felt like hard work to cover a fairly short distance without much climbing.
Rolled into Sassafras in time for perfect lighting and just enough day left to set up camp and make dinner.
Stoke level: zzzzzzz.
Photo spam the third! Will the forum keep letting me reply to my own comments? Who even knows?! Probably rolly knows.
Day 3: Sassafras to Nowra (72km)
The day begin with a sealed descent (not pictured) to Tianjara falls. Stoke level: fuck yeah.
We rolled right up to the lookout. I took some photos of the view but my phone camera didn’t really do it justice. Instead enjoy the scene of us catching up on internet after having camped somewhere with no coverage.
Back on the fire trails. Things started out fairly easily. This trail got increasingly sandy as we went on. (Not pictured.) Rolly coped with this okay, I did not. Had many low speed falling over incidents and a ridiculously low moving speed. Stoke levels: falling.
Top of the Yalwal climb.
Pretty sure this was also Yalwal.
Aftermath of … the incident in Nowra. Involving a white Hilux driver deliberately driving into the back of me. There were multiple witnesses. Last update I heard was that the driver has been charged. Fortunately, no lasting damage to me or my bike. Don’t particularly want to discuss this further on a public forum. Stoke levels: GRRRRRRR.
Day 4: Nowra to Kangaroo Valley (29km)
There was some discussion about what to do next. I was feeling like I’d been hit by a car, because, well, I’d been hit by a car. I was also feeling a bit over riding dirt after the sandy sections on Yarramunmun Fire Trail. The weather forecast was looking ominous. If I’d been by myself, I would have ridden the most direct route to nearest train station. Rolly and Bigadz talked me out of this, partly on the basis that the road was more dangerous, partly on the basis that the final section of the route was the most spectacular. Instead, we compromised by riding a short distance to Kangaroo Valley, the next town on the route. This turned out to be a good decision.
Ready to roll from our Airbnb at Nowra (where we’d been looked after by our most amazing Airbnb hostes whose name now escapes me). Stoke level: very hesitant.
Oh, you were expecting photos of the route? Sorry about that, ain’t got any. This leg of the ride was easy and pleasant; starting out with smooth, quiet bitumen and then turning to quiet gravel roads. There was a climb of sorts (Mount Scanzi) which was over before we realised, then a smooth descent into Kangaroo Valley. Perfect short day of riding for someone who’s not had the best of times the previous afternoon.
This is the pub in Kangaroo Valley, where we drank beer and watched the rain clouds come in. Stoke level: increasing as beer was ingested. We booked a cabin in the caravan park, due to me not really being in the mood for camping, and then returned to the pub for dinner and more beer.
Image spam the final. I’d just like to thank Bigadz for creating this awesome route (even though it was major struggle town for me at times) and Rolly for encouraging me to ride it with him and then putting up with my whinging when I did.
Day 5: Kangaroo Valley to Moss Vale (49km)
Rolling out of Kangaroo Valley. More lovely smooth quiet tarmac. Stoke level: excited and totally not hungover.
Start of the fire trails. I think this is Griffins Fire Trail which we stayed on more or less all day.
It rained for a little bit but not enough to dampen our enthusiasm. Just my GPS.
Lush. This trail surface (leaves and clay) started to get outside my comfort zone, although at this point it was really totally fine and all the hang ups were in my head.
Moar lush.
Another puddle. By which I mean river crossing.
Somewhere around here, Rolly spotted an actual goat on the trail. I’m not convinced it wasn’t a collective hallucination we experienced.
Then there was a massive steep climb. I walked up very slowly. I think Rolly achieved a similar average speed, alternating between riding and resting.
View from the top of the climb. More majestical than photo suggests, would probably have been even better in better weather. Stoke levels: recovering.
In Bigadz’ route, the climb was followed by an out-and-back leg to Fitzroy Falls, which we skipped. Instead we had a descent which I didn’t really love because I was convinced my tyres were going to give way beneath me at any moment. Then the trail turned to mud with muddy sandbars between the other mud. I think this photo was Meryla Fire Trail or Gunrock Creek Fire Trail. Whatever section this was, it sucked. Stoke levels: fuck this shit.
So yeah did I mention there was a bit of mud on the trail and some of it ended up on our bikes?
What, this isn’t Bundanoon! We re-routed to the lesser known buntown of Bunmoss Vale, which has the advantage of a train which runs direct to Melbourne.
Train arrived. Stoke level: zzzzzzz. (I had a sleeper cabin.)
defs saw a goat.
Looks sweeeeeeet.
Shame about the car-jerk, hope it works out how you want it too.
thanks for posting the pics/write up, cam.
margie in Nowra was definitely a legend after Cam got rammed. came & collected us, took us to the supermarket & helped our fried minds figure out what we actually needed to buy, then let me use her car later to duck down the road for pizza. total legend.
if you wanna do AOTB & spend a night in a bed, her airbnb is called ‘Retro studio on country lane’ in Cambewarra Village.
i definitely found the terrain more manageable than Cam, but props for pushing on anyway, not sure i’d have had the mental fortitude to not crack the shits every 100m if it were me.
also, the wild dogs howling in our camp in the dead of night obviously didn’t leave a lasting impression on you like it did with me. fkn terrifying.
You make it sound like I wasn’t cracking the shits! The sand and mud sections got me really frustrated, as much at my own lack of skillz as the actual terrain.
Oh yeah. It was terrifying at the time but they moved away pretty quick. Or I just fell asleep and slept through most of it.
haha guess i just didn’t see the majority of said shit-crackin.
you were snoring within about 60 seconds. i, on the other hand, lay in my tent shittin bricks for about an hour. hahaha
why are you posting all of these one word posts?
Because it’s a bot.
Sad to see that pretty much all of this ride has been devastated by the disastrous fires in NSW.
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