Others will tell you tall tales and true of the events in BT's paddock last weekend - a small sample of photos can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/25510729@N03/ - sorry there are so few but the battery in the camera died (or more accurately, froze its tits off sometime in the wee small hours of Sunday morning) Truth to tell I had never been out BT's way and thought I might try a road/track shown on the map on the way home linking BT's area to the coast. If you take a quick squiz at a map you will seen there is only one marked road across between Kangaroo Valley to the north and the Kings Highway between Braidwood and Bateman's Bay to the south, and it looked an "interesting" way home, at least after we added some ethanol to the blood stream. BT an Minx knew of the road by reputation I was thinking of but, sages that they are, recommended obtaining local knowledge which suggested as a first time dirt rider the option of heading back towards Tarago and picking up the tar for a bit would be smart and limiting the dirt bit to the really interesting country. If anyone's still interested the route goes Tarago - Cullalla - Sandy Point - Nerriga - Sassafras - past Tianjara Falls, Jerrawangala NP, Albatross military airfield and out onto the Princes Highway at Nowra. The route is well signposted with signs to Nowra (not as good as this years Unaugural signs in your British racing green), but its encouraging to know Authority (or at least the signs guy) thinks you can go that route. So the bitumen was good but only lasted to Nerriga with only one bit up till then still in road works. Nerriga itself was a beaut little town - think Tarago but lose the Business Centre - one pub, one petrol pump circa 1965, a camping area where bookings may not have been essential and the obligatory progress association hall, missing a few letters. On the way out of town was one the best examples of a classic wooden slab hut I have seen for a long time - they must have a good local bush fire brigade or they have got pretty good at re-building it. So the tar stops at Nerriga and we are talking mildly corrugated brown clay and another of those cheerful signs saying Nowra, and this time 86k. Hmmm, time to lose the throttle stop and pay attention to the holes. What's different about this road, is that its an older style alignment where the road goes straight down and then straight up the hills with a creek crossing at the bottom. Most other rides nearby which cross a range or go over an escarpment do the switch back thing - an easy grade across the face of the grade, followed by a u turn (think Macquarie Pass, Cambewarra Mountain, Bulli Pass and other the more modern examples). But this road kids, it just goes straight up then straight down, rather a lot of times. In some ways it reminded me of the pictures of an historic Cobb&Co type carriage road - I think the folk lore was that they tied a tree log onto the back of the coach to slow them down on the way down and hauled it up the next climb for use by the next coach along - probably apocryphal but that's how it felt. Dropping down one cog on the wee was all I needed and I rarely needed to touch the brakes. At each creek crossing, at bottom dead centre, there was either a rickety wooden bridge with no hand rails or a concrete causeway, which were all dry for me but it would not take much rain to get the river rat thing happening. Saw a couple of dry fly types trying their luck fishing in the river. If you had the gear with you, there are some great stops for a picnic. In one particularly interesting climb (say 18 to 20% grade for half a k at a guess) there was a big yellow sign suggesting if its wet forget attempting that climb in a 2wd car - that brown clay would be like ice after a decent downpour. The road is cut into the hillside with rocks and trees overhanging and has a really wild feel to it, in its existing condition. I mention its existing condition, as the Gubberment has plans for it. It still irks me that our elected representatives feel the need to tell you (several times, and in multiple colours) on large signs that this is stage XX of the Nerriga / Nowra upgrade. Why are they so self congratulatory at spending our money on things they should be doing anyway? Caused me to think of a poem [1] from school days [2] about a stockman observing the condition of an early Australian version of the king's highway, "Says he, well spare me bloody days, the bloody governments bloody ways, are screaming bloody funny ..." And there was road plant and orange plastic mesh everywhere - helpful stuff that at indicating where the Authorities consider the road to be - not always clear when the road works are very much in progress - no plant moving on a Sunday but on a business day I think you would be having construction central on some of the wilder bits of the road. Which caused me to wonder further - if the Guberment could find $80m (as their signs told me, repeatedly) - why spend it out here as I only passed