Central West Cycle Ride 2020

Day 1 - Mudgee to Gulgon

We lost the log for this segment of the ride 😥 But do remember it was very easy starting off with no hills in a paved road until it turned to gravel. A couple of magpie attacks reminded us what was in store, but we survived. Easy ride, arrived at Gulgon around midday, had a coffee at the 'Ten Dollar Hotel' while we waited for the room to be ready.

Day 2 - Gulgon to Dunedoo

Arrived in Gulgon early at the Ten Dollar Hotel and had a coffee. Christian was finishing off a work project and cussing about the wifi access … I went for a walk around the town, it’s a pretty place, full of old tat shops that make you want to slit your wrist … Went back and sat outside reading in the sun in a lovely little protected courtyard and then we went and bought some snacks and a bottle of red wine and had a lovely pre-dinner drink in the sun. Dinner was at the main Hotel, quite nice but getting over hotel food. Christian had a Thai beef salad that looked nice. Beddie-byes and an attempt at watching Netflix but the wifi was so bad that it kept stopping …. so just bed and heavenly sleep … Got up early to a yummy served bacon and eggs breakfast and left by nine, something of a record for us … although we are resolved to CHANGE OUR WAYS! Cycled approximately 50 km to Dunedoo. The ride was a total surprise and a delight. A long made road through very pretty farmland for about 15 km and then a dirt road through some of the prettiest countryside, full of Patterson’s Curse and Daisies, with pods of kangaroos and wallabies and a lot of screeching birds … I thought we’d strayed into an Aussie hen’s party at first … The road - well track - got a bit rough in places, due to recent very heavy flooding by the look of it but was passable. Stopped for a chorizo, chile-cheese and tomato taco which was just right and then set off again. I didn’t realise that we were only 15 km from our destination … Finally around 13 km from Dunedoo we joined a main road again but hardly any cars here either and very pleasant cycling, although we were both beginning to feel it by then. Arrived at the little AirBnB cabin at Dunnedo, had a shower and a bit of a rest while Christian finished some more work and then headed off into ‘town’ … it’s a quiet little spot, but pleasant enough. Did n’t stay there long, will go back for a beer later on and probably will go to the rumoured Chinese restaurant if we can find it tonight … Just about to have a bit of a nannanap now … a certain person is gently breathing … some might say gently snoring, but that would be ungentlemanly of me, not to say ‘churlish’ …

Day 3 - Dunedoo to Mendooran

Fearful of having a hot day ahead of us, we woke up relatively early. The night before we had dinner at The New Orchid, which is a Chinese-Australian restaurant, a nice break from the pub meals we’ve been enjoying every evening. We headed to have what we thought would be a quick brekkie at the White Rose Cafe, which had a wide variety of pastries, meals and brekkie stuff. We though of having a croissant but that thought quickly was upgraded to a full-blown eggs on toast that included obscene quantities of bacon. The ride started rather nicely as, once again, we veered off the main highway into a secluded road with very little traffic. After that the paved road finished and it was about 25Km of gravel road which was easy to ride. We saw some cyclists along the way coming the opposite direction and were followed by magpies (but not swooped) a few meters, nothing traumatising! The last 20 Km comprised of riding on the highway which wasn’t unpleasant. By this stage (close to 11.30 am) the temperature were quickly rising and we just wanted to get to our accommodation. The Royal Hotel Mendooran was the only accommodation we could find, it’s cheap, has the best wifi we’ve had all this trip, and the staff is very friendly - all this for $40 a night! The town is quiet and not much to do, I suspect. I am happy to just relax in the room and try to catch up on emails and updating the EDB website. Tomorrow will be a longish day as we have to ride all the way the Dubbo. Ideally we would’ve stayed at Baltimore, but being school holidays and long weekend made it impossible for us to find accommodation at the Hair of the Dog Inn, which would’ve been ideal!

