CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
The stops in between: Old Government House and Domain, Greater Blue Mountains Area and back through Old Government House and Domain. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. Expect gradients and long views.
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.
Old Great North Road is where the day begins. Next is Old Government House and Domain.
Few buildings in Australia can claim to be as old as this one. Old Government House sits in Parramatta Park, on a rise above the Parramatta River, and was begun in 1799 under Governor Hunter. It is the oldest surviving public building in the country, a plain, graceful Georgian house where successive governors lived and worked, including Lachlan Macquarie, who added to the estate. It forms part of the UNESCO listing of Australian Convict Sites, which recognises how the penal colony shaped the nation.
Read the complete Old Government House and Domain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old Government House and Domain comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 220 km into the recorded legs you reach Greater Blue Mountains Area. Next is back through Old Government House and Domain.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Government House and Domain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old Government House and Domain, late in the day. Next is 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.
Back at Old Great North Road. That is the ride.
Old Great North Road → Old Government House and Domain is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old Government House and Domain → Greater Blue Mountains Area is 160 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Greater Blue Mountains Area → back through Old Government House and Domain is 165 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Old Government House and Domain → Old Great North Road is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.