CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
515 km from Sydney to Sydney, about 9 h 49 of riding. On the way it passes Australian Convict Sites, Old Great North Road, Greater Blue Mountains Area and back through Greater Blue Mountains Area. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Sydney's harbour is the reason it exists. The First Fleet arrived in 1788 and chose the sheltered cove where the city stands, on land long cared for by the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. The Harbour Bridge, opened in 1932 and known to everyone as the coathanger, and the Opera House, whose white sails by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon were completed in 1973, have since become the pictures people carry in their heads. In reality both look better when you stand under them at dawn, with the ferries just starting up and the water gently moving.
Read the complete Sydney write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sydney is where the day begins. Next is Australian Convict Sites.
North of Sydney, where the Hawkesbury River winds between sandstone cliffs and forested ridges, there is a road that convicts built by hand. The Old Great North Road, begun in the 1820s, was meant to link Sydney with the Hunter Valley, and it was cut and paved by gangs of prisoners working with picks, hammers and iron bars, often in chains. It runs for over two hundred kilometres, and several sections survive, with walls of fitted sandstone, culverts, drains and cuttings that still look neat after two centuries. Together with other sites it is part of the UNESCO-listed Australian Convict Sites, which record the transportation of about 160,000 men, women and children from Britain.
Read the complete Australian Convict Sites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Australian Convict Sites comes up 53 km in. Next is Old Great North Road.
The Old Great North Road is one of the most remarkable pieces of engineering in Australia, and it was built by men who had no choice. Between 1826 and 1836, convicts were set to work cutting a road from the colony at Sydney north to the Hunter Valley, a distance of well over two hundred kilometres, through some of the most broken sandstone country on the continent. They cut deep into the rock with hand tools, built retaining walls of carefully fitted stone, and carried out the work in chain gangs under harsh discipline. The most spectacular surviving section is Devine's Hill, a steep climb with tall dry-stone walls that still look perfect after almost two centuries.
Read the complete Old Great North Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
106 km in you reach Old Great North Road. Next is Greater Blue Mountains Area.
The Blue Mountains are named for a haze. On a warm day, fine droplets of oil released by the eucalyptus forest scatter the blue end of the light and the whole plateau seems to float in a pale mist. The Greater Blue Mountains Area covers about a million hectares of sandstone plateau, deep gorges and sheer cliffs, split into eight protected areas, and UNESCO lists it for the astonishing variety of eucalypts, more than a hundred species, which have adapted to every kind of soil and slope.
Read the complete Greater Blue Mountains Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Greater Blue Mountains Area, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Greater Blue Mountains Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Greater Blue Mountains Area sits at 212 km, about halfway. Next is back through Greater Blue Mountains Area.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Greater Blue Mountains Area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Greater Blue Mountains Area comes up 265 km in. Next is back through Old Great North Road.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Great North Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
318 km in you reach back through Old Great North Road. Next is back through Australian Convict Sites.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Australian Convict Sites write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Australian Convict Sites, late in the day. Next is Sydney.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sydney write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 515 km.
Sydney → Australian Convict Sites is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Old Great North Road → Greater Blue Mountains Area is 133 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Greater Blue Mountains Area → back through Old Great North Road is 133 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Australian Convict Sites → Sydney is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.