Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves

Monday 10^th January 2013

This was a 2 day ride slightly modified from a route described in the Lonely Planet Guide – instead of starting at Bathurst, which would have involved a bus ride, I took my bike on the CityRail train service to Lithgow,  and started from there.  Sydney’s suburban train service is a great way of  getting out to the Blue Mountains, and the fare of $8.40 is very good value considering the distance from the city centre is about 150kms.

However it does take quite a long time, and I had to change trains twice, the first time at Emu Plains where I had to wait 30 minutes for the second train, which only went as far as Katoomba.  I had to wait another hour there, though this was no problem, as Katoomba is a very pleasant place, it’s a popular centre for exploring the Blue Mountains and has many fine historic buildings:

It was 3pm by the time I arrived in Lithgow, the final stop on the Blue Mountains rail line, and it was hot, well over 30 degrees.   Heading out of town on the Great Western Highway,  the route soon followed a very quiet scenic minor road which led past Lake Lyell:

Then there was a very long, gradual ascent through farmlands towards the Oberon Plateau, rising to over 1300 metres. It was about 6.30pm by the time I reached Oberon and I decided to stay the night there, in the basic but comfortable enough Tourist Hotel:

This building, on Oberon's main street, is an example of "extreme Art Deco":

While browsing the internet after dinner in the hotel I read that it was to be even hotter the next day and there were widespread bushfires raging across many parts of NSW. There was even a possibility that temperature records would be broken. Not the best time to be on a strenuous ride through the mountains!

Distance today was 63kms.

Tuesday 11^th January

I managed to get a reasonably early start, leaving just before 8am. The route continued to be very hilly and kept on rising, until after about 20kms it began a very steep descent to the valley where the Jenolan Caves are situated. I was glad to have powerful hydraulic disc brakes on my bike, but even these began to overheat halfway down the 5km drop, and I had to stop to let them cool down.

Just before reaching the caves, the Carlotta Arch is a spectacular rock formation:

All the bush walking tracks were closed off due to the prevailing extreme fire danger levels:

However there was access to a lookout over the Devil's Coachhouse:

The Jenolan Caves are one of Australia’s best-known tourist attractions and there are busloads of visitors there throughout the year.  There are 22 known major caves in the system, which is still being explored. 9 of the “dark caves” are open for guided tours. The road in and out of the caves complex actually runs through the Grand Arch, one of the few examples of a road passing through a natural cave:

By the time I reached the caves it was about 11am and getting very hot. So it seemed sensible to spend plenty of time cooling down inside the caves, which maintain a constant temperature of 15 degrees regardless of the temperature outside, throughout the year. Here are some pictures taken inside the Lucas cave:

And also a few pictures of the Nettle Cave, so called because of the many stinging nettles around the entrance:

The Caves Village is an impressive Victorian building – tourists have been coming here in large numbers since the 1860s:

From Jenolan the road climbed at a far more gentle gradient than that which led in, but it was a long haul out – 13km of solid climbing, which led onto an undulating ridge providing great views of the Great Dividing Range:

I got through about 3 litres of water on this climb, and it was as well that I was carrying plenty.

There was then  a 5km stretch of gravel road, which fortunately wasn’t too rough:

After rejoining the Great Western Highway, the journey ended with a steep 3km climb through Victoria Pass, reaching the final destination, Mount Victoria, just before 6.25pm. There was just time to enjoy a very nice pasta at the Imperial Hotel, washed down with a refreshing beer and plenty of water, before getting the 7.05 train back to Sydney. I arrived back at about 10pm after an exhausting, but very enjoyable 2 day ride. Certainly one I would be happy to do again, but preferably under cooler conditions.

Distance today was 93kms, giving a total of 156kms for the 2 day trip.