New England National Park and Mt Hyland Nature Reserve

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. New England National Park

   At Point Lookout, on the edge of the New England tableland in northern New South Wales, the land drops away so suddenly that on a clear morning you seem to be standing on the rim of the world. The escarpment falls more than a kilometre to the Bellinger valley, and on many days a sea of cloud fills the valleys below, with the ridges sticking out like islands. New England National Park protects this edge of the Great Dividing Range, and it is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, a World Heritage site that preserves forests whose lineage goes back to the time when Australia was part of the supercontinent of Gondwana. Here grow Antarctic beech trees, gnarled and draped with moss, in a cool temperate rainforest that feels more like a fairy tale than Australia.

   Read the complete New England National Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   New England National Park is where the day begins. Next is Dorrigo National Park.

2. 2. Dorrigo National Park

   The Dorrigo plateau rises behind the coast of northern New South Wales like an island of rainforest in a sea of farmland, at about seven hundred metres, with rich red soil formed by ancient volcanic basalt. The national park protects the largest stand of subtropical rainforest on the plateau, and it is one of the Gondwana Rainforests sites on the World Heritage list. The trees are huge: strangler figs, brush box, tulipwood, and tree ferns in the shade beneath, with epiphytes and orchids on every branch. Walking in this forest after rain, the air smells of wet earth and leaves, and the sound of dripping is everywhere.

   Read the complete Dorrigo National Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Dorrigo National Park comes up 51 km in. Next is Mt Hyland Nature Reserve.

3. 3. Mt Hyland Nature Reserve

   Ask a New South Wales local about Mt Hyland and you may get a shrug, which is partly the point. The nature reserve occupies high, cool country on the edge of the New England tableland, west of the Dorrigo plateau, in the same belt of mountains that holds the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia. Here the forest changes character as you climb: warm eucalypt forest gives way to tangled rainforest and then to stands of Antarctic beech, gnarled and moss-draped trees whose relatives grow in Patagonia and New Zealand, a leftover from the days when the southern continents were joined.

   Read the complete Mt Hyland Nature Reserve write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   101 km in you reach Mt Hyland Nature Reserve. Next is back through Dorrigo National Park.

4. 4. back through Dorrigo National Park

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Dorrigo National Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Dorrigo National Park, late in the day. Next is New England National Park.

5. 5. New England National Park

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete New England National Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at New England National Park. That is the ride.