Cycling the perimeter of Australia

I want to bicycle the perimeter of Australia. Right now I have a Hema
map and "Cycling Australia" by Nicola Wells et al. in front of me. I
need some tips on finding a good route. So far the following is set:

1. Biking counter clockwise.
2. Only biking on paved roads.
3. Arrive in either Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane
4. The route Port Augusta, Eucla, Perth, Carnarvon, Halls Creek,
Katherine, Tennant Creek, Mount Isa is set too, because there are no
alternatives.

I need help with the rest of the route. Should I stay close to the sea
or move inland biking through Charleville, Cunnamulla, Bourke??

In the book they are talking about a route called "East Coast Explorer"
going from Noosa to Melbourne and it looks interesting. But I don't
know how heavy traffic is there.

I would love to see the following: Historic towns and old Ghost/mining
towns/areas. In general just bicycle through areas where you can feel
the good old times. I'm not interested in the large cities - I prefer
to avoid them and only focus on smaller towns + rural areas + beautiful
scenery.

So, does anyone have some nice suggestions?

Lucas

wrote:
I want to bicycle the perimeter of Australia. Right now I have a Hema
map and "Cycling Australia" by Nicola Wells et al. in front of me. I
need some tips on finding a good route. So far the following is set:

1. Biking counter clockwise.

Ahh, you're going the faster way then?

2. Only biking on paved roads.
3. Arrive in either Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane
4. The route Port Augusta, Eucla, Perth, Carnarvon, Halls Creek,
Katherine, Tennant Creek, Mount Isa is set too, because there are no
alternatives.

I need help with the rest of the route. Should I stay close to the sea
or move inland biking through Charleville, Cunnamulla, Bourke??

In the book they are talking about a route called "East Coast Explorer"
going from Noosa to Melbourne and it looks interesting. But I don't
know how heavy traffic is there.

I would love to see the following: Historic towns and old Ghost/mining
towns/areas. In general just bicycle through areas where you can feel
the good old times. I'm not interested in the large cities - I prefer
to avoid them and only focus on smaller towns + rural areas + beautiful
scenery.

So, does anyone have some nice suggestions?

I did a quick 2-month counter-clockwise loop via motorcycle in 2002,
and met 2 or 3 bicyclist fellow travellers for every motorcyclist.

You're going to find that the Nullarbor and pretty much all of WA from
the NT border round to Geraldton is realistically only 1 route and
desert (OK, so you have 2 potential sealed routes down the West coast,
but they're remarkably similar). I particularly enjoyed Broome and
Geraldton, but then I'm the type who enjoys motorcyling through the
desert for 10 hours per day for days on end. ;-)

Try to time it so that your riding along the top end and across the
Nullarbor is in the May-September timeframe, that will still be plenty
hot enough for you.


BTH

wrote:
I want to bicycle the perimeter of Australia.

4. The route Port Augusta, Eucla, Perth, Carnarvon, Halls Creek,
Katherine, Tennant Creek, Mount Isa is set too, because there are no
alternatives.

Lucas, are you really set on this? There ARE alternatives.
No sane Australian cyclist would recommend that route. It is boring
beyond belief, and stressful, due to danger from road conditions and
frequent road trains.

There are huge areas where it would be much better to avoid the sealed
roads. For example, in the Kimberley (NW) the Gibb River road goes
through fantastic country, compared to the dull highway further south.

I need help with the rest of the route. Should I stay close to the sea
or move inland biking through Charleville, Cunnamulla, Bourke??

Consider a big loop in the east, covering both the coast and inland?

So, does anyone have some nice suggestions?

If you land in Perth, I can organise an Intervention.
The coastal route between Albany and Perth is popular, passing through a
nice town called Denmark :-) One might do say a 1500km loop, then get
on a plane to the next section. (trains are slow and expensive, if they
exist)

Watch out for the hot summer months. Tasmania is good - don't neglect it!
And most of all, avoid the tropics in the wet season.

wrote:
I want to bicycle the perimeter of Australia.

4. The route Port Augusta, Eucla, Perth, Carnarvon, Halls Creek,
Katherine, Tennant Creek, Mount Isa is set too, because there are no
alternatives.

Lucas, are you really set on this? There ARE alternatives.
No sane Australian cyclist would recommend that route. It is boring
beyond belief, and stressful, due to danger from road conditions and
frequent road trains.

