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New South Wales


I'm glad there aren't still trains using some of these bridges. A stream. Little trees. Tenterfield looks more lush than Warwick did. I have encountered bits of road like this several times today. There are some very silly names around here. New South Wales, for a start. Tenterfield. I think this is permanently a Christmas shop. A sign outside advertises "Bears, Needlework, Gif... Tenterfield. Tenterfield has a lot of hotels. Some of them are quite interesting shapes, such as the Royal Hotel ... Tenterfield. Tenterfield. A newsagent in Tenterfield. Another hotel. This is on quite a large building which calls itself the school of arts, like the one I saw in Nobby... There's a slightly unusual cutlery arrangement here. These roadside markers in New South Wales are rather like the ones which I saw along that disused ra... The landscape. I didn't expect that. My lunch stop today is in Deepwater. There are plenty of cafes and shops to choose from but none of ... They are very specific about how you have to park here. Deepwater. I don't think I saw any sheep in Queensland. The information boards in Helidon said that when people... Trees. A mirage at the top of a hill. Scenery. More scenery. I hope that isn't a bushfire. Scenery. This building in Glen Innes used to be a convent but is now a cheap hotel. A school and church. A well-tended median strip in the road. A useful pointer. Just a house. More of that same median strip. The cupboard of useful items in this motel includes insect spray. I have been pestered by insects at... There are two interesting things here. Firstly, it seems that Glen Innes has some kind of celtic con... I was going to walk back into town to look for something to eat but I didn't have to go far to find ... Those benches aren't in a very helpful place. It's good to be walking back from dinner when it's still light. I couldn't see an explanation for this. The man who was talking to me about Tasmania also mentioned that one of the sights along this road w... I saw one of these a few days ago. This one is advertising a farm which does bed and breakfast. A British-looking pub. The toilet in Glencoe. Scenery. I've encountered a few of these along the roadside. The leaves in the middle are very fuzzy. Creativ... The safety ramp is there to catch vehicles whose brakes fail going down the hill. It looks like one ... I'm being plagued by flies again today. More scenery. A few brightly coloured birds have flown across the road today. I wonder if this is the highest I'll get on this trip. A fine range of garden ornaments, including a gorilla in a cage. Guyra. A peaky hill. Truckstop lawyers? ... ... Here? Trees. It's not just New Zealand that has blue and green lakes. The shape of these trees suggests that the prevailing wind around here is from the North. It has bee... There's nowhere near as much gravel on the road shoulders here as in New Zealand but I still have to... Here's a picture for those of my followers who like farm machinery, in other words Bryn. Red Hot Pokers. The agapanthus are back. I've just passed a pretty display of blue ones and white ones on a roundabo... This picture was taken in the same place as the previous two. Wherever I look from here, all the col... Should I be at the Ben Venue? Armidale. The building that's hidden behind the tree is a bike shop. I'm thinking of giving my bike a little s... The information centre in Armidale. Armidale. Have you noted it? Another of Armidale's hotels. Like most of the motels where I have stayed in Australia, this one has a small locked door in the ou... Here's an axample of somewhere which looks shut even though the door is wide open. It is open but I can't say it's very busy. Towards the end of my meal, two other diners came in, sat... Armidale. The automatic doors to this mall are open but I don't think any of the shops inside are. Armidale. I shouldn't really be looking around Armidale now because it will leave me nothing to do tomorrow bu... Armidale. Everything in this park seems to be a war memorial. Just some things on a lorry. The last few motels have had very soft carpets. Guess where my bike has been standing. One of the firemen is packing ice and food into a cool box while the other two are washing the engin... What's been going on here? I've just swapped the front and back tyres in an attempt to prolong their life but in doing so I've ... Workmen having a break before sucking all the water out of the fountain which I photographed yesterd... Armidale Cathedral. This is a strange part of town. almost every building is a church. It looks like there are at least ... Armidale has unusual post boxes. By swapping between various different SIM cards, I can now get some kind of Internet connection almo... Fish in a lake. This suspension footbridge sways noticeably when you walk over it. The wall surrounding the