Tips for biking the eastern part of Australia.

When we rode Brisbane to Cairns quite a few years ago, we went inland to
Toowoomba, then up the Burnett Highway or roughly parallel roads until we
came out on the coast at Rockhampton, then up the coastal highway from
there. The Rockhampton to Mackay section was pretty boring, but the rest was
good.

I've ridden Canberra to Adelaide by heading south to Cooma, then across the
Snowy Mtns to Albury, then more or less followed the Murray River to Mildura
and then headed straight to Adelaide. The roads and traffic were ok, but I
found the four or five days between Albury and Mildura uninteresting as it
was virtually all completely flat. However, in august/september there will
be lots of skiing traffic to and from the Snowy Mtns, so probably best to
stay away from them.

We've ridden the Great Ocean Road between Warrnambool and Geelong several
times. Well worth riding so long as you don't ride it on a weekend or
holiday period. Also ridden the section of coast between Sale (East of
Melbourne) and Bateman's Bay (South of Sydney). Parts of that were quite
busy and quite narrow.

Do you have a copy of the Lonely Planet cycling guide for Australia?

Nick

"BikeManiac" wrote in message
oups.com...
As mentioned in previous posts earlier I want to bicycle the perimeter
of Australia. It sounds like I am a nut case, but here are the facts:

I'm from Denmark and have never been in Australia and I will be biking
the country using a trike/tadpole. It will be a self supported trip
with tent. The main towns I will be hitting: Brisbane - Townsville -
Katherine - Perth - Adelaide - Brisbane.

2 Problems:

1. I arrive in Brisbane 1st July 2007 and head north towards
Townsville, then going east. I'm unsure about part between Brisbane
and Townsville. What route should I pick. I have heard so many bad
stories of too many cars on the popular highway along the coast. Do
you have any recommendations? Should I pick the coastal highway anyway
because of the beautiful scenery? To be honest I just want to avoid
big cities with all their traffic and so on.

2. When coming from the Adelaide area I can choose to go straight east
and follow the dividing range on the western side towards Brisbane
(less traffic). This part will be done in late august, beginning of
september. As another solution I could go south from Adelaide and hit
Melbourne and following the east coast on the eastern side of the
range (like everyone else). But again this route should have lots of
traffic and I would have to bike through Sydney which isn't exactly on
my wishlist. But again - the scenery is so beautiful. I just cannot
decide what route to pick. Are there any minor roads on the eastern
part of the range?

I would be glad to obtain some advice from you on choosing a good
route.

Regards Lucas Jensen

Hi Peter,

I myself have done several bike trips across USA averaging at 210 km/
day (self supported). Right now I am in contact with a guy from
Denmark who has bicycled the perimeter of Australia twice (+14000 km)
at 200 km/day. Hence I am positive towards this trip.

Lucas

In article .com,
"Donga" wrote:

I'm interested to see the route you propose. The link reverts to the
main page. Could you list the 'via' towns?

Donga

Donga,

Start with 'Going From' = Brisbane and 'Destination' = Townsville

The map will display that route. The map is interactive so if you see a
location on the way that looks like somewhere you want to go then just
click on the map and it will show the routes.
You can also request side excursions on the way based on your interests.
Obviously, the map will display the shortest route between locations but
by breaking the journey into sectors between all the locations you want
to see you will eventually construct a route planner, and be able to
compare the distances of various options.
I do not know what you or Lucas would want to see on the way so I cannot
suggest the route that should be taken.

cheers,
Darryl