Day 56 (December 28)

A view of the Pacific coast just south of Royal National Park

Today was an interesting day. We woke up thinking we’d have an easy, leisurely pedal north along the coast. We didn’t really  investigate in advance the terrain we’d be covering, so we were a bit surprised to see that we’d have to tackle quite a few hills.

Our route took us northward through Wollongong and Royal National Park (the second oldest national park in the world, after Yellowstone). Being that the coast is rather mountainous in this area, we encountered quite a few very steep grades, particularly for the ill-equipped gearing on my bike. It was tough, but with 4200 kilometers of conditioning on our legs, we managed it without any problems.

We started out in Shell Harbour and were faced with navigating a maze of roads through the city of Wollongong. I started out using the GPS for navigation, but we soon found a bike path near the coast and decided to just follow it northward to see where it would take us. It wasn’t the most direct route, but it was by far the more enjoyable route, as it got us away from the main mass of traffic and provided plenty of ocean views.

The Sea Cliff Bridge

After getting through Wollongong, we chose the main road through Royal National Park. It’s a somewhat narrow, twisty road with sub-par shoulders. It’s the kind of road that’s sought out by motorcyclists and sports car drivers (Mattie was pleased to see a Lamborgini and a Lotus pass by). Although the road was narrow, most all drivers were courteous and gave us the room we needed. There were, of course, a few drivers who we felt could have given us a few more inches of room as they passed us.

Another view of the Pacific coastline. There are numerous low, flat bedrock shelves like this one along the coast.

We were particularly impressed by the vegetation in Royal National Park. It was dominated by eucalyptus, palm trees, and other various rain-forest type plants. Many sections of the road were within a tunnel of overhanging trees – it reminded me of some of the rain forest roads in Hawaii. It was a nice change from the arid and semi-arid landscape that covers most of Australia

The road through Royal National Park

Now that we’re nearing Sydney, one of our main concerns is figuring out where we’ll stay each night. With all the developed areas, we can’t just simply pick a spot by the side of the road and set up our tents. Last night, we figured that we’d probably end up somewhere on the north side of Royal National Park for tonight, so Mattie did some Googling and e-mailed a hotel in Sutherland about room availability. Unfortunately, the hotel never responded. So we forgot about it. It was therefore quite a surprise when we, just by pure chance, biked past the hotel that Mattie e-mailed and got the last available room. We’re hoping for the same luck when we get to Sydney tomorrow, as it seems everyone in Australia is traveling due to the combination of summer break and the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Posted by Scott