town's an open-air swimming pool. The best tyres the shop had were the same model as the ones which I've been using for the last few w... Pretty hydrangeas. For contrast, I was going to take a picture of the messy garden next door until I... Armidale is the start of a proper working railway line. For the forst 200 km, it does deviate signif... The motel where I stayed last night does't have any vacancy tonight, and might even be closed, so I'... There's a funny little wall to hide the toilet. Next time I would see this pool, in about an hour's time, there would be people in it. I think it wo... These people have got their stockings up already. The station. I've passed several Red Rooster restaurants in Australia but didn't know what they were. They're a f... In Australia and New Zealand, nutritional energy is measured using proper energy units. I'm back in that park where I notice firstly that the fountain is now running again and secondly tha... Mains electricity in towns is almost always distributed through overhead cables, which is why so man... Just along the road from there is this high voltage junction box which inexplicably says "Sorry... This is unusual. Normally if it has been raining and then a car drives off, it leaves a dry patch. H... Some of the churches are now holding carol services. A rare occurrence of distances in miles. According to the notice on the right, this pavillion has been standing here for nearly 50 years and ... After days of following railway tracks where trains never run, I've now reached some where they run ... I didn't believe the train would be running today until I saw it with my own eyes. I do now believe ... Armidale is known for having several posh schools. This one has its own equestrian centre. Apparentl... I haven't seen weather like this for a while. I thought I knew this one. I thought it was what is known in these parts as a cormorant but it's act... People commenting on these pictures have now imformed me that these are Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo... Uralla. A dog in a truck trying to see where it's going, and having a good old bark. That sign must be for me. In the four and a half days that I've spent riding on this road, I haven't... Coming down out of the cloud. I think I've rather overequipped myself as far as water is concerned. I've brought all this but I'm ... He doesn't seem to be enjoying his Christmas dinner. Bendemeer. Bendemeer. Bendemeer. I think this is part of the average speed check system which, according to the signs, is in place ac... A millipede. This is where I start to come down from the high ground. There were several escape lanes on the way down. Most diverted runaway vehicles up a long hillside b... This big rock on Moonbi Hill has been turned into a viewpoint. The view from Moonbi Hill. If you look straight down, you see all these broken television sets which look like they have been c... The road. 10010008 is quite a high speed limit. This restaurant looks open. Some people just came out. For a couple of kilometres, the road shoulder has been covered in corn kernels. I don't know why. Th... Fields. Sorry it's a dead one but they're easier to photograph than the live ones.... Tonight I will be staying in Tamworth, which is apparently famous for country music. This chicken restaurant is open, although not many other places in the town are. The sensible thing ... Tamworth. A flour mill. Bells. This isn't a school of arts; it's a "conservatorium of music". Another unidentified tree. Tamworth. This is a coffee shop and antiques centre. The church next door is a much more boring shape. A slightly festive ambulance. Tamworth station. A family posing outside the town's only open restaurant apart from the chicken place. There were lot... Tamworth. For once, I see a hotel which looks worth photographing and it's actually the one where I will be st... This passageway doesn't really feel like it's indoors but doesn't feel properly outdoors either. My room, called the Lazy Poets Suite. The room has a view of the balcony along the front of the building but this is just a window, not a ... There's a pair of taps and a faucet at the bottom and the shower tray is about 30 cm deep. I don't k... It's raining quite heavily now so I've moved my bike under cover. I initially locked it to the lamp ... Rain on the pool. Merry Christmas. A nearly dry river valley. Mountains and thistles. Currabubula. A panorama. Railway tracks in Werris Creek. Werris Creek is an important railway town. It claims to have been the first in Australia. The street... Ramanujan's population. Werris Creek. Part of the Australian Railway Monument. This part of the monument lists all railway workers who have died while doing their job, separated b... The station is still operational but is also a museum. The names of retired railway workers from New South Wales. The driver of a passing coal train. The coal