Melbourne to Sydney: Day 12

Last night another touring cyclist arrived at the camp ground who was Sydney based and had loads of riding experience in this area. He had some great info. The bike route north into Wollongong could be described as erratic at best, and Sydney the following day, is a whole new issue. So, it was great hearing some route ideas from a local.

7 Mile Beach & National Park

It was a wet morning today, and took me a while to get moving despite being up at 6.30. The first section of the day was the link road north to the Princess Highway. This was narrow, no shoulder, and not very nice. Though the Seven Mile Beach national park it runs through was very nice...and I had a peak at 7 mile beach last night at dusk.

Near Kiama

From Gerong there were 2 quite big hill climbs, and then was able to leave the highway at Kiama. From here, in theory you can take bike paths all the way to Wollongong. I say in theory, as it would better be described as a discombobulation of tracks, than a bike path! In some places very well marked, only to suddenly disappear altogether – which happened often. But in places quite pretty too as the 'path' follows the coast cliff tops in many places.

Wollongong

As you get closer to Wollongong, there is the delight of the industrial zone to get through. The bike path here is just the pavement, but there is no pedestrian traffic. What a contrast this was from the last few weeks...

I pulled in to Wollongong around 2pm...it was under 80km but average speed very low with all the constant map checking and faffing about trying to find the way. Pretty rubbish day on the bike to be fair...but they cant all be glamorous eh?

I stayed in doors here and have been trimming down the gear for the last day...and trying to figure out how to cycle into downtown Sydney tomorrow.

Distance: 78km
Route map