Bikepacking Australia - Sydney to Gold Coast (December 2022)
Once we had sufficiently researched "bike packing" and realizing that regular people like us could totally do it, we started getting all the stuff.
We both have hybrid bikes, so we decided to just upgrade the parts on those frames. When it comes to biking (much like hiking), the decisions you make are very personal and affected by your riding style, preferences, height, weight etc etc. At some point we might make another post about our bike upgrades.
As for what we brought for sleeping - we already do a lot of hiking, so we have a lightweight tent (Nemo brand), and lightweight sleeping mats, sleeping bags etc. We bought non-riding clothes that were wrinkle resistant.
We arrived in Sydney around 6pm on a Friday. By the time we cleared customs and reassembled our bikes, the sun had set. Amazingly there is a campground in Rockdale - a suburb not too far from the Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport. And there are bike paths for a good portion of the way. There are bike paths directly to/from the airport. We had a bit of a struggle finding them at first. But they are there... you can access them from the parking garage.
We planned to spend a couple days in Sydney to adjust to the time zone and recover from the flight. There are so many bike paths and trails to explore in Sydney. It's pretty awesome.
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| Sheralee Tourist Park in Rockdale - A short ride from Sydney Airport |
Day 1: Rockdale to Narrabeen
Monday December 12, 2022 we started our big ride. From Rockdale we north around the airport, hitting up the Ikea in Tempe for breakfast. The staff were very good about letting us eat in the display area at the front of the store so we could keep an eye on our bikes. From there we headed up through Alexandria through Centennial Park and out to Bondi. It was lunch time so we stopped at the shopping centre and grabbed some food from Woolies (Woolworths grocery store).
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| Centennial Park Sydney Bike Path **remember to keep left in Australia! |
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| Bondi Beach |
After a delicious lunch overlooking the famed Bondi Beach, we rode north to Watsons Bay. Our plan was to take the ferry to Manly. But in planning we never thought to check if the ferry runs every day. As it turned out, the Watsons Bay - Manly ferry does not operate on Mondays or Wednesdays. So instead we took a ferry into Darling Harbour and switched to a Manly ferry from there.
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| View from the Watson Bay Ferry |
Anyone familiar with Sydney are familiar with the hills of Sydney. So. Many. Hills. Be prepared for it.
We stayed the night in the NRMA Sydney Lakeside Holiday Park.
Day 2: Narrabeen to Salt Ash
Our plan was to stay as close to the coast as possible on this trip. When you look at the map of Australia, with all the waterways around Sydney the initial thought is that you would have to go inland to do a bike ride. But actually there are so many ferries you can take - and all of them can accommodate bikes. We did have to take our packs off our bikes for most of the ferries, but the Ortliebs are very easy to remove. It really wasn't a big deal, and the adventure aspect of it was so worth it.
The start of day two took us north from Narrabeen to Palm Beach. From here we took the ferry across to Ettalong beach, then we rode to Woy Woy. From Woy Woy we took a train to Newcastle. The trains between Sydney and Newcastle are commuter trains and not the country style trains, so we could just walk our bikes right onto the train (for the rural trains you have to disassemble your bikes and pack them the way you would for a flight). Between Woy Woy and Newcastle we could have taken the highway, but the train was easy and cheap, and it cut out essentially a day of hwy riding.
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| Palm Beach Jetty |
Newcastle brought with it another ferry (this was literally the highlight of the trip - all the ferries we could take our bikes on. It was just so awesome). We took the Stockton ferry to Stockton. We had intended to end the evening in Anna Bay or Port Stephens - or, ideally, Nelson Bay. But we were fighting the wind that day and were not going to make it. As the sun started to set we looked for a decent place to random camp. We ended up finding a field with a small thicket we could hide our tent behind. Right next to the field was a petrol station that had a bakery attached - so dinner and breakfast were sorted!
Sadly we never took any photos of our little camp spot.
Day 3: Salt Ash to Seal Rocks
From Salt Ash we continued on to Nelson Bay for - you guessed it - another ferry.
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| Nelson Bay wharf |
We had a bit of a wait for the ferry, so we grabbed some lunch from town, and bbq'd at the park. A lot of parks in Australia have electric BBQs. Some are free, others you might have to pay with coins. All the ones we came across were free. Also in many places in Australia you can get water for free. There are water fountains along many bike paths, and in parks where you can fill your water bottles. It's a really great set up.
The Nelson Bay ferry took us to Tea Gardens. We headed east towards the coast and then north along Mungo Brush Side Road. This was the first time we were leaving built up areas.