train crawling into Werris Creek. I saw a few coal trains during the day; full ones and emp... Weird. At a rest area in Quirindi. Here they have rules about both when and how you can park. Quirindi, with one of the black clouds which have passed over occasionally during the day but not re... What a bizarre car. It's a Mazda 121. All along the main street in Quirindi, there are paving slabs like these, each with a weird symbol a... ... branding marks for livestock. How many sharp things must there be in this park to need a bin like that? Scenery. The southbound train passed me bang on time at 10:57 this morning. I expected the northbound train t... Here's the passenger train, about half an hour late. The train divides at Werris Creek. The four car... This is the start of the road to Merriwa. I'm not going to go that way because a long section of it ... I don't think I need one. A big spider. A view. Silly names. What's very silly is that one of the towns which I passed through this morning was Curr... To get over this hill, the road climbed about 300 metres and the top part was steep enough that I ch... A motorbike and sidecar in the foreground, with part of the town of Murrurundi in the distance. I think the rock formations on the top of the hill might be some of the "five fingers", wh... The pool at my motel. Yesterday and today are the only days of the year when this motel doesn't do dinner. The owner kindl... Dinner at the White Hart. I just heard somebody across the road telling her relatives that she remembers a time when this rive... Murrurundi. A cycle lane. The last of the evening sunlight on clouds. Four of these magpies have just been having a fight. Now these two are standing there making noises ... Another wobbly suspension bridge. This one isn't straight, even when there isn't anybody walking ove... I can't tell whether this house is still inhabited. This is no longer a petrol station or a cafe. I've seen several bolts like this in the road but this is the first time I've had a chance to poke o... Back on the road again. This is the first time I've had to wait at a level crossing. I think this is the same coal train which came through the level crossing in the previous picture, o... This strip of parkland alongside the road in Muswellbrook has a few proper war memorials and lots of... Muswellbrook. Muswellbrook. I wasn't going to bother taking a picture of these spotlights huddled here until I made myself laugh... A conveyor belt running across the road. This would be the first sign of coal workings which would s... A power station. If anybody wants some coal, I've got some that fell off the back of a lorry. There are two power stations within sight of here, and a big tangle of pipes and conveyor belts. More of the same. It looks like the whole of that light-coloured slope is rock which has been exposed by mining. Coal works. The top of one of the silos. More pipes and a conveyor. A coal train parked alongside one of the conveyors. There is coal pouring off the top of that one. My guess is that is is being unloaded from a train. Another mine. Scenery without a mine in it. A mine. Quite a lot of rock has been removed here. On cycling trips like these, it is normally safe to assume that I will average about 10 miles per ho... I hope it doesn't walk away before I've finished using it. Machinery. Landscape with gum trees and coal train. The train is easier to see in real life than in the picture... Two trains passing. The full one is going downhill and the empty one is coming back the other way. I don't understand this bike. All the components which have to bear my weight and the weight of my l... The Dunolly Ford Bridge across the Hunter River in Singleton. This is the first thermometer I've seen while I've been in Australia and it happens to be on my mote... This is the second motel I've been in which has had bottles like these. I've just realised that the ... There's a little window at head height in the shower so while I'm showering I can look at a tank of ... A few cars seem to be trying to make their number plates look German. Clouds. That's a lot of antennas. It's probably why I have had good phone coverage almost everywhere in Aust... Cricket pitches. The flies around here seem to be particularly keen on my right shoulder... ... although some are happy with my face. A sign at the other end of the road claims that this is the world's largest sundial. I'm not sure if... In this hemisphere, sundials go the wrong way. I'm having dinner here tonight. It's quite common to have facilities for betting in pubs in Australia. I think the machine over on t... This is the view out of the window while I'm waiting for my food. I see that the Sun is shining agai... Singleton by night. Singleton. I forgot to order breakfast for tomorrow at the motel so I've come to this supermarket instead, wher... Another interesting building. Branxton is getting a