Cycling South into New South Wales Australia

The Tour Starts from the Twin Towns of Coolangatta and Tweed Heads

Aug 27, 2009

The State Border splits the main street in two. Each side is a different town with a different government but at least they're both in the same country.

In Queensland one can cycle on footpaths legally and in New South Wales one cannot. Sometimes rules just have to be ignored as starting a cycle tour of Northern New South Wales from Tweed Heads involves a brief but immediate introduction to a busy main road. Fortunately one can avoid most of it by riding south through parallel back streets. After a short distance, the back streets return to the main road but by using the pedestrian phase of traffic lights, it’s possible to push a bike through the traffic and continue cycling on the footpath and up an over a bridge onto a riverside path beside the main road. The next set of lights provides a way back through the traffic in relative safety so the journey can be continued on quieter streets that eventually lead to the slightly challenging Terranora Hills.

The rewards for the grunt up the hill are some good views of distant tower blocks and then the long freewheel downhill through picturesque bush until eventually emerging near the Tweed River. On the opposite bank is the tiny, occasionally flooded, town of Tumbulgum. It is worth looking downstream to find the bridge and riding across for coffee.

Once refreshed it’s back across the river for an easy ride inland through bush, farm land and fields of sugar cane until eventually the road turns back to the river and you find yourself in the riverside town of Murwillimbah. Thus ends an easy first day and the beginning of a stay in the hostel belonging to a gentle character known as “Tassie”. (If the hostel is full then there should be hotel accommodation available in town.)

Tassie, so named because he originated from Tasmania, runs a clean but rather spartan hostel perched on a small outcrop above the lazy Tweed River. It is a beautiful riverside location and the balcony out the back is the perfect place to open a bottle of wine. The only minor gripe is that the plastic chairs are screwed to the deck and the tables have been sliced in half and screwed to the handrail, thus making two tables, each with screwed down chairs. This means that one sits just slightly too far from the table and getting the best river view requires sitting at an angle of about 45º in the chair. Tassie says that he fixed the furniture down after a storm a few years previously blew a chair off the deck and onto the road. Ever since then evenings on the balcony have had a slightly regimented feel to them. However he is a good host worth spending three nights with. The first day can be spent cycling a very pretty circuit around the rural area within the caldera that forms this unique region. The next day should involve a walk to the top of Mt Warning which is an old volcanic plug. It’s not a hard walk but the path is relentlessly up and the last hundred yards or so necessitate a scramble up rocks hanging onto a chain that is draped over them. The top is wonderful place for lunch with an expansive view of bush covered hills that form the rim of this huge extinct volcano.

Jerusalum National Park a Place of Hills and Gum Trees

From Murwillumbah the journey continues past a good road side fruit stall on the way to the village of Uki where the coffee is grand. From Uki the road wanders into the less civilized territory of the Jerusalem National Park. It’s a steep climb up a gravel road where it’s easier to push a bike than ride it. Once it becomes less steep it is a very enjoyable ride through the eucalyptus forest with another great downhill coast and on through slightly alternative looking lifestyle blocks to the settlement of Main Arm for a sit on the veranda of the little store with coffee. Onwards and over another hill, then across flat land to arrive in Billinudgel, which is not worth a stop. From there it’s over the new motorway via the splendiferous curving arch of the pedestrian overbridge, south along the former motorway for a few clicks, over a big bridge, past a small fishing port and into the town of Brunswick Heads for a night in the best hotel of the trip.

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