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| Mungo Brush Road |
We were aiming for the Reflections Seal Rocks Holiday Park - but we didn't know what we would find there. Some holiday parks have all the amenities, and some have very little. During our ride we realized that we perhaps did not have enough water to last us the rest of the day and potentially the following morning until we got to Forster (a decent sized town with grocery stores). So we took a slight detour towards the NRMA Myall Shores Holiday Park, which online showed to have a store. This lead to us taking yet another ferry - although only Kay took this ferry. Dean stayed with the bikes and did some quick repairs while Kay went and got the water. There were only 2 options for water - refrigerated bottles at $3 for 500ml, or non refrigerated at $10 for 10L. Kay bought the 10L... but that meant carrying it on the bike.
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| Bombah Point Ferry |
The campground at Seal Rocks is very down.... It was great to end the day on such a great descent. But that meant starting the next day with a big up. Seal Rocks seems like a bit of a hidden gem. The price for setting up our tent at first seemed a bit steep - but when we saw the park grounds, and the beach, it totally made sense. Some day we would like to get back there and spend some more time exploring. NSW is truly a beautiful place.
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| Breakfast view at Seal Rocks Campground |
Day 4: Seal Rocks to ~Rainbow flat
From Seal Rocks we had to head inland a bit towards Bungwahl, then followed the Lakes Way all the way to Forster. This is where we grabbed some lunch and restocked on snacks. We also hit up a laundromat.
Forster is yet another beautiful place worth checking out. (That can be said of just about anywhere on the east coast of Australia). We didn't take nearly enough photos.
We continued north and ended up random camping somewhere close to Rainbow Flat. We had to find something to eat, and the only thing close by was a petrol station - where we found a can of spaghetti. It did the trick. We also had some Tim tams. On this trip we probably smashed like 10 packages of Tim tams. If you haven't tried them, they are a delicious Australian chocolate cookie, covered in milk chocolate. Google or Youtube "Tim Tam Slam." You're welcome. You can get these cookies in Canada (and probably the states too).
One thing to note is that if you're doing a bike trip in Australia, you are in Australia - so look out for the snakes and spiders! Not everything in Australia is trying to kill you... but there are venomous snakes and spiders, and when you're out in the middle of nowhere without a car you don't really want a run in. We saw many snakes along the way - most of them were roadkill. But a couple times we passed some that were sun baking on the road. They can look like tree branches, so just be alert. Also, if you choose to sit on the side of the road just look before you sit. The one of us who grew up in Australia and is very well aware of the types of animals had a dumb moment and sat right on a funnel web spiders funnel. And the spider was visible inside. Thankfully nothing happened... but that could have been an embarrassing trip to the emergency.
Day 5: Rainbow Flat to Diamond Head
After a night of random camping on the side of the road, and after a quick stop in a petrol station for a bathroom, we headed into Taree for food.
From Taree we stayed on the Hwy for a while. What we found was the highway was a lot more level than the other roads - so in the hilliest of areas, the hwy was the easiest choice. It does mean that you have traffic passing you, but on the Pacific Hwy (A1) the shoulders are wide, and we never felt that the traffic was too close. The trucks were loud when they passed, but other than that the experience was actually quite pleasant.
We left the highway at Jericho Road and headed NE to Coralville Road. Along the way we were able to pick up some delicious oranges from an orchard.
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| Setting up the drone |
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| Our campground neighbours |
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| Another friend in the campground |
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| Our tent, the pit toilets in the background |
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| Diamond Head |
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| Packing up in the morning |
The March flies in this campground were relentless... that was something we probably could have done without.
Day 6: Diamond Head to Port Macquarie
We had aimed to end the night at a campground near limeburners creek. We even phoned ahead to ensure we could get a campground (side point, the public Telstra phones in Australia are free for local calls). But as we started north along the coastline our road soon turned to gravel. After travelling several kilometres on this gravel road it turned to sand. We couldn't tell how long the road would be sand - and we weren't about to try and find out... so we had to turn back to Port Macquarie. By the time we got back to Port Macquarie it was dusk and we were ready for a good meal. We called the campground, but it was $90 for the night just to set up our tent. But the Port Macquarie Hotel was $110 for the night. To us this was a no-brainer. We got to spent the night inside, on a bed. The staff were really helpful and locked up our bikes under the stairs in the hotel. And they gave us coupons for the restaurant - which was a really good meal. It wasn't the ritz... but compared to another night in our tent it may as well have been.
Inside the Port Macquarie Hotel.
Day 7: Port Macquarie to Crescent Head
Before setting off we went to the woolies and stocked up on food for the day.
We took the Settlement Point Ferry once more, but this time we turned left along shoreline road and then headed north on Maria River Road. This lead us all the way to Crescent Head road. The journey this day was approx 40km, and we were thankful for a shorter day of riding.
Neither one of took photos on this day - not until we reached Crescent Head anyway. We were trying to arrive early enough to enjoy the beach in the afternoon.
