Sydney · Blue Mountains and Bells Line
A 301 km loop from Bells Line of Road
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Why this ride
Escarpments, cool air and proper overlook stops. 301 km round from Kurrajong Heights - plan on about 5 h 47 of riding. It goes by way of Mount Victoria and Three Sisters lookout. Oberon high country is the high point. It tops out at about 1,050 m. The passes are the reason to go.
Roadbook
- Bells Line of Road
scenic
Bells Line of Road crosses the Blue Mountains from Richmond to Lithgow, and it is the quieter, more charming alternative to the Great Western Highway. It is named after Archibald Bell, who found the route over the mountains in 1823, a tougher and less direct way than the one used by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth ten years earlier. Today it is a good two-lane road, running along a high ridge between sandstone gorges, with eucalyptus forest and fruit orchards, and the traffic is a fraction of that on the highway.
The road begins on the Cumberland Plain and climbs steeply at Kurrajong Heights, with views back across the flat land toward Sydney on a clear day. It then follows a ridge, and its corners are broad and easy, with a few tighter ones on the climbs. The surface is usually good, and the speed limits are strictly enforced, with police patrols common on weekends. Bilpin, in the apple country, is the place for roadside stalls selling apples, cider, pies and fresh juice, especially in autumn. Mount Tomah Botanic Garden, a high-altitude annex of the Royal Botanic Garden, grows cool-climate plants, with rhododendrons, rare conifers and a beautiful display in spring.
The scenery is the Blue Mountains at its grandest. To the south lies the Grose Valley, a vast gorge, and to the north the wild country of Wollemi National Park. This is where the Wollemi pine, a tree thought to be extinct until it was found in a hidden canyon in 1994, still grows. The blue haze that gives the mountains their name comes from oil droplets released by eucalyptus trees, which scatter blue light in the air.
Weather here changes quickly. Winters are cold, with frost and occasionally snow at the highest points, and fog can shroud the road in the mornings. In summer, bushfires can close the road, and the fires of 2019 and 2020 burned much of the surrounding bush. Check traffic and fire alerts before setting off.
Fuel is available at Richmond and Lithgow, and in some of the villages along the way, but opening hours vary, so fill up at either end. Cafes are scattered along the road, and tend to be crowded on weekends. A weekday morning, in autumn or spring, is the best time to take the road.
- Mount Victoria
food · 1040 m
Mount Victoria is the last village before the Blue Mountains drop away to the west, a handsome, slightly worn place on the crest of the ridge, with a main street of antique shops, cafes and old guesthouses. The village is heritage-listed, and gives the sense that the railway era has never entirely ended. The railway station, with its wide verandahs, is still the centre of the village, and the old station buildings hold a small museum. The Victoria and Albert Guesthouse, a Victorian building, has been welcoming travellers for well over a century.
The history here is the history of getting across the mountains. In the early 1830s, Major Thomas Mitchell built Victoria Pass, a steep descent into the Hartley Valley, using convict labour. The road still follows his line, with the stone retaining walls worn by almost two centuries of traffic, though the modern highway uses a wider alignment. Below lies the Hartley Historic Site, a tiny village of sandstone buildings in a grassy valley, with a courthouse and old inns, now preserved by the state.
For a rider, the village is a rest stop, a place to stop for coffee and cake after the grind of the highway. The stretch from Blackheath up to Mount Victoria is a mix of fast curves and some traffic, the Great Western Highway being a busy road with heavy trucks. The descent of Victoria Pass is steep, with tight bends and trucks on the way down, so approach it carefully, and in wet weather watch the surface. Quieter roads lead off toward the Megalong Valley and the Jenolan Caves, and they are among the best in the district.
At nearly a thousand metres above sea level, Mount Victoria can be cold even when Sydney sweats. Mornings in winter are frosty, and in summer afternoon storms roll in over the ridge. Clouds can fill the valleys below, and it is quite a sight when they do.
Cafes and bakeries are plentiful, and a pie and a coffee on a cold day is hard to beat. Fuel is limited in the village, with Blackheath, six kilometres away, and Lithgow, fifteen, the safer options.
- Oberon high country
high
The high country around Oberon sits on the plateau west of the Blue Mountains, a cool tableland more than a thousand metres above sea level, where the air is clean and the winters are properly cold. Oberon itself is a town of about three thousand people, surrounded by farms, pine plantations and the forests of Kanangra-Boyd and Jenolan State Forest. The surrounding country is a rolling grassland, with granite outcrops, sheep and cattle, and stands of snow gum and peppermint, quite unlike the sandstone and eucalyptus of the mountains to the east.