about 3 farmers and 2 mad assed 4wd fanatics on the long dirt section - so why fix up this interesting but very much less travelled road? There is a high pressure gas pipeline marked along the side but so what it only needs an annual inspection. I suspect they have Plans for the Area - and the number of agents for sale signs and "boutique holiday cabins" (ie sheds with the junk moved to BT's place) convinced me that gentrification may only a short way off. So I figured the half way point of 86k in the dirt section was around a place called Tianjara Falls off the road in Moreton National Park - and what a surprise --- ---- 40k of the newest and best bitumen I have come across for a long while - its brand new, no line markings yet but the speed tripled - if you had the equipment and the skills a sports bike rider could carve some very nice turns on that gift from Canberra - and there was sunshine, blue skies brilliant new bitumen and no or almost no people to have to share it with. By that stage I was getting lonely and missing friendly Mike with the big bimmer's headlight in my mirror - hope you enjoyed the ride home to Melbourne my boy. Didn't stop at the Tianjara Falls or the HMAS Albatross aviation museum you pass (I think you would have to be a propeller head) but either or both may be worth a look if your that way inclined. And so into Nowra and shortly thereafter Berry, with wall to wall tourists - fortunately the strom dodges sheep and badly parked cars pretty well - watch out Nerriga, some idiot will label you "picturesque" and there goes the serenity kids. If you want to take a much more interesting (but longer and slower) trip Sydney / Canberra try it some time soon - don't wait too long as those NACE bulldozers are going to have the old road re-aligned and tar sealed the whole way probably well in time for the next Unaugural. The locals also told me of a still wild mostly dirt alternative to the Kings Highway through Majors Flat, Araluen, and Deua River to Moruya - but probably of more use to some thrill seeker wanting to go the coast road south not north. And a big thanks to BT Cass and the locals for sending me down the road less travelled, which the previous steed [3] and I would have shat ourselves on .... best, Andrew (lose the .x1 to email) [1] The Great Australian Adjective by WT Goodge (1862 - 1909) [2] It was the 60's - we thought bloody very risqué in those days. [3] HD Electra Glide, in black, with all the trimmings
Tianjara Falls would have been worth stopping for - some great scenery there. And if you have the gear, some pretty good abseiling too!
For real? Looking at it on Google Earth (the whole route's mapped down to a fairly fine resolution), it doesn't look like all that much chop. I couldn't find a single tight or even tightish corner on it... which means that, once it's all paved, trucks and assorted weekend gawkers heading inland from Nowra will have an preferrable alternative to the road through Kangaroo Valley. Might even cut down on traffic on Clyde Mountain. Either way... choice.
The road between Braidwood and Nerriga-Sassafras is well known to bushwalkers, as the various entry points to the Budawangs are found along here. That means a lot of Subarus on Friday evenings and Sunday evenings during summer. The road between Tarago and Nerriga would be less well travelled.
Cheers for the photos. BT and I have only taken the road once, and that was in the car, in the other direction, and it became a bit of a navigational mess with none of the you-surely-don't-call-this-a-road roads even showing up in the map book. There's a grid pattern of roads of slightly worse quality than Mayfield road, so I'm glad you went a bit out of the way to keep to the bitumen for as long as possible. Certainly a surprising little corner of the state though. While stopped at Nerriga we discovered that the pub is expanding its services to include pies, which is a bit out there, they say. We chatted with a cheerful Kangaroo Valley dairy farming couple there who were very happy about all the roadworks and the plans to seal the whole road because it might take some of the truck traffic out of Kangaroo Valley. I looked at the map and can't agree; trucks go through KV because it's the shortest way from Nowra up to the Hume. Even when this way is fully sealed, it's still going to be somewhat adventurous, and it's really only a road from Nowra to Canberra. The most it's going to do is open up the southern Nowra suburbs to development as weekenders. I'm betting that road plant will be parked there all winter. Tianjara Falls was really a surprise hey? You get this hint of it when you cross a bridge nearby, look out over the valley and see a Blue Mountains-type vista. I had to get BT to turn around so that we could investigate it. I love NSW.
That's why you walk about 50m from the lookout at the carpark, where there aren't any signs! Then you get a nice 50m abseil down to the tree tops, and then climb back up. Nice clean cliff, and great views.
