Darrell Stone

dasmero@pacific.net.au

Bicycle Touring in Eastern Australia

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Updated 04/05/2012

I have done the Australian bicycle tours included on this site over a number of years, either on our tandem, or on my solo bike.  They have mostly been done unsupported and usually camping in caravan parks, although there have been times where it was necessary to rough camp.  I have also included brief information on rides that I plan to do as circumstances permit.  When they have been done, I will update the webpage to provide more reliable information.

The map below indicates the areas covered on these tours.  All of the tours can be linked with one or more of the others to provide quite extended trips.

I tend to ride for 3-5 days and then have a rest day, depending on weather, fatigue and location.  I usually start riding between 7-8am, and arrive in camp by 1-3pm with a maximum saddle time of 5-6 hours.  This usually allows enough time for my washing to dry, do some shopping and have a look around.  As everyone has different rest needs, the routes only show riding days. 

The gearing of my Trek 520 Touring bike is such that the 44-32-22T chainrings offer a wide enough gearing with the 12-36T cassette to get up most hills, and still provide enough opportunities when circumstances allow faster travelling.

The tours have covered a mix of bitumen and gravel roads, each with varying degrees of surface quality.  The condition of gravel roads change from time to time and are dependent on when maintenance is done.  However, most of the gravel roads that I have travelled were OK.  I do not use nobbly tyres on my bike.  Generally I use Continental 700 x 32 Contact or Touring Plus tyres.  Where possible I have tried to avoid heavily trafficked areas, but that is not always possible.

I sometimes travel alone, and many of the areas that I traverse may be out of range of mobile phones, so as an emergency backup, I carry a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) with a GPS included in the signal.  These are now almost as cheap as a GPS, so rentals would be more expensive than purchase if using it over several months during the 7 year period of most battery life cycles.  This provides some security in the case of things such as a potential debilitating fall that may prevent me from riding to civilisation to get help.  Fortunately I've not had to use it, and it would only be used in an emergency.

The tours listed are not intended to be a diary of my trips.  I hope that you may be able to use the information that I have included to help plan your own bike touring excursions.

I would welcome any feedback about the tours or the website.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank some of my touring companions, notably Hans Meier and Col Gibson, for the use of some of their photos, however, most are my own.

 

 
 
 

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Copyright Darrell Stone 2012.  All rights reserved.