Cycle Touring Australia - Sussex Inlet to Narooma
Sussex Inlet to Bawley Point
The route we took to Bawley Point went south from Sussex Inlet and cut through the Conjola State Forest before linking back up with the Princes Hwy. The road through the state forest was good for a dirt road, but even still our average speed dropped to about a third of what it was on sealed road and it took us about 4 hours to cover 20km, so we vowed to stay on sealed road from then on wherever possible. To be fair though, if you’re not worried about making good time and prefer to get away from traffic then this is probably a good route to take, the bush is quite scenic and peaceful.
We stopped at the historic town of Milton for lunch at the Heritage Bakery, and attempted to leave via some backstreets at the advice of Google Maps cycle directions, it didn’t seem like a bad idea at the time because the backstreets all ran parrallel with the Princes Hwy and looked sealed, however after alot of short steep hills we ended up at a closed road and had to turn back! Sometimes the main roads are the way to go.
There are a few tourist parks in the area and we stayed at Racecourse Beach Holiday Park, it was $52 a night which is a bit pricey however we really liked the place, it had nice grounds that felt like you were really amongst nature and was right next to the beach front. We ended up staying an extra night because it was 42 degrees the next day which was way too hot to cycle in, we spent the day at Kioloa Beach which is a short stroll from Racecourse Beach and one of our favourite beaches of the whole trip, beautiful white sand and clear calm water.
Bawley Point to Broulee
Bawley Point to Broulee was a pretty smooth ride down 70km of undulating highway, stopped for lunch in Batemans Bay which felt a bit like the western suburbs of Sydney. We had a bit of a late start because it was raining in the morning, so we arrived in Broulee around 6pm and didn’t really have time to check out the place. Not that there seemed to be much to check out, as far as we could tell the town had one shop which was a combined service station / bottle shop / general store with a surprisingly chirpy manager.
We stayed at the BIG4 Broulee Beach Holiday Park, which was actually booked out but luckily an english couple that were working there offered to let us pitch our tent on their lot. The manager still charged us $50 for the night (usually $80 for an unpowered site!!!) which we’re sure went straight into his back pocket, but we weren’t really in a position to argue since it was getting late and the next campsite was another 5 or 10km down the road.
Broulee to Narooma
The trip to Narooma should have just been a nice 55km ride down the highway, except that we took a detour to Tuross Head lookout for lunch at the recommendation of the english couple we met in Broulee, they insisted that it was one of the most amazing places they’d ever seen and not to be missed. All we can say to that is they must not have seen many places yet… Sure it was pretty but definitely not worth the 12km extremely hilly round trip to get there, especially since the view from the highway was better than the lookout which was obstructed by trees and houses! Even though 12km is nothing in the grand scheme of things, this detour really took the wind out of our sails and made the rest of the ride to Narooma pretty tough.
We setup camp at BIG4 Narooma Easts Holiday Park, just a run of the mill caravan park on the main road, we weren’t looking for anything special since we were only there for the night, an unpowered still site cost $50 though. We went to the local club (Club Narooma) for dinner to try and recharge the batteries after a long day.
Jan 8, 2013