bypass. According to the faded sign, this is Lochinvar School of Arts Tennis Club. Lochinvar. Rutherford. A lot of dogs ride on the backs of pickup trucks. Most of them like to stand near the edge and look ... Maitland. Maitland. I don't know what this figure is for. I didn't see any others like it. It's holding a metal ring as ... Maitland. Maitland. The shopping street includes this map of how the town was in about 1840. Maitland. Some of the buildings have very ornate frontages. Two trees forming an archway over the road. This is a very grand building. More buildings. The town hall. People playing with a radio controlled car. Just a curvy bridge. I've been on the New England Highway for about 600 of the last 700 km and I've been impressed with i... The bridges carrying the Pacific Highway over the Hunter River. Just a tanker. For a moment, I thought this might have been the Big Mosquito but apparently it's actually Ossie the... One braid of the Hunter's estuary. Somebody fishing in a canoe. Pies? More big machinery. Perhaps I could have done my ladder awareness course here. Part of the agglomeration of towns around Newcastle. The last couple of kilometres today will be on quiet little roads like this. Just a house. The railways in this region are remarkably busy. Whenever I'm near a railway, there's a train going ... Okay, there probably won't be a train every few minutes on these tracks. The grey building just to t... The bathroom window isn't actually in the shower today but it is in direct sunlight, making it a goo... The Hunter Stadium. Among other sports, it hosts chariot racing, like I saw on the television in tha... The start of the Fernleigh Track, a former railway line. The Fernleigh Tunnel. Fernleigh Tunnel. The Fernleigh Track. There were six of these pecking about in a clearing next to the track. View from the track. Different scenery. More. This used to be Redhead Station. The Fernleigh Track. Pelicans. These gulls were hanging in place in the air, soaring in the strong headwind which is making today q... The wind. Trees in water. For a considerable fraction of today's ride, there have been cycle lanes alongside the road. I thoug... I didn't see anything referring to this as the Big Shrimp but it looks like one. I've been near the sea for quite some while but I've only had a few glimpses of it. It's just about ... Tuggerah Lake. The town in the background is The Entrance. Flying a kite. Pelicans. A picnic. The water here is part of Tuggerah Lake. In the distance on the left is the narrow channel connectin... The Entrance. The Entrance. Anglers. The beach near the channel. The Entrance. Pelicans at The Entrance. Balls. This looks like a new bit of road. I get a choice of the concrete cycle lane or the tarmac one. It's getting quite busy. A river leading into Brisbane Water. Brisbane Water. Brisbane Water at Gosford. Gosford. A walkway through a mangrove saltmarsh. I didn't follow it. The cycle lane snakes through parkland around the edges of the lake. Plants. An unexpected display of weaponry. Brisbane Water. Brisbane Water. An oyster farm. The water here is so clear that I can see my shadow on the bottom. Dancing fountains in Woy Woy. Brisbane Water. A bridge which I might have used if I had had a better map. All of the ducks around here seem to have congregated in one garden. I assume this must have falled into the road from the overhanging tree. All the traffic was having t... Another kite. Mount Ettalong. I don't know what the Ettalong Beach War Memorial Club is but it's big. Ettalong Beach. Ettalong Beach. Catamarans. The jetty might be where I'm meant to be catching a ferry tomorrow. Tonight, I will be staying in this unusual place. It's calls itself a tourist resort. It has only ab... The outside. The doorway from the car park leads to an open-air courtyard containing one of the restaurants. The ... The main switch room has an absurdly large sign, almost as if it's a key plot point that will become... The view from just outside my room. In the resort. Between the hedge and the balcony, you can look down to where some of the cafes are. I'm not sure if these tables belong to apartment 30 or if they are for anybody to use. The room down there with the light on in the window is a little clothes shop. In the resort. The area with the tables is the private balcony for three of the apartments. Strangely, although a lot of the resort is open to the sky, the barbecue area is covered. Some of the doors have pictures on them. Some of those are portraits, some are landscapes and some d... There's a penguin in the stained glass. There's a funny little passageway between my bedroom and my bathroom. Strangely, there's no door the... I do get to have a look at the wiring though. I didn't go to the pizza restaurant because it looked far too busy. This part of the resort doesn't seem very open at the moment. Still in the resort. I ended up eating in this