Category: New South Wales Coast 2023
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Oxford Bike Works Expedition: New Upgrades For 2023
Before my recent Australia tour, I took Tom’s Expedition Bike back to its birthplace in the UK for a tune-up and a few experimental upgrades. This post details what’s changed, explores the thinking behind the upgrades, and goes deep into the specifics of why they were made. (Warning: it’s a 5,000-word long read, so maybe put the kettle on.) Continue reading →
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On Finding Freedom In The Space Between Two Atoms
Of all the metaphors that capture the essence of bicycle travel, perhaps freewheeling is the most appropriate. Think about it. When you stop pedalling and freewheel, you have ceased to exert any discernible effort. Yet you continue rolling forward anyway, propelled by your own momentum. Magic! What makes this possible is the wheel – or, more specifically, the assembly consisting of axle shaft and rotational ball bearing. It is here, in the space between two atoms of polished steel, that can be found the transition between human and machine. Wikipedia informs us that bearings of this kind have been recovered… Continue reading →
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In Which The Kindness Of Strangers Wins Again, And How I Forgot What Camping Really Means
I rose before dawn, ignoring the scent of bacon, and rode out of camp. My goal was to reach Forster before lunch, get my broken spoke replaced, and live happily ever after. I stopped for coffee in Seal Rocks (flat white, no sugar). While waiting for my order among bleary-eyed barefooted surfers, I popped into the store nearby. I’d been told it had “very limited supplies”, so I was surprised to find bananas on the shelf among a range of fresh produce, groceries and souvenirs. (Where I live, a village store with “very limited supplies” means one that only sells certain… Continue reading →
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Riding The Old Gibber Trail, And How Not To Pack A Bike Touring Toolkit
At some point on the third day, the ride began to acquire its own momentum. The Fernleigh Track tailed off (see my previous post), and Newcastle came and went in a dull morning of hilly coastal headlands strewn with bike paths and promenades. I stopped thrice en route to the Hunter River: once at a dead end at the bottom of a fabulous freewheeling descent (and, it turned out, fabulous first-gear ascent), again to make myself another instant roadside cheese toastie, and a third time at a bike shop for some chain lube. The Queen’s Wharf ferry terminal was perched on… Continue reading →
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Why The SLSC Is A Life-Saver For Touring Cyclists, Plus Some Notes On The WarmShowers Controversy
I crossed The Entrance Bridge, leaving the previous day’s mishaps behind me, and pushed north, following off-highway trails through forest fringes. Finally the New South Wales Coast Cycle Trail began to offer what it had promised, taking me far from the Pacific Highway and brokering a tightly-negotiated route along the various barrier islands and reefs that were smeared along the coastline. I bounced between placid seawater lagoons and the omnipresent Pacific surf, stopping mid-morning for coffee at a shipping-container kiosk on the southern point of Catherine Hill Bay. Freewheeling down past the beach, the waves looked so inviting that I couldn’t… Continue reading →
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What Not To Do On Day One Of A Bike Trip (For Example)
As I pedalled towards The Entrance through a never-ending conglomeration of suburbs and seaside towns, the hills seemed to get steeper, the hard shoulders narrower, and the traffic heavier. Tangled cycleways gave way to long-winded highway crossings, nasty climbs through hilly rainforest spat me out onto caravan-clogged beachfront boulevards, and all under a sweltering late-summer sun. The momentum that had inspired me to push on into the afternoon began to taper off. Had following the New South Wales Coastline Cycleway been a mistake? In Bateau Bay, struggling to reconcile the route I’d planned on komoot with the signage on the… Continue reading →
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Why Ride The NSW Coast Cycle Trail Anyway?
My plan was simple: leave the house, follow the coastline north, and see what happened. The deadline was a family wedding in Sydney; the route already established. I’d stop pedalling when I ran out of time, take the night train back, show off my fabulous new tan-lines, and we would all live happily ever after. It was a nice, simple plan of the type I encourage newcomers to cycle touring to try, requiring no preparation beyond throwing some gear in a pair of panniers and hitting the road. Now, given my particular history of bicycle-mounted expeditions, you might think a ride up… Continue reading →
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Bike Touring New South Wales: Sydney’s Northern Beaches
Ten minutes was all it took to slot back into the role of sweatiest, most vulnerable, most linguistically explicit road user. In Newport I loaded up the relevant New South Wales Coast Cycle Trail segment and struck forth on a narrow coastal road called The Serpentine. As the name suggested, this was the start of a meandering rollercoaster of obscene gradients winding through humid forest amongst staggered hillside dwellings. Riders on this designated cycle route would find themselves hurdling headlands and conducting flybys of secluded beaches, all the while wondering if they were covering more horizontal distance than vertical. These hills… Continue reading →
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Tom’s Bike Trip Continues: Down Under Edition
By the time you read this paragraph, I’ll have embarked on my latest bike trip, riding solo along the lush coast of New South Wales, Australia. I haven’t tackled a ride of any significance since before the Covid-19 pandemic – and while I’m relishing the prospect of hitting the road, it’s a tempting moment to look back at the evolution of this blog, TomsBikeTrip.com, and my parallel bike touring career. You could say it began 17 years ago when I signed up for a free Blogspot account and created a blank page entitled “Semi-Coherent Thought Chowder”. At the time, I… Continue reading →