Day 8: Crescent Head to Nambucca Heads
This was one of our longer days at almost 90km. From Crescent Head we rode north along Loftus Road, which eventually brought us to Belmore River Right Bank Road. This was a scenic and enjoyable riding day. But the wind was quite strong, so any time we stopped it wasn't quite as enjoyable. We didn't stop except to eat - and so we don't have any photos of this day - not until we arrived to Nambucca Heads, anyways.
Eventually we arrived to Gladstone and crossed over into Smithtown, before continuing to Macleay Valley Way. We followed this north until we eventually met back up with the Pacific Highway. We rode on the highway until Macksville. From there we stayed along the river until we got into Nambucca.
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| Bridge in Macksville |
We stopped at a rest stop to use the facilities and have a snack. There we met a lovely couple that insisted we stay the night at their home. We agreed, and we got to enjoy a wonderful bbq dinner with them, and be shown around town a bit (by car!!)
Day 9: Nambucca Heads to Sandy Beach
After a warm night spent in our new friends home, we were ready to set off for another day of riding. We set off fairly early, since we had another long day ahead of us. The direct route to Emerald beach - where we had planned to spend the night - was about 60km, but since this was all about seeing Australia we wanted to get off the highway and ride along the coast. We did stay on the highway just until the exit from Sawtell. We toured around Sawtell a bit just to check it out before riding north along Hogbin Drive to Coffs Harbour.
Coffs Harbour is one of Kay's favourite places from childhood. Her family visited Coffs Harbour many times. It's absolutely beautiful there. One thing that she didn't remember was all the hills!!!!! Coffs Harbour is as hilly as Sydney. Big, steep hills. Travelling by car, it's not something you would notice. But on our bikes we absolutely noticed.
We stopped at Coffs Coast Wildlife Sanctuary (which used to be called Pet Porpoise Pool) and had our lunch before laying on the grass in the adjacent field for a rest.
We had planned to visit the Big Banana, but we overshot the lights, and there was no safe place to cross the highway. This close to Christmas and the highway, especially here, was extremely busy. We could have turned back, but decided to press on.
If you find yourself in Coffs Harbour it is worth it to visit the Big Banana, even if you just go into the gift store and get a treat at the cafe.
Our plan had been to stay at the Emerald Beach Discovery Park, but we met a lady who offered for us to stay in her home for the night at Sandy Beach. We happily accepted. She was so hospitable and kind. Her husband had just passed, and she might have been a bit lonely. In the morning before we took off we helped her out with some of her garden work.
Day 10: Sandy Beach to Grafton
The route for this day made sense to just stay on the highways. We were both feeling a bit tired and ready for a rest.
We have friends in Grafton, so we planned to spend a few days with them. It gave us that much needed rest, and kept us off the road over Christmas/Boxing Day.
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| Bridge between south and north Grafton |
Grafton is an amazing small town. It has the iconic jacaranda trees, as well as many other flowering trees. While we were there the trees that were in full bloom were the poincianas.
Our friends took us for a drive up to the hills around Grafton, and we got to go for a short hike. Such a beautiful place.
Day 11: Grafton to Iluka
We spent 4 days in Grafton, before hitting the road again on December 27, 2022
From Grafton we headed north on Lawrence Road, which eventually lead us to the town of Lawrence, where we took the Lawrence ferry across to Yakaloo. We then continued along Lawrence road all the way to Maclean, where we stopped for some lunch. This is such a cute little town. We really enjoyed sitting in the park on the foreshore. We spent a few minutes making adjustments on our bikes before we continued on along Yamba Road to Yamba. From Yamba we were able to take another ferry that took us across to Iluka.
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| Inside the ferry to Iluka |
We were able to get a campsite at the Anchorage Holiday Park. We arrived early enough that we decided to have our dinner on the beach and go for a swim.
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| Pathway to the beach |
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| Dean making us some dinner |
Day 12: Iluka to South Ballina
...So that's what we did. We set out in the morning and it was glorious. One of the highlights of our trip.
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| About to take our helmets off... |
We weren't fast enough though, and the last kilometre or so the tide was coming in on us. We had to dodge waves, and we had the occasional soft patch of sand. With all our gear, getting bogged was less than awesome.
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| Still from our drone footage |
The funniest part though was the last few hundred metres to the campground we had to walk our bikes. We had run out of the hard packed sand and there were large rocks that we had to circumnavigate. But it gets better.... The "path" up to the campground was basically a vertical scramble. Dean had to make two trips to get the bikes up... We could have taken our panniers off to lighten the load, but it just seemed like a whole thing. Either way, the incline made for a tough challenge.
Once we were in the campground we found an empty site and rearranged ourselves. We had to get all the sand off our bikes, and ourselves... And we used the opportunity to sit and have a snack.