restaurant. Behind me are a few tables out on the street. The passageway o... One of the entrances to the cinema. I had a surprise when I pulled back the pointless thing and found this giant animal's face on the bl... My breakfast was a bit of a fiasco. The man who I assume is the manager of the place got me to fill ... A car which I passed on the first leg of today's journey, the 270 metre trek to the ferry terminal. A boat. Canoes. Waiting for the ferry. Ettalong Beach. A jet-ski. I like her bag. Boats. I don't really know why so many foot passengers want to travel on this ferry. All that's at the othe... A spiky boat. Another boat. Ettalong Beach. Somewhere between Ettalong Beach and Umina Beach. Another boat. Passing close to some woods. Scenery. Out here, a long way from the shore, is where the water gets shallower and the waves break. You don't often get to see surfers from behind. Scenery. A boat. Here on the open water, the swell is quite considerable so the boat is rolling around noticeably. Wh... The gulls in Palm Beach all seem to like this boat, which looks like the oldest. Another picture of the same boat which got in here by mistake. Palm Beach, reagrded as the most Northerly of Sydney's beaches. I don't know what they're doing. Palm Beach. Oh, my bike has been unloaded for me. There were two other cyclists on the boat. I thoght they were together but one overtook me a little ... Avalon beach. Boats. Newport Beach. Newport Beach. Newport Beach. Lifeguard equipment on Newport Beach. Newport Beach. Another kite. The pink strips are only actually bus lanes for a few hours each morning but nobody else is using th... Paddlers. Narrabeen. Narrabeen. Paragliders and golfers. The paragliders are riding the air being deflected upwards when the sea breeze hits the cliffs. This... This one was flying more smoothly. Golf and boats. The origin of the name of the town of Dee Why is not known but it was originally spelled DY. That ma... It seems that the postal serice here can deliver your parcels to this box at the petrol station. By ... While taking pictures of the parcel locker and the DYI specialist, I happened to spot a bike shop so... Still heading into Sydney. More boats. The harbour at Mosman. Boats. Boats. The support for a crane. Boats and a headland. Parriwi Head Light. A double-ended boat. It looks like this house was modelled on a car showroom. Hibiscus. As usual, thanks to CreativeCrocheter for supplying the names of plants. Sydney, like Melbourne, seems to have 7-eleven shops, everywhere except that all the ones I've seen ... Sydney! A more zoomed-in view of the bridge, with a bonus aeroplane. A parrot eating some kind of weird fruit. Sydney. Sydney. That looks like Mosman harbour, except that there wasn't a dog floating over when I was there. The bridge approach. These shops are under the road which leads to the bridge. I'm glad I don't have to understand these. Sydney. The bridge carries the a road and some railway tracks. This station is at one end of it. The signs are very clear that pedestrians have to use the path along the other side of the bridge an... The bridge, with a train going over it and a boat going under it. Boules. Is this where the toilet roll dispensers come from? At the end of the bridge. Swimmers... ... in this open air pool. Here's a version with part of the bridge in it. The bridge's cycleway. View from the bridge. View from the bridge. View from the bridge. I'm not sure if stopping to take pictures makes me liable for the $500 fine but I wasn't the only pe... I always thought there were two Australian flags flying on top of the bridge but I see now that this... Traffic. I suspect this structure might become more obvious tomorrow. This is all I've seen so far of Sydney's other famous landmark. Preparations for New Year. Sydney. There's a complicated tangle of roads and cycleways here. The traffic lights on the cycle lanes are ... The end of the bridge is at the top of the picture. Sydney. Multiple layers of construction. Sydney. This bus is very festive. There is tinsel and such like all over the inside, and what looks like a s... My hotel is perhaps slightly closer to the bridge approach road than might be ideal. Eh? I'll say this for my room: it's certainly handy for the motorway. Actually, there's very little traf... Did they do that just for me? I didn't know where would be a good place in Sydney to look for somewhere to have dinner but I walke... Further along the waterfront. I think the big numbers refer to piers for catching boats. There are a... The waterfront. Later. Sydney, New Year's Eve. Absurdly, although it's only 8:20 in the morning, I'm already on my way to s... Sydney. Sydney. Sydney. Sydney. This building has "POLICE COURTS" embossed above the doorway. I don't know if it's still u... I've never heard of a city having a Koreatown before. I don't know why I've developed an obsession with fire stations on