Oberon's story is largely one of timber. The big softwood plantations established here in the twentieth century made it a centre of the industry, and the sawmills and timber trucks are an important part of local life. The town is also known for its frosts and occasional snowfalls, which are uncommon in most of New South Wales. In winter, a dusting of snow draws visitors from Sydney, and the roads may be icy in the early morning.
Riding in the high country is a pleasure, with long, flowing roads across the tableland, and fewer cars than on the roads of the Blue Mountains. The corners are broad and the surfaces generally good, though verges are soft, and logging trucks use many of the roads, so keep to the left and give them space. The road to Jenolan Caves descends into a deep limestone valley by way of a series of tight bends, and is a classic ride. The caves, among the oldest open caves in the world, were known to the Gundungurra people long before Europeans arrived, and guided tours go down into the cathedral-like chambers. The final approach, through a rock tunnel known as the Grand Arch, is dramatic.
Weather here is changeable. Summers are mild and sometimes hot, and autumn brings beautiful colours in the plantings of exotic trees. Winters are cold, with frosts and fog. Kangaroos and wallabies are common at dusk, and wombats may be seen on the roads at night.
Oberon is large enough to have fuel, supermarkets, bakeries and pubs, which makes it the sensible stop on the plateau. Lithgow, thirty-six kilometres to the north-east, is the next big town. Fill up in Oberon before heading into the forests, and carry a warm layer even on a summer day.
- Three Sisters lookout
photo
The Three Sisters are three tall sandstone pillars standing at the edge of the Jamison Valley, and the lookout at Echo Point is where almost everyone goes to see them. They are the best-known sight of the Blue Mountains, and Katoomba, only a short distance away, has grown up around the view. The rock formations are the remnants of a plateau worn away by wind and water over millions of years, and they are floodlit at night. The cliffs fall away hundreds of metres into the valley, with eucalyptus forest filling the space below.
The Gundungurra people tell a story of three sisters who were turned to stone to protect them from a rival tribe, and the story is told in various forms. In the nineteenth century, the town grew as a coal mining and railway centre and later as a mountain resort, drawing visitors from Sydney by rail. The grand hotels and art deco cafes in Katoomba's main street are legacies of this era. Scenic World, with its steep railway, cableway and skyway, gives other views of the cliffs.
The blue haze is a real thing. Eucalypt trees release fine droplets of oil into the air, and these scatter the blue part of sunlight, giving the valleys their tint. On a clear morning, it is easy to see, and the light on the cliffs is warmest soon after sunrise. Fog and cloud also fill the valley, and the Three Sisters sometimes vanish entirely, which can disappoint visitors but make a good story.
For a rider, Echo Point is a destination rather than a ride. The streets around the lookout fill with coaches and cars, and parking is limited and metered, so arriving early, before the tour buses, is wise. The road from Katoomba to Echo Point is short and slow. A little further on, Cliff Drive and the roads through Leura, with their garden shops and cafes, are more relaxed.
Fuel is easy in Katoomba, which is large enough to have several stations, and there are cafes and restaurants all along the main street. Take a jacket, because even in summer, the wind at the lookout can be cold. Winter often brings clear, sharp light after rain, and it is the least crowded season.
- Back to Bells
finish
Bells Line of Road is the quieter way over the Blue Mountains, and the one riders in Sydney tend to prefer. It leaves the Hawkesbury lowlands at Richmond and climbs onto the sandstone plateau by way of Kurrajong Heights, then rides the spine of the range across to Lithgow, with none of the shopping strips and traffic lights of the Great Western Highway. It is named after Archibald Bell, a young colonial settler who found a way across the mountains by following Aboriginal tracks in 1823, in a time when the ranges were considered a barrier to the colony's growth.
The character of the road changes as you climb. Orchards of apples and stone fruit come first around Bilpin, with roadside stalls selling cider, pies and bags of apples in autumn. Then the road threads through tall eucalypt forest and heathland, past rocky outcrops and sudden gaps with views down into the valleys of the Grose and Colo, the walls of pale sandstone cliffs dropping away into blue haze. Near Mount Tomah, at about a thousand metres, the air is cooler, and the botanic garden there grows cool-climate plants from around the world, with rhododendrons and a long view out over the ridges.
For riding, the Bells Line is a delight and a slight test. The bends are long and flowing, the surface is generally good, and traffic is lighter than on the highway, but weekends bring many bikes and cars, so overtaking requires care. Fog and cold are real at the top, and in winter there can be ice or even snow, so carry a warm layer. Kangaroos, wallabies and wombats appear at dusk, and fires in dry summers can close the road.
Fuel is the thing to plan. There are stations at Kurrajong and around Richmond on the Sydney side and at Lithgow on the far side, with limited options in between, so fill up before you climb. Pie shops and cafes at Bilpin are a reliable stop. Spring and autumn are the best seasons; summer can bring heat, smoke and big crowds, while winter mornings may be bitingly cold.