Day 4 - Mendooran Dubbo

Dinner (Day 3) was at the hotel at Mendooran, a true piece of old Australia … not necessarily in the best sense … After making the acquinatnce of Sharon and Dave on the balcony outside our room (names disguised to protect the guilty) and hearing about the woes of the car driver vis a vis the cyclist … we alighted to the beer garden for some tucker … Christian had the Parmy and I had a steak … both ok in fact … but we were a bit preoccupied with avoiding Shazza who was down drinking by herself and desperately seeking company … Beddiebyes was wonderful, preceded by watching My Octopus Teacher, a riveting piece of film-making from left of field … Next morning … a BIG day … we thought … 93 km planned … started very well, good road, not much traffic. Nowhere was open for breakfast but we found a convenience store and the old fella there made us sandwiches for later on. We had a banana for breakfast which seemed good at the time … So we ate our nannies and set off … A one point we were intending to join the bush tracks but missed the required turn-off and had to backtrack 3.5 km to find the entrance. That started well for the first 100 m or so … and then the mud started, followed by couple of hours of of creek crossings, mud and deep sand. We were happy to find dry gravel roads but it was hard work. The sandwiches started to beckon and just before the end of the national forest we lunched handsomely on classic Aussie white bread snags … Mounted again for the last lap to Ballimore … Finally we reached Baltimore, the Hair of the Dog hotel, which I feared would be like Mendooran, but was a very pleasant surprise, a place with plenty of clientele, a friendly pleasant buzz and and coke that came from heaven … We got chatted up by one of the locals who wondered whether we had sore arses and told us we looked like a pair of fit blokes … K’n oath, mate. … We set off at around 2pm from Baltimore for Dubbo, expecting a further 30km which seemed enough. All went well for the first 25 or so km. Then we checked the maps, thinking that we must be on the outskirts of Dubbo but discovered that we still had 18km to go … By that stage we were starting to feel a bit weak, having only eaten a banana and a very slim sanga over the whole day … The trip to Dubbo just seemed to stretch out and out, as though some malign god was turning back the compass as we rode … Finally we got to the Macquarrie Inn motel on the outskirts of Dubbo. A huge Aussie place with more and bigger screens than I’ve seen in any pub anywhere … After a lovely hot bath we met Jeff Priday’s friend Clifton there for dinner, which was very pleasant. But short: we were exhausted by that stage. Bed rarely has seemed so good, although I tend to say that every night … We started watching a film about a murderer but it didn’t last long … Early rise the next morning … Day 4 came in at 120 km and a lot of that was on difficult tracks and corrugated dirt roads of differing quality … It was a great day but very taxing … probably too much, but we didn’t have much choice given the paucity of accommodation in that area.

Day 5 - Dubbo to Wellington

This was supposed to be a hard day but we managed to wake up relatively late to recover from the previous days’ ride. We had dinner at the hotel bar with Clifton and by the end of the night we could barely keep our eyes open. The hotel at Dubbo was OK, a bit pricey and the room stank a bit, bit overall in a good location. Back to the ride…after being hinted by some riders, we opted to take the “Old Dubbo Road” instead of what was plotted and head all the way to Guerie. Old Dubbo Road was very “european” - smooth riding with very few cars, nice steady riding until we made it to Guerie…a very tiny residential area with a petrol station, a café (closed) and a pub. We bought some cold drinks from the petrol station and then proceeded to have lunch at the nearby park, next to the skateboarding area. We engaged in conversation with a family who was travelling with their 3 kids. Dad was Swiss and had relocated to Oz about 5 years god. The oldest of the kid was about 10 years old and they each had their bikes and Dad carried a trailer with all their stuff. Incredibly pleasant family - Peter and I were discussing along the way on how lucky these kids were to have parents like this! After finishing lunch (We bought picnic stuff at Dubbo’s Woolies) we napped for a bit at the park and then again on the road. For the most part it was a nice small unpaved road but then it was a gravel road which wasn’t unpleasant to ride. The day got hotter and made riding harder…we definitely did not measure water properly (yet again despite filling up at Guerie). The gravel road turned to paved road and the biggest uphill of the trip was to be faced. We met the cyclist family again and we all made it thru the incline, which was 8%. After the toughest bit, we were greeted by the nicest downhill you could ever hope for. Smooth sailing all the way to Wellington…I was swooped by a maggie (that’d be the second for the day…they are simply racist!!) but I made it out unscathed. This was one of the days I enjoyed the most, despite the uphill and the gravelled road, the stop at Guerie just made it perfect. Wellington was a very nice town, and Peter will describe the hotel, our dinner and everything in-between in the next post!