The day's adventures were not over. As we suspected, the road leading out of the campground was gravel. But it was also washboard. Not the easiest to ride on... especially when you're already tired. The real kicker was when we tried to follow what we believed was a trail that would bring us into Evans Head, but a few kilometres into that trail we realized it lead us to an RAAF base. We had to turn back and find a different route. It meant not going through Evans Head. Shame.
Not surprisingly we don't have any photos at all of this section of the ride.
We managed to get ourselves back to the highway. Along the East Coast of Australia the Pacific Highway was updated a few years back, and is now the Pacific Motorway - a larger, more direct highway. But you can still use the old highway which meanders through towns. We kept on the old highway, which brought us through Woodburn, Broadwater and eventually to Wardell.
We aimed to spend the night in South Ballina, so we left the highway here and followed the river into South Ballina. We were able to find a spot at the Ballina Beach Nature Resort. This is a beautiful caravan park right on the beach. We were very fortunate they found a space for us to set up our tent. The place was pretty packed (as you would expect over the Christmas-New Years break in Australia...)
We definitely had taken photos between Woodburn and South Ballina, including at our campground and the beach that evening, but somehow we lost all of those photos. We are actually missing a ton of photos from this trip, which is really sad. Though it's extra motivation to do the trip again some day ;-)
Day 13: South Ballina to Pottsville
Today started with a little backtracking to get us to... ANOTHER FERRY! We really loved taking all the ferries on this trip. Such a neat experience. We took the Burns Point Ferry across to West Ballina and just followed the river around to Ballina. From there we got onto the bike path by the naval and maritime museum.
The bike paths in Ballina are amazing. We almost doubled back just to do them again. We were able to stay on bike paths pretty much all the way to Lennox Head.
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| The pathway between Hill Street and Lighthouse Parade (a land-bridge between Richmond River and Shaws Bay) |
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| Ballina Head Lookout |
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| Skennars Head |
We arrived in Byron Bay hungry and ready for some lunch. Unfortunately a storm rolled in just as we were arriving to Byron, so the plan of sitting on the beach went out the window. We still got to have a nice sit-down lunch at the Byron Beach Hotel. We felt we deserved a giant pizza...
...and we chased that with a box of icecream sandwiches from the grocery store. #noregrets
Since the weather wasn't awesome we just moved on from Byron. The traffic in that small town was atrocious. We were very happy to be on our bikes and not stuck in that massive jam.We got ourselves back on the highway and continued to Cudgera Creek Road where we exited and headed back towards the coast.
The scenery is just so beautiful.
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| An entry to a property off Cudgera Creek Road |
We were aiming to stay somewhere between Pottsville and Hastings Point. Because we were never sure where we would end the night, we did not book anything in advance. This was not the best time of year to just "wing it" since absolutely everything was booked up. We rode all over looking for a place, and had zero success. We were happy to pay. And we really tried - even for a hotel or air bnb. There was literally nothing. We considered asking locals if we could set up our tent in their yard, but we were too nervous to do that. So.... we random camped. This area is built up, and there really isn't a whole lot of places you can hide a campsite. We managed to find a nice little place though, tucked away, completely secluded. With our hiking experience, we are very capable of leaving no trace. So the next morning when we packed up you would never even know that we had been there.
Day 14: Pottsville to Gold Coast
We made it - this is our last day of riding (well, Dean had another 5 days between Melbourne and Naracoorte....and we had another few days at the end of February in South Australia)
We packed up our campsite, taking every care to leave it exactly as we found it.
Heading north on Tweed Coast Road, we passed Hastings Point and Cabarita Beach before getting onto the bike path near Somerleys Ocean Retreat. We were able to follow that path all the way to Little Kingscliff Beach.
Dean had started having trouble with his crank set - so we made a detour to 99 Bikes Tweed Heads, where he was able to get a repair done within an hour. The guys there were super helpful. Meanwhile Kay headed over to the Bunnings (hardware store) to get another kneeling pad - since we had lost one of ours somewhere along the way.
Tip: We used kneeling pads to protect our bikes while packed up for the plane. But they also were helpful as kneeling pads along the way any time we needed to tinker with our bikes. It certainly beat kneeling directly on the gravel or bitumen. They’re small and weigh basically nothing. We wouldn’t do a bike trip without them!
From there we rode into Coolangatta, staying off the highway. We were staying in a hotel right by the airport, so we checked in, showered and headed into Surfers Paradise. The public transport makes getting around really easy. Unfortunately for us we were in the Gold Coast on a rainy day. So we didn't get the full Surfers Paradise experience.
... of course the next day was set to be perfect weather, but we took off fairly early in the morning.
We hope that you feel motivated to get out there and try bike packing after reading our story. We know we will definitely be doing another similar trip in the future.
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