this trip. Sydney. A shopping mall. I'm actually trying to find a bookshop where I can buy something to occupy myself d... Sydney. A more old-fashioned shopping mall. If I had wanted some shoes repaired or shined, or a panama hat, this would have been the place to co... Sydney. Some people have come on a tandem. Sydney. Sydney. Major-General Lachlan Macquarie was Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821 and helped to turn... Hyde Park. Hyde Park. A version showing the whole of St. Mary's Cathedral. Sydney. My map marks this as Hyde Park Barracks. I'm going to view the fireworks from Mrs. Macquarie's Point, a headland in the harbour which is part... See. The Deutsche Bank building has a built-in crane for cleaning some of the windows. Labour Isn't Working? Queueing. The highlight of the queue is that every time you get to this end of the field, you get a chance to ... Someone has made a sun screen out of a tripod and a blanket. Elsewhere in the queue, people are wear... The AMP building has a radar, presumably put there by the harbour authorities. I wasn't sure whether I should wear shorts today. I'm going to be out in the sun for hours but I was... He's got a good view. Giant new and used matches. Here, the giant queue for the fireworks crosses the path of people innocently visiting the museum. W... More people enjoying the view. This is the cleanest portable toilet I've ever seen. I wonder how long it will stay that way. A temporary phone base station. I doubt whether it will be up to the job. Phone networks can never c... A partial view of the bridge. A better view but there's nowhere to sit here. There's the double-ended boat which I saw yesterday a... Now that I'm here, it's obvious that the botanic gardens is a stupid place to try try to watch anyth... For the moment, this is the best view I can find. Now we just have to wait. Some Germans sitting next to me. It would gradually become apparent during the afternoon that of the... There's an aerobatic display going on at the moment. I can hear the planes buzzing and swooping but ... While I've been waiting, I have nearly finished today's Sydney Morning Herald cryptic crossword. Now... A brief light rain shower had made people suddenly try to find things to shelter under, such as bin ... ... ground sheets... ... chairs and a Twister mat. I've gone for a wander to the side of Mrs. Macquarie's Point which looks down into Wooloomooloo Bay. Wooloomooloo Bay. The naval base looks like another popular viewing spot. Boats in Wooloomooloo bay. The Wooloomooloo loo queue. Suddenly, with no warning and for no apparent reason, matching firework displays exploded from all o... Boats. Boats. Part of the bridge and opera house by night. Another unexpected burst of fireworks. These ones were expected. These are the 9 pm fireworks, a prelude to the main event for the benefit ... Partially obscured fireworks. This is what that framework on the bridge was for. Fireworks. Another view of it. These people are Dutch. Wooloomooloo Bay by night. Wooloomooloo. The naval base and some pleasure boats. A boat. Boats. Trying to find a better view. Cameras on a media platform. People. This looks like a good spot. There's nowhere to sit here though so we'll all be standing for the nex... The opera house. One of the unexpected firework displays. Fireworks. A group of English people playing Uno, a game which I haven't seen for a long time. It looks like the pleasure boats are all congregating where they will have a good view of the firewo... Midnight! Happy New Year! I'm afraid some of these pictures aren't brilliant but I've left in most of the ones which are okay. Fireworks. Fireworks. Fireworks. Fireworks. Fireworks. Fireworks. Fireworks. Some fireworks were set off from the roof of the opera house, which apparently hasn't been done for ... Fireworks. Blue fireworks. Fireworks. Fireworks. Fireworks. Now fire is raining down from the bridge deck onto the water. I think that's become a traditional pa... The finale. The area down at the bottom is one which was reserved for ticket holders. It looks like they were qu... Just people. People didn't hang about after the fireworks finished. Getting out was considerably quicker than get... I had seen lots of signs saying that there would be road closures throughout the city centre but I d... Because there were viewing points all over the city and people have to get to different places now t... I think this is what you call a tide of humanity. I've happened across a bike shop, which I now don't need as I bought everything I wanted on Monday. ... It turns out that part of the vast cost of this hotel room has been spent on a complimentary bottle ... A couple of weeks ago, I showed that the dollar coins were considerably smaller than the 50 cent coi... These are some of the boats which have the orange patterns on thie sides at night. Here comes midnig... 