The Hunter District Web Site is sponsored by Mick Chapman Cycle Coaching
Hunter District Bulletin Board
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The Hunter District Web Site is sponsored by Mick Chapman Cycle Coaching
Hunter District Bulletin Board |
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Great North Walk, Teralba – Yarramalong - By Greg Moore
I’ve wanted to ride the GNW for some time; I’ve had the maps since the early 90’s. I have always enjoyed technical single track and also enjoy touring unsupported. Triggered by a magazine article and I was granted a 2 day leave pass from my wife I set about searching for others who had ridden the GNW. The net revealed a couple of people had done some of the more southern sections. I asked around the local bike shops, riders on my training rides and some mountain bikers, no luck. I asked the staff at the Yarramalong Manor, in four years they were aware of one pair of riders who tackled it from the south; this didn’t help as I was mainly interested in the section north of Yarramalong. The main comment from these chaps about the sections south of Yarramalong was they wish they had had more ropes!
GNW, Teralba to Yarramalong, it’s only 97km, it can’t be that hard! I’ll just make an early start to allow myself plenty of time. The plan was to stay in Yarramalong and then continue on the GNW to Wondabyne Station the next day.
5:55am arrive Teralba station, poke along in the dark until 6:30, sunrise was 6:58. The 2004 Headshok F600 Cannondale is packed with 2 front panniers and a small bag on the rear pannier frame. The F600 has 3 bidon mount points and two other bottles taped to the bike, making 3.6l water capacity. The bags contain a light set of overnight clothes and tools to cover almost every mechanical eventuality, in the end the only mechanical issue was the application of some oil to a very dry chain. The bags add an estimated 6 to 7kg, plus the water.
7:40am Arrived at Brunkerville Rd petrol station where I filled all water capacity. I’ve averaged 11km/hr so far, pre-ride I had planned on 15km/hr.
8:40am It has taken almost an hour to cover the 1.5km to the Heaton repeater base. I have been on the move for almost 3hours, my body is still fairly fresh, but the climb with the bike was extremely wearing. I pass a number of workmen doing maintenance at the repeater base; they don’t notice the human steam train passing. Start munching the first energy bar.
The path up to Heaton Repeater.
Lookout looking South East to Lake Macquarie.
Heading down the access road for the repeater station, it felt like a super highway, it was good to be riding. Soon arrived at the Heaton Lookout, great views south-east.
At Flat Rock Lookout.
The GNW heads into the bush at the lookout, I missed this, headed down the road a kilometre then back tracked, a decision I would regret by the end of day. This bush section cut through a lovely rainforest valley, however was mostly unrideable, the track was mainly indicated by pink paint spots on trees, which I lost when it crossed a creek in the middle of the section. It would have been less tiring to stick to the road around this section, but I would have missed another heavy session of sweating, bike lugging and rainforest.
At the earliest opportunity I took to a fire trail (Barniers Rd) and bypassed the GNW to Macleans Lookout. The pure walking track sections were consuming large quantities of time and energy. I had to pick up the pace and I rationalised that I was better to be riding a fire trail at an average of 15km/h than following a walking section at about 3km/hr with lots of bike press-ups and stopping to huff and puff. The slow walking sections seemed to consume a higher rate of the other scarce commodity I had, water.
Rest area on Georges Rd
After 6hrs I had made it to the Congewai Valley, about half way, at this rate I had another 6hrs to go, and I did. Without an obvious alternative I started the climb to the disused radio tower on Caban’s Rd. The temperature would have hit its predicted peak of 30 by now and I continued sweating profusely. This was the last climb I was lugging the F600 up. I simply didn’t have the physical reserves to do another climb like this. The route up to Caban’s Rd is well worth avoiding if you have an option. Although it lacked the awkward stairs and handrails of the climb to the Heaton repeater it seemed steeper, longer and with fewer steps it was harder to get a foot hold, but maybe this impression was fatigue at play.
My focus now became on getting to Yarramalong before dark and in one piece. Experiencing the GNW I had done, experiencing any more GNW that wasn’t a fire trail would consume too much of the decreasing number of daylight hours left. I entered the Watagan State Forest on Watagan Rd and then onto Walkers Ridge Forest Rd. Dehydration had been hovering for some time, I was out of water, the smelly Watagan Creek was not an option so I got some water from a running creek in the hills of the Watagans. The creek was also good for cooling down. Walkers Ridge Rd undulated along the ridge, finally intersecting with Brush Creek Rd and the first sign for Yarramalong - 17km. Brush Creek Rd provided a continuous descent to Cedar Brush Creek, then continued flat to Yarramalong. The wheelie bins lining the road, a sign I was re-entering civilisation.
5:40pm First stop in Yarramalong was the store for a cold energy drink, then book into the friendly Yarramalong Manor for a shower to scrub clean and rest weary feet, arms and back. Thursdays are $15 meal night at the Manor, which included a Lame Hot Pot, which the proprietor assured me tasted a lot like lamb. Two meals were just what I needed to recharge.
For the record the bike computer indicated I had covered 107km in 8:08hr of travelling at an average of 13.1km/hr, though I am not sure it was recording the very slow walking up hills when my speed was less than 5km/h as I would be moving forward but it registered 0km/h. The wildlife tally was 1x snake, 2x leeches (in shoe of course), 3 goannas and many black wallabies. I met no other travellers on the walking sections, passed some vehicles on the various public and state forest roads, and collected 1000 spider webs on my face.
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Last Updated on 21 Jun 2008 07:49 AM |