There are huge areas where it would be much better to avoid the sealed
roads. For example, in the Kimberley (NW) the Gibb River road goes
through fantastic country, compared to the dull highway further south.

I need help with the rest of the route. Should I stay close to the sea
or move inland biking through Charleville, Cunnamulla, Bourke??

Consider a big loop in the east, covering both the coast and inland?

So, does anyone have some nice suggestions?

If you land in Perth, I can organise an Intervention.
The coastal route between Albany and Perth is popular, passing through a
nice town called Denmark :-) One might do say a 1500km loop, then get
on a plane to the next section. (trains are slow and expensive, if they
exist)

Watch out for the hot summer months. Tasmania is good - don't neglect it!
And most of all, avoid the tropics in the wet season.

"Mike" wrote in message
...
wrote:
I want to bicycle the perimeter of Australia.

4. The route Port Augusta, Eucla, Perth, Carnarvon, Halls Creek,
Katherine, Tennant Creek, Mount Isa is set too, because there are no
alternatives.

Lucas, are you really set on this? There ARE alternatives.
No sane Australian cyclist would recommend that route. It is boring beyond
belief, and stressful, due to danger from road conditions and frequent
road trains.

There are huge areas where it would be much better to avoid the sealed
roads. For example, in the Kimberley (NW) the Gibb River road goes through
fantastic country, compared to the dull highway further south.

I need help with the rest of the route. Should I stay close to the sea
or move inland biking through Charleville, Cunnamulla, Bourke??

Consider a big loop in the east, covering both the coast and inland?

So, does anyone have some nice suggestions?

If you land in Perth, I can organise an Intervention.
The coastal route between Albany and Perth is popular, passing through a
nice town called Denmark :-) One might do say a 1500km loop, then get on
a plane to the next section. (trains are slow and expensive, if they
exist)

Watch out for the hot summer months. Tasmania is good - don't neglect it!
And most of all, avoid the tropics in the wet season.

To see some inland country in NSW you could start at Toowoomba (big town)
in Qld in the north and cycle through Inglewood, Texas, some unsealed road
to Ashford (tiny), then mainly sealed to Inverell (bigger), visit Tingha
(old tin mine area), Bingarra (gold panning, gems), Barraba (birds),
Manilla, Gunnedah, Coolah, Dunedoo, Gulgong (gold), Mudgee (wine), Hill End
(historic gold mining, but unsealed road), Sofala (river gold), Bathurst
(large town), Millthorpe, Orange (gold mining at Ophir), Canowindra,
Grenfell, Young, Temora (great little town), Wagga Wagga (big town), Albury
(big town), and now into Victoria go see historic Beechworth (side trip to
Falls Ck or Mt Hotham) and then on to Rutherglen (wineries), Corowa (Murray
River, more wineries), and then maybe Yarrawonga, Shepparton, Bendigo,
Ballarat (more gold fields). The towns arent too far apart and plenty of
cheap accommodation in old pubs, caravan parks, camp sites. Ok so its not
anticlockwise but just reverse it.

As far as Nullarbor goes, I think the prevailing winds most of the year are
SE, although the strongest winds are from the NW to W ahead of fronts. So
pick your time carefully to get advantage of any fronts. Heard some people
have just got sick of head winds and turned back to last town to wait for a
change!

fb in sydnee.

wrote:

I need help with the rest of the route. Should I stay close to the sea
or move inland biking through Charleville, Cunnamulla, Bourke??

Going inland will take you away from heavy traffic levels and big towns. But
travelling up through Bourke, Cunnamulla and Charleville is VERY flat
country with looong distances between small towns. And you miss out on many
of the scenic delights of the east coast ie. Snowy Mountains, Blue
Mountains, Myall Lakes, north NSW scenic rim, Glasshouse Mts etc, etc.

And don't forget those outback roads do have their own traffic hazards -
high speed traffic and bis semi-trailers and road-trains.

In the book they are talking about a route called "East Coast Explorer"
going from Noosa to Melbourne and it looks interesting. But I don't
know how heavy traffic is there.

It is quite possible to ride from Sydney to Qld and only ride 30 kms on the
Pacific Hwy. Traffic levels will generally be quite low on these secondary
roads. The Pacific Hwy is terrible.

I would love to see the following: Historic towns and old Ghost/mining
towns/areas. In general just bicycle through areas where you can feel
the good old times. I'm not interested in the large cities - I prefer
to avoid them and only focus on smaller towns + rural areas + beautiful
scenery.