2014. The Pyrmont Bridge opening to let a boat with a mast through. Unusual brickwork. A station for the now defunct monorail. There's the road going past my hotel window. The Pyrmont Bridge. Darling Harbour. Darling Harbour. A lot of bins. I suspect these are left over from last night. I was impressed with how full bins wer... The Pyrmont Bridge. Ah, it looks like lolly is just a word for any kind of confectionary. That's caught me out a couple ... I certainly wouldn't call Pot Noodles lollies. Approaching Tumbalong Park. Water emerges from underground at the top of each spiral arm and then flows from step to step all th... Approaching Tumbalong Park. A statue of sheep jumping through a curtain. Tumbalong Park. Somebody has been writing in the sky. I didn't get to see much of it but it looked like this word wa... I don't know what this place is. It's in one of the major shopping streets. Yes, Happy New Year. The ANZAC monument. Part of the roof garden on one of the buildings from the previous picture. Another bit of it. This is the hospital. I'm now in Sydney's financial district. A map in my hotel listed various free attractions. The one which sounded most interesting was the Mu... A car. Sydney. Macquarie Street, where the hospital is, has traditionally had a lot of medical establishments. The police taking a well-earned break. Last night seemed to go quite smoothly from where I was. I di... This area is called Circular Quay. I can't see anything circular about it. The opera house. People climbing the bridge. You can see people on the inner and outer arches. People. More people. Circular Quay. This again. Tiles. Details. Boat and bridge. These windows are so familiar from pictures that I feel like I've seen them before.... More people. The man on the right is photographing a gull. I've seen a few of these flying over the harbour. One of the ferries. The end of the bridge. I think these are just fast boats that go and bounce over waves on the sea. Somebody from work recom... A bigger boat. I'm now on a tour of the opera house. Inside. Outside. The actual theatres are wooden buildings inside the concrete shells. The base of a shell. Tiles. According to our tour guide, there are 1056006 of them. On the tour. Wood and concrete. The symphony hall. I was interested to hear that one of the things they occasionally do in here is g... The symphony hall. This must have been a good place to be last night. The tickets were about £300 each though. I don't ... I guess they're from Grimsby. View from the opera house. Another view. The tour. This small theatre wasn't in the original plan. It's in a space under the stage of the symphony hall... People cleaning up after last night's festivities. I think this was something from last night too. Circular Quay again. Circular Quay. A fountain. The plaque says that it was provided in 1981 by the owners of the Sydney Morning Herald. An unusual colour scheme. I've now moved to a different hotel. This is the car park across the road. A sign said that it had s... I don't think that newsagent is actually connected to the lobby of this hotel; it looks like you hav... What a difference a day makes. Last night, the only room I could afford was that one with the motorw... I've just been to retrieve my bike and bags from the previous hotel. I think it was probably the sho... Sydney. Darling Harbour by night, with a man at the bottom of the picture showing his baby the view. An unusual bike parked outside the hotel. The cycleway winding its way up onto the ANZAC Bridge. The bridge cables have these unusual features. Hmmm... arch bridge, swing bridge, high level bridge. I know this place. Another bit of the harbour. Rowers. More boats. I first saw one of these in France in 2011. Then I saw another the same day. I've seen a few others ... I was enjoying this cycle path round the lake so much that I went too far. I wonder how busy this place was at New Year. This is almost as good a view of the bridge as I manag... Last view of Sydney. A canal. When you spend a couple of weeks getting from one big city the the next, it's always a novelty to be... They look like whalebones. Here, like in Melbourne, the cycle path runs under the motorway. I'm heading back towards the mountains again, not that the roads there are actually any steeper than... It's a milestone, working in miles. Apparently, this is a copy of a real plane which used to be displayed near here with its nose in the... An old contraption in Emu Plains. Springwood. Springwood again. My accommodation for tonight is about 3 km off the main road down a street which I... Springwood station. After some deliberation, I've decided to head back towards Melbourne by the inla... Here's where I'll be staying tonight. Finding the owners took a little while. There are several buildings, all hidden behind the foliage a... This is a Chinese Lantern tree. I know that because the owner caught me taking a photograph of it