M2M 2015

[Trip Report] Mando to Mitta 2015

About 15 years ago, I first had the idea of making a bicycle pilgrimage from my parent's farm in Mandurama NSW and making my way more or less easterly until I arrived back home on the coast.

A lot of other things happened in that time that meant the idea was put on the backburner and almost nearly but not quite forgotten.

A couple of years ago, my passion for cycle touring was rediscovered about the same time I discovered fat bikes, and bought myself a Surly 'Pugsley'. I knew I wasn't fit enough to go fast, so I figured I may as well roll in style.

Again, life got in the way while I was trying to make plans, and it wasn't until earlier this year that my mate Steve also took a shine to the idea of a multi day fatpacking trip. Bikes were set up, equipment was bought and borrowed, a date was set, a route was planned and it was on.

I ended up working out a route that avoided as much sealed roads and traffic as possible. After hours of poring over maps c/- this website and Google Earth I worked out a route from Mando to Neville, then following the Old Lachlan Road to Rockley. Then, up onto the Oberon Plateau at Black Springs, then into the vast Vulcan State Forest and on to Mt Werong on the historical Oberon-Camden stock route, which is part of the Blue Mountains national park. Then, southwards to Wombeyan Caves along part of the Bicentennial National Trail, and finally east to Mittagong via the Wollondilly River crossing at Goodmans Ford. Totalling 231 km or thereabouts.

Saturday 16 May 2015: Mando to Dog Rocks, 70km

We drove up to Mando on friday after work, arriving around 10pm. I didn't carbo load, I probably should have but after some last minute packing, I couldn't be bothered and went to bed. Steveo stayed up for a bit longer, fine tuning his gear in preparation for the epic journey ahead.

I can't really say we trained for this event, although we had been for some sort of ride most weekends leading up to it. Mind you, the longest practice ride we'd managed was 35km, which was roughly half of the shortest leg of the M2M. So we really had no idea if we were going to make it or crash and burn embarrassingly short of our goal.

The starting line

Mandurama General Store and PO

The spectators were pretty rowdy

The next town along the route was Neville. This was along a sealed road, albeit very quiet, I think we only saw a couple of cars along this stretch. The ride through the countryside was very picturesque, it was a beautiful sunny day, although it was 0 degrees when we set off from Mando.

Wide open spaces

A quick breather at the top of the first of many climbs for the day

A downhill blast on a long, straight road

An hour or so too early for a counter meal

We made good time to Neville despite a surprising amount of climbing, and continued on after a quick breather and onto the dirt of the Old Lachlan Way. This is a fragmented historical road, and used to be the main route from Oberon to Cowra, back in the day. One section was closed due to a rotten bridge (which we crossed), and another section had been absorbed into private property (which we avoided).

Steveo, grinding up a hill

Standard question: "Are you dead?" Standard answer: "Nah not yet"

Cruisin'

The countryside

Our next stop, via some more gravel and some black top, was the historic village of Rockley, at one time a thriving copper and gold mining town. Today, it has a pub with a bistro that serves cyclist-friendly chicken pyjamas. There was a fair crowd of punters enjoying a beer and peppering us with questions about the fat tyres: Why are the tyres so big? Where's the engine? Are they heavy? Do they go fast?

Rockley CBD and associated crowds

Rockley was originally our destination for the first day, but after a counter meal and a bit or a rest we decided to push on a bit further towards Black Springs, and find somewhere in the state forest to bivvy for the night. The only catch was from Rockley we had to climb a big nasty hill for about 12km, however we both felt pretty good at this stage so we went for it.

Bunyip country

It looks like we are walking up this bit, but honest we had just stopped to take a photo #nomakeupselfie

Long, steep and surprisingly smooth... we drove this hill at Easter and it was badly corrugated.

"Are you dead?" "Nearly"

After 69.9 km we found a nice little spot to camp amongst the pine trees, near a small dam. The water wasn't any good to us, as it was too muddy. We set up our tents then went for a bit of an explore on foot to warm down. We lit a small fire for warmth while we cooked dinner, there wasn't much on TV so we retired for the evening around 7pm.

Pine plantation

Home for the night

Sunset and Steve's Sandfly

Sunday 17 May 2015: Dog Rocks to Mt Werong, 57km

After having gone to bed so early, we were both awake from about 4am onwards. As dawn broke, we started packing up. After a hearty breakfast we hit the road around 20 past 7. We were running low on water by this stage, but figured we could make it to Black Springs without too much bother and we'd be able to top up there.

The first couple of km were tough - My legs were pretty good but I had sore sit bones, whereas Steveo's butt was good but his legs were tired. We soon got back into a rhythm of 'blast and grind' - blast down any descents, pick up as much momentum as possible then grind up the other side. The road to Black Springs was pretty tough in places, with climb after climb, many with false tops just to mess with our heads. Regardless, we made good time and arrived at Black Springs around 0900.

Starting off for the day

A clear, crisp morning with beautiful scenery

Rolling hillz

Black Springs CBD at peak hour. Note - the servo/general store is long gone :-(

Two broken old men enjoying a cuppa.

After topping up our water supplies and having some morning tea, we were soon back on the bikes and on our way into Vulcan State Forest for the next leg. A brief blast down the Abercrombie Road, and we were back onto the gravel with the bikes pointing uphill for some more ascent.

It really was a beautiful morning, the air was cold but the sun was warm, and in amongst the pines there really was some good riding to be had. We also ground our way up some pretty serious hills, topping out at almost 1350m elevation, the highest point of the trip.

Smoko at Black Springs had given us plenty of fuel in the tank, the butts and legs were holding up ok and we made good progress through to Gurnang, where we eventually stopped for lunch.