Day 6 - Wellington to Gulgong

Our Wellington experience was lovely: Hermitage Hill Retreat an old hospital converted into hotel/convention centre, up high overlooking the town. We were in the old nurses’ quarters, end room with a lovely terrace looking over towards the town. Wellington itself, especially from where we entered had a pretty run-down look. We later learned that there was a lot of unemployment and crime there … Breakfast was nice, but a bit mingy, we thought, especially for the price  … but such is life. It went down well regardless. We ate at 8am and left pretty promptly. Went to Coles to get lunch things and I chatted to some other cyclists while Christian went in to get things. Then we set off and discovered the other side of Wellington, which was lovely with some nice old houses and a couple of lovely churches. The ride down to Gulgong was 70km, so a reasonably hard day ahead. We set off following the highway, past the massive solar farm, but there was quite a bit of traffic so we checked the alternative – longer - route via 12 Mile Rd through beautiful farming countryside. The road was bitumen for a while but soon turned to gravel for most of the rest of the day. But it was relatively good gravel compared to some of the others, and there was very little traffic, so we weren’t complaining … For lunch we stopped at an old closed pub, really not much more than a house with a terrace and sat outside chatting to the publican and his wife. They had closed the place at the beginning of the COVID epidemic in March and seemed to be having a pretty hard time of things. Both quite old, in their seventies … After a short lunch break we went to the bikes only to hear my rear tube suddenly start leaking at the valve. It was quite extraordinary … We stopped it and pumped it up, but within a couple of hundred metres it was flat again. Upended the bike and took off the wheel, checked the tyre and found a nail through the side. Fixed that and solved the puzzle of the tube: when the tube was at high pressure, the hole by the valve closed over; as soon as the pressure reduced, though, the valve started to leak again. The nail had reduced the pressure, opening the valve. This solved the conundrum of that tube which had suddenly deflated after four days unused in the garage the week before … The rest of the ride was relatively easy through lovely countryside and we came into Gulgong from the south-west to the Ten Dollar Motel, which is very good value. Champagne and bikkies came out and we celebrated the end of the hard riding. Dinner was at the pub again, not all that good, but it was a lovely night nevertheless. We were tired – as usual – and had an early night, falling asleep to a documentary about a  murderer …

Day 7 - Gulgong to Mudgee

Very lazy morning - it’s only 30Km back to Mudgee, so we are taking our sweet time to do everything. Breakfast delivered to the room at 8.30, delicious poached eggs, bacon, and toast. Checkout out of the hotel at around 9.30am and started our way back to the starting point. Even though I am not a fan of going back from where you originally started, heading to the starting town at the end of the ride was a lovely experience, reminiscing of the wonderful ride and experiences in the last 7 days. Got to Mudgee shortly before noon. Garry and Charlie welcomed us home and made ourselves as such…lazy day at the garden reading and drinking our leftover wine from the night before. Had the opportunity to go into town and walk around Mudgee, which hands down is the most picturesque town with lots of cafes and pubs, even their own brewery where we enjoyed two of their fine ales. Decided to have a home-cooked meal and bought scotch filets, made mash and salad and had diner at the patio table while it started to gently rain. We were very lucky in terms of weather - it rained the day before the ride started and the day the ride ended, but we never got wet (not that it would’ve mattered much). Anyhow, lovely ride and towns, am sure we will be back someday, maybe doing the ride clockwise this time around, and hopefully being able to spend the night at the pub in Baltimore - maybe camping? Who knows!