The Blue Mountains Bicycle Adventure

A couple of days after arriving I loaded my bike and gear onto the train and took the 2 hour ride up to Katoomba in the heart of the Blue Mountains.

Sydney is fringed by national parks and this mountainous area is composed of sandstone which provides jaw dropping views and steep drops from the escarpment on which Katoomba sits.


On arriving I headed out on my bike along the escarpment and rode out onto 'Narrow Neck', a rolling ridge about 15km long which juts out into some of the parks most inaccessible and truly wild country.

The temperature must have been around 30 degrees, that combined with some steep drops and climbs made it hard going.  I teamed up with a charming German student (I seem to have met several charming German's since I left home in October - don't mention the war etc)

Fortunately he found it equally tough (for those of you who know Rob Llewellyn - it was his twin brother 20 years younger and with the same classy hairstyle).




We both rode back into Katoomba - me to the Youth Hostel (no jokes about youthfulness please) and him to catch the train. 








The next day I cycled about 30km on the road back towards Sydney before taking on a spectacular 30km mountain bike trail from Woodford to Glenbrook.  I caught the train in Glenbrook back into the city - passing through Penrith - where Melissa Lucy grew up (Dora's dizzy and devoted Australian carer) and also named after 'our' Penrith in Cumbria.


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