A winter tandem tour.

These last school holidays Marc and I decided to try and get away on our tandem without the kids for a change. Babysitting, therefore, was required, so to maximise our riding time, we decided on a route that departed from and returned to the grandparents' place in Sydney (particularly because we already had to be in Sydney to watch #2 daughter play at the netball State Age.)

This is what we came up with:

Five days and around 400km, travelling up to through the Central Coast to Newcastle (using a ferry service to take us from Bobbin Head down and over to Patonga.) From Newcastle we rode across to Wollombi through Cessnock, then down through St Albans to Wisemans Ferry on the last night. Rather than take the shortest route back, we took the "scenic" route downriver to Spencer, up to Mangrove Mountain, and down through Peats Ridge to Brooklyn. At this point we used our escape clause of jumping on a train to take us back up to Hornsby - and then hooned the last 7km back to Pennant Hills.

This was the first time we'd done an unsupported tour on the tandem, so beforehand we had an interesting time deciding on essential, and warm, on and off bike gear for the duration. We didn't get round to weighing the panniers, but there wasn't much we didn't use, including our rain jackets and new rain pants. The extra weight we were carrying certainly gave me an eye-opener into just how much weight Wally and Sue would be hauling on their Top End adventure!


This is us about to set off. For more photos, click on the pic above to link to an album of photos I've put up elsewhere, complete with captions which should pretty much give you an overview of the trip. (It won't open in a new window for me, so you might want to read ahead first!)

It's kind of hard to get action riding shots when you're on the one bike! Plus we don't tend to stop much when Marc is in the driver's seat!

In retrospect, some of the routes we chose were great, some not so. (Wouldn't detour via Minmi again - we'd put up with the traffic on the link road. The road to Cessnock wasn't great, with significant hills AND traffic, but there wasn't a lot of choice - we think the alternative might have been steeper.

Favourite parts were the Fernleigh Track in Newcastle, and the Great North Road from Bucketty to St Albans (aside from the freaky downhill bits, and the d***head in a car trying to pass us on a steep uphill pinch!) And we would have enjoyed the road from Wisemans to Spencer more had it not been so damn cold and foggy! But then, where would be the fun in a bike tour if you didn't overcome the challenges of terrain and temperature?!

We're already talking about where we're going to escape to next year!

Tracey