So, does anyone have some nice suggestions?

For some great pointers about touring around Australia, and South Australia
& the outback in particular look at:
http://users.chariot.net.au/~gloria/


--
Cheers
Peter

~~~ ~ _@
~~ ~ _- \,
~~ (*)/ (*)

wrote:
I want to bicycle the perimeter of Australia.

Do you comprehend how big Australia is?
Howe many months do you expect to take?

Right now I have a Hema
map and "Cycling Australia" by Nicola Wells et al. in front of me. I
need some tips on finding a good route. So far the following is set:

1. Biking counter clockwise.
2. Only biking on paved roads.

3. Arrive in either Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane
4. The route Port Augusta, Eucla, Perth, Carnarvon, Halls Creek,
Katherine, Tennant Creek, Mount Isa is set too, because there are no
alternatives.

That is the problem of paved roads only.


I need help with the rest of the route. Should I stay close to the sea
or move inland biking through Charleville, Cunnamulla, Bourke??

Wadda you want to see?

I know a yank biker who looked at a map of Australia when offered a
teaching position at Inverell and said okay (because it looked close to
the coast and he could go surfing on the weekend).

If you don't get the joke, you know why I asked my first few questions.

"Terryc" wrote in message
...
wrote:
I want to bicycle the perimeter of Australia.

Do you comprehend how big Australia is?
Howe many months do you expect to take?


I'm sure he does. A guy called Richardson went around Australia in 1899-00
on a bike and ever since there have been many long distance cyclists doing
it - slightly crazy but nothing that extraordinary, if you are pretty
determined and can do long distances between towns on the remote stretches.
Go for it mate. Current record 55 days according to website below.

The road trains are usually pretty good and will move over to pass you
safely unless there is oncoming traffic, in which case best strategy is to
slow down, and get off the road as quickly and safely as you can, bearing
in mind that shoulders may be nonexistent, rough or sandy. If they sound
there horn loudly it is a sign for you to move off the road. Also beware of
road trains or any size truck passing you on an on inside bend, they may cut
the corner with the back wheels. And dont get back onto the road unless you
are sure there isnt another road train right behind the first. I speak from
experience.

One guys trip, counterc'wise, with an added Alice Springs detour:

www.mvermeulen.com/oneyear/Journal/july11.htm

found on www.biketrip.org/pix.php?PicId=258

wrote:
I want to bicycle the perimeter of Australia. Right now I have a Hema
map and "Cycling Australia" by Nicola Wells et al. in front of me. I
need some tips on finding a good route. So far the following is set:

1. Biking counter clockwise.
2. Only biking on paved roads.
3. Arrive in either Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane
4. The route Port Augusta, Eucla, Perth, Carnarvon, Halls Creek,
Katherine, Tennant Creek, Mount Isa is set too, because there are no
alternatives.

I need help with the rest of the route. Should I stay close to the sea
or move inland biking through Charleville, Cunnamulla, Bourke??

In the book they are talking about a route called "East Coast Explorer"
going from Noosa to Melbourne and it looks interesting. But I don't
know how heavy traffic is there.

I would love to see the following: Historic towns and old Ghost/mining
towns/areas. In general just bicycle through areas where you can feel
the good old times. I'm not interested in the large cities - I prefer
to avoid them and only focus on smaller towns + rural areas + beautiful
scenery.

So, does anyone have some nice suggestions?

Lucas

Here's a link for far north Queensland touring info (best visited
between April-September if you want glorious, versus stinking
hot/humid/wet tropical weather). You'll find a good lot of history in
the area including mining and ghost towns. Mostly paved, but you
wouldn't regret taking some wider tires for dirt roads, such as going
to Cooktown.

http://cairnsbug.org/touring.htm

Here's some info for southern Queensland and northern New South Wales:

http://www.users.bigpond.com/therices/
http://www.bbta.org/index.php
http://petergo.customer.netspace.net.au/

Donga

Hi Donga
Road to Cooktown is fully sealed now unless you do the coastal road which is
still known as the "Bloomfield Track".
We rode to Cooktown only 3 weeks ago on the inland route - was one of the
best long rides in the north. 300kms from home on great sealed road. I would
recommend the inland route to any cyclist.
Coastal road (Bloomfield Track) is hard work - we chose to come home that
way in a 4wd with the bikes in a trailer behind us. LOL
Kathy