Long RIde - Day 6

Sydney to Bega (431 kms)

On The Road Again.

God it was good to get back on the road, but after one and half hours of just riding through Sydney, the bum was starting to get sore, very sore. It was peak hour when leaving Sydney and I thought the traffic would be horrendous, seriously what do the people of Sydney know about traffic problems, they need to do a peak hour on the Westgate Freeway in Melbourne.

With the Long Ride officially over I was on my own, and in many ways loving it, there's nothing better than being on the road on your own, doing your own thing and at your own pace.

The first target was Wollongong, or at least the road that bypasses it, but I had to get fuel here. The servo was the first place someone asked me what the patches and flag were about, once I explained it the elderly gent and his wife were gracious enough top promise they would go online and make a donation, even if they don't they at least understand something about the Long Ride.

Most the route would take in the Princes Hwy, and the further it gets away from Wollongong the better it gets, much better, but it wasn't enough, I wanted to take in a few scenes and an equal amount of curves, so it was onto the Grand Pacific Drive which in a way runs parallel with the Princes.

The Grand Pacific is a great road, especially on a cruiser, and during midweek there were few tourists, so the road was mine. Unfortunately it only comes and goes and the rest of the time it's onto the Princes, but like I said this is a pretty good road, although extremely rough in places, and seems to be full of road works, so there's the occasional time that you are riding on gravel and other times stopped at traffic lights.

Once through Kiama Heights the road is almost as good as the great roads like the Great Ocean Road or Monaro Hwy, but with plenty of wide sweeping corners. The scenery is simply stunning and if the weather not looked like it was going to bucket down I would've stopped and enjoyed it more.

At Gerringong the road takes an inland detour until it reaches Nowra and the first of many swing bridges that you will cross. The further south you go the more bridges you will cross due to the many rivers and lakes in this area, as I said the scenery is stunning.

Ulladulla sees the highway back on the coast all the way to Bateman's Bay. A beautiful little place but one that has been affected strongly by commercial tourism. It's hard to imagine how this quaint little hamlet may once have looked. I was going to stop here for lunch, but really wanted an old school pub meal, there's no such places in Bateman's Bay, the best option was to see what was ahead despite my butt cheeks now being completely numb and screaming for me to stop.

My brain wasn't listening to my bum and I just kept on going, the weather was really starting to look bad and besides I had just passed the Snowy Mountains Hwy which meant Bega was only a few kilometres away. OK so I was here, the days riding was over, thankfully. I found a motel that had vacancies, and promptly asked if they had spa rooms ... are you kidding this was another one of those places from the 1950's, it was strangely quiet too, I swear if I saw Janet Leigh I would be out of hear as quick as a flash.

As soon as I got in my room I collapsed on the bed, it was 3pm ... almost 3 hours later I was woken by convoy on construction workers all seemingly coming home ... they were using this place as a base while working on the many roadsites. At least Norman Bates probably wasn't around.

After a feed of pizza from Mal's Pizza Bite, and I must say one of the best pizzas I have ever had, it's off to bed to dream to sun gods that the forecasted rain doesn't come tomorrow as I head across the alps.