Syd: Blue Mountains adventure riding

[Jaqhama]

Here are some pics that Alex and I took last Tues in the Upper Blue Mountains.
The plan was to ride about 160 clicks to Jenolean Caves from Sydney, then ride the forest trails down to Wombeyan Caves and then return to Sydney via the town of Mittagong.
Unfortunatly things did not work out that way as halfway down some really steep tracks on the Werong Fire Trail a local property owner, sick of city 4x4 drivers tearing his dirt trails to bits, had shackled steel hawser cable across the trail, which made it impossible for us to continue south.
So we had to backtrack up the steep descents that we had ridden down.
And they are steep...luckily it has not rained much up in the Mountains this winter, if the trails had been the slightest bit muddy it would have been a nightmare trying to get the big trailles back up the inclines.
It turned into a much longer day than we had anticipated.
From leaving home at 6.45am until I returned at 6.30pm I doubt if I was out of the saddle of the Dominator for more than an hour and a half.

The first let down of the day was that The Farmhouse Cafe at Little Hartley was closed on Tuesdays. So no breaksfast at our 8am meet up point.


Remember when reading the sign that it's 60 kms one way. So that's a 120 kms back to this point. If you break down or run out of fuel it's a long walk back to Jenolean or Oberon.


This picture does not really do justice to just how steep these descents are.
Every 50 feet or so there are anti-erosion humps to jump over, gain too much downhill speed and accidents happen very easily. No guard rails here, just straight into the cliff face or, on the opposite side, straight over the edge and down the side of the mountain.


Alex and his KLR 650 provide the proof of how steep it is and what happens when you try to stop suddenly if you go offline. Better dumping the bike in the middle of the track rather than go over the edge however.


Having a quick rest stop before crossing Dingo Dell Creek.


Crossing Dingo Dell Creek. The water was about 2 foot at it's deepest point. Crystal clear as you can see.


The start of the Werong Fire Trail. At this point we did not know that 30 clicks downhill it was closed off. This was the last photo we took, all our engery after this was devoted to getting down the numerous descents in one piece and then discovering we had to return back up them.
There were many fallen trees over the trail, an indication that we may have been the first people to go this way since the beginning of winter this year. The only tire tracks we saw from this point onwards were our own.
We negotiated the fallen trees and eventually came to the barrier.
Why the local National Parks people had not put a sign up warning this trail was closed at the start of it I have no idea. Someone could get themselves into serious trouble trying to ride/drive back up the steep ascents, especially in muddy conditions. Most riders/drivers always head north to south as we were doing. few people I am sure, intentionally choose to drive uphill heading north.
We were lucky the trail was bone dry and rock hard underneath our tires.


So two hours later we found ourselves in Oberon, then it was another 78 clicks back to Blackheath to re-fuel, then another 160 kms back to my home in southern Sydney.
Despite the fact the skies were blue and cloudless it was actually very chilly in the Mountains. Another reason we wanted to get back to the lowlands before the sun set.
But despite those little setbacks it was still a great days riding.
I love trail biking in the Blue Mountains.
We only saw one vehicle the whole day after we left Jenolean in the morning, a 4x4 near Dingo Dell.
That's why I like doing these adventure rides during the week, most of the dirt roads and the smaller fire trails are deserted.
We'll be back up there again in the near future.
Hope you enjoyed the story and pics.
Cheers: Jaq.

[Scott]

Excellent write up mate

Looks fantastic.
It's a shame the few ruin it for the rest

[Sharribee]

fantastic piccies, looks like you had great fun

[sergi]

Excellent write up! Very nice pictures too!
It's a pity some people close trails off
I see from the picks that curiously, the sand/rocks/etc are very similar than those you find where I live, although I'm at the other side of the world! I know it's weird to mention this, but it caught my attention . The vegetation is very different.

[Simon]

you're so lucky to have access to stuff like that. There is nowhere round her for that kind of thing.

[Jaqhama]

Excellent write up! Very nice pictures too!
It's a pity some people close trails off
I see from the picks that curiously, the sand/rocks/etc are very similar than those you find where I live, although I'm at the other side of the world! I know it's weird to mention this, but it caught my attention . The vegetation is very different.

Most of Oz is sandstone.
Some granite down south in the Snowy Mountains, when they built the Snowy Mountains Dam project after WW2 they had to import hundreds of hard rock miners from around the world, because we had almost none here.
Our vegetation goes from sub-borreal to actual jungle, depending what part of Oz you are in.
The Blue Mountains is mainly eucylptus trees, blue gums and scrub bush.
Bushfire's are dangerous in the mountains in summer because the eucylptus actually explodes.
The bush is often so thick you would need a bulldozer to make any progress.
But many trails going thru the mountains, from wide open dirt roads to hard core single track.
Motorcycling is not as popular in Oz as in the UK and Europe, so it's not that often I come across any other dual sport riders, only unregistered motocrossers in some places, tearing the local countryside to shreds and spoiling it for the majority. 4x4 drivers do this also.
I will post up more pics over our summer.
Some interesting places and scenry around the Blue Mountains.
Chhers: Jaq.