Last Days of This Fun Australian Cycle Tour
The Bike Ride From Nimbin to The Coast is Easy and Picturesque
Sep 3, 2009
Leaving Nimbin behind in the misty low cloud the road climbs steadily, but not too steeply, to the hamlet of Blue Knob where an old country hall has been turned into a gallery and café by a couple of energetic women. Their veranda is a very agreeable place for a coffee break and the locals are friendly and chatty. After Blue Knob the hill continues for a while before starting the glorious long descent into the upper Tweed River Valley.
It Is All Downhill Along The Tweed River Valley
This is cycle touring at its best as the road from the here on tends downhill for almost 40 kilometers through beautiful bush clad hills along each side of the Tweed River Valley. There is a bustling roadside stall along the way with a huge variety of almost everything that is fruit or vegetable. Later, around a corner, there is the little village of Uki. The small reserve beside the main street has a playground, a table, spotlessly clean toilets and is good place to stop for lunch.
If you had arrived there one Saturday in August you would have met about twenty Uki citizens, sitting on chairs facing the entrance to the toilets as they held an outdoor meeting to organize protest action opposing a planned car rally through the valley the following summer. They made entrance and egress to the toilets extremely public and one felt obliged to perform as quietly as possible as several were leaning their backs against the outside wall of the stalls. Everybody was within earshot.
An Easy Bike Ride From Uki to Murwillimbah
After Uki the road continues down hill along the Tweed Valley with the river twisting slowly through thick bush before it opens out and glimpses of Mt Warnings imposing summit come and go behind the valley side hills. This is a fast easy 15 kilometers to Murwillimbah. The hostel is occaisionally full of rowers who come to town to race on the smooth wide Tweed River and at these times a hotel in the main street might be the easiest place to get a bed. Take care not to set the hotel fire alarm off by burning toast at breakfast time in the combined guest lounge and kitchen upstairs. The manager is inclined to get grumpy.
Rowing on the Tweed River, New South Wales, Can Be An Uphill Struggle
The rowing regattas are held just downstream from Murwillimbahs’ CBD and involve both skiffs of all classes and kayaks. Some races are held over a 23 kilometer upstream course along the river from Chinderah to Murwillimbah. After such a race some competitors, not surprisingly, look a little ragged.
It is much easier to cycle four kilometers downstream and cross the bridge by the Condong Sugar Mill, then turn hard left past the mill to meet the frenetic motorway.
The Cycle Tour Ends Back in Tweed Heads
The cycle route crosses the motorway, which is something of a gauntlet, but then the roads are quiet again. The route now heads across more flat fertile sugar cane country, over a steepish bush clad hill, through semi-rural settlements, passed the tropical fruit tourist orchard, that offers tractor rides and delicious fresh fruit salads, to the coast at Kingscliff. This is a busy coastal area and the choice here is to turn back south to Pottsville Beach or carry on to Tweed Heads and back to where the cycle tour started.
The South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales Coast Has Many Excellent Beachs
The beaches here are kilometers long and winter temperatures often around 17 to 22ºC, occasionally less and on good days, a little more. After a very short winter the temperatures climb to a range approximately between 27 to 33ºC (or more) so it is not surprising that the beaches are year round popular for surfers, walkers and in patrolled areas, swimmers.
This cycle trip is manageable in two weeks but wet weather can stretch it out when cyclists decide to wait the rain out. It is a wonderful short Australian cycle tour and easily done by modestly fit people with grey in their hair. It is all about the journey, the people and some great destinations along the way.
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