Grinding through the pines

So many places to hide so many bodies, if that was your thing

Hey look Steveo, another hill

Somewhere around here was the highest point on this trip, 1350m or so.

Side of the road at Gurnang, and good enough for a lunch stop.

Once lunch was done, we figured we had about 20km to go to the hut at Mt Werong. There were a few more blast/grind sections, but once we hit the road to Yerranderie there was distinctly more blast than grind, which was a welcome relief. We arrived at the campsite at 2pm - there was some talk of pushing on a little further, but it was a good spot so we decided to set up camp and have an easy afternoon.

Entering the Bluies

Take extra everything

Mt Werong campground & huts

A female wallaby with joey, not content with grass wanted some of Steve's cuppa soup.

Sunset and the temperature was dropping rapidly.

Gimme a home amongst the gumtrees, etc

Monday 18 May 2015: Mt Werong to Wombeyan Caves to Mittagong, 106km

Even though we set a personal challenge of staying up til 8pm, we were both still awake and on the go at first light. The plan today was to cruise down to Wombeyan Caves, about 40km - then laze about and read a book in the afternoon sun and psych ourselves up for the grind back out to Mitta the next day.

There's a pub at Taralga... we were going to head there too at one stage

Cockpit view

Steveo, speed demon

View into Kowmung country

Fangin' it through the forest

Views up the Wollondilly R towards Berrima

Yeah the views were ok I guess

Wombo!

We arrived at Wombeyan Caves at 11:15 or so, fuelled up on meat pies and other such delicacies, then somehow decided to push on 'just a bit further til we find somewhere nice to camp'.

Fuelled by junk food, the climb back out of the valley was quite easy, so then we hit the 12km winding descent to the Wollondilly River - definitely a trip highlight.

Once at the river, we were still feeling good so we decided to push on with the next big climb up to Bullio, where we'd stop and assess our options - probably a roadside camp for the night, then push out early the next day.

Lucky we're not semi trailers then I guess

We knew the road was closed to vehicles, but on fat bikes we'd make it through no worries. Right?

So many lols

Wollondilly River @ Goodmans Ford

Hmm.... only 50km...

Much climbing, but legs and backside were still pretty good at this stage

After a long grind up from the river to Bullio, we were still feeling pretty good but getting hungry so we stopped for second lunch. Whilst I really didn't want to rush out, Steveo had the smell of a big juicy steak in his nostrils and suggested we could push on and do the last 20km or so into Mitta under lights. I wasn't fully convinced at this stage, but thought we might as well push on a bit further and see how we go. If and when we die, we find somewhere off the side of the road and bivvy for the night.

2nd lunch @ Bullio 

My legs still felt ok but were getting pretty tired at this stage, and my butt was in a bad way. After 60 odd km and several big climbs, the next few kays were damned hard going, and mostly uphill. Just on dusk, we were passed by the local school bus doing it's last drop off. On his way back up the hill, the driver pulled over and had a chat to me while Steve caught up. "Where you off to, boys?" he said. I explained we were going to head a little further up the road and find somewhere to camp, and would head out to Mitta at first light. "Youre pretty much past the worst of it now, 5km til you hit the bitumen then 30km after that into town".

Something a bit strange happened then, we put our lights on our bikes, had a snack and a drink, then the tired legs and sore bum seemed to disappear. We figured out we had phone reception at that point, so called the girls and arranged to be collected at 8.30pm, which was about 3 hours off.

Once we got going from there, we made it the last 5km onto the black top in next to no time, then the remaining 30km into Mitta also seemed to just roll away beneath the wheels. At this point my legs felt better than they had for the whole trip, and the last couple of hills into town just slipped past.

The long hard slog up from Bullio

Normally there's an expansive view from this lookout. Just not after dark.

Steveo + tunnel + bad focus

Nearly there!

The ride out along the sealed section of Wombeyan Caves Road was pretty scary. As we were travelling along at a pretty decent pace for most of it, getting hit by a flying kangaroo or hitting a wombat was a real risk. We also saw what looked like a big wild dog, or maybe it was a panther?

Traffic was still pretty minimal though, and we really did make good time under the circumstances.

We arrived at Maccas Mittagong at a few minutes before 8pm, after having pushed out 106km for the day and having concluded our trip 24 hours early.

Overall it was a huge achievement, Steveo not having much of a cycling background and me having done bugger all serious cycling since having kids. The bikes and our bodies both performed brilliantly. Unfortunately, we did finish a day early, whereas I think next time I would probably plan a longer route to make sure we didn't finish a leg before midday and therefore push it out to full days. It also sucked that I received 36 messages and 50+ emails at Bullio, which also brought me crashing back to reality with a thud.

I'm amazed at how quickly we became 'trail fit'. Apart from the sore bum, which could have been reduced with a better saddle and the right cycling knicks, the legs and lungs worked amazingly well, and with a good nights sleep I would have had no problems pushing out another 80km the next day.

Sadly, I haven't been able to get on the bike at all in the week following to try and keep any of that hard earned muscle tone, and my legs have gone back to their previously mushy state.

Definitely keen to do this trip again next year, and some other stuff in the meantime hopefully.

Big thanks to Greg for being emergency contact, Dad & Louise for their hospitality at Mando, and Fiona and Shayne for not freaking out any more than they did. Props to Wayne @ Muru Cycles for hooking me up with such an amazing and capable bike, and Kedan the Bike Bag Dude for his top shelf bike baggage, and Dave & Christine @ Spearman Cycles for helping me keep the dream alive for so many years.


Thanks for reading!

The end!