an... This is my balcony, and my private barbecue. I read something which said that the owners would put the breakfast in my room before I arrived. Whe... And there's also a decanter of port over there on the right, to go with the cheese and biscuits. The room. There's a spa bath, which I was expecting. I had them four nights in a rown on the North I... This seems unnecessary. A large cupboard. While washing my shorts, in the sense of taking them in the spa bath with me, I've found that somebo... Well, this is civilised! This is the games room at the place where I'm staying. I've just come here to browse the selection o... There are limes growing outside my window. A car in Springwood. It's quite foggy this morning. As always when it's foggy, the trip computer on my bike has stopped w... I think there must have been something wrong with the shoulder on a section of the highway. I didn't... I haven't been wearing my glasses today because if I do, they quickly get covered in water droplets ... Lawson. The weather is improving. Wentworth Falls Lake. When I was here, I wondered where the falls themselves are. I would later find... Wentworth Falls Lake. A house in Leura. The towns of Leura and Kattomba are much more touristy than I had expected. I didn't know it while I... Leura. Leura. Leura. A postman. I photographed some people dressed like this at the start of this trip but didn't know th... To get from Leura to Katoomba, I had to go down the road in the distance and up this one. As I will ... In the distance, you can just about make out some of the cliffs which I now regret not visiting. Katoomba. Katoomba. Katoomba. Katoomba. This bike shop takes being closed to a new level. Although I have seen a lot of people riding bikes this afternoon, I didn't find any extant bike shop... A Hilux with six wheels. This is a posh Edwardian spa resort, although it doesn't look open at the moment. This motel makes extensive use of distressed wood to give a pleasant rustic feel. You barely notice ... Blackheath. Blackheath. There seems to be a train at least every hour on this line and I've just seen somebody getting off t... Not the most decisive man then? Today, my breakfast was delivered through the little hatch. I mentioned a few days ago that lots of ... Like one that I saw at Healvesville near the start of this trip, this tree has a scar where a sectio... A view. What's strange is that trains keep passing by just out of sight in the woods just below me. ... Part of the same view. That's not my road. Another radar. I don't know what this one's for. A cutting. The view from another viewpoint. I didn't dare go any closer to the edge than this; not because I was worried that I would fall off b... The same place. I'm not so bothered about not going to any of the viewpoints around Katoomba now. This is part of th... A detail of the view. The road here is quite steep. My bike at the viewpoint. A monument to the people who surveyed and built the road. Are those meant to be kangaroos? Another unusual mailbox. I'm not sure if this is a university or a hospital; possibly a bit of both. It has its own helipad t... Another cutting. It must get quite cold up here in the winter. A little while ago, I passed a weather station which h... Forestry. Cuttings. A view with a pond and a power station. Trees. Cows. What? This looks like a dead baby crocodile. Should I be worried? Can there really be crocodiles in ... You find strange things on road shoulders. This motel looks a bit barren. I'm glad I'm not staying here. Coming down a hill. I'm now returning to the kind of arable farming landscape that I saw between Toowoomba and Warwick. ... It's now effectively early July here so the lambs are growing up. As well as random bits of rubbish, I've also encountered a lot of writing on the road shoulders. It ... A large statue of somebody panning for gold. This is an advert for the Goldpanner Motel but is proba... There are orchards around here. I just stopped off at one barn which was selling nectarines and peac... Mount Panorama, which is apparently famous for its motor racing circuit. Bathurst. Just before leaving the next morning, I would learn that the pronunciation is "Bath-u... I've been seeing it all over Australia but didn't know what it was. I've now found out that it's the... It seems that as well as motor racing, Bathurst is also a venue for chariot racing, or harness racin... The tourist information centre. I've been surprised at how big the infomation centres have been in a... Harness racing horses in training. Bathurst is much greener than the surrounding countryside. It seems rather pleasant... ... Okay, perhaps not this bit. Bathurst. Bathurst station, where you can only get a train in the middle of the night. Bathurst. Bathurst. Brilliant Street? Saint Stanislaus College, and one of the goalposts of an Aussie Rules field. Bathurst. The view from a high part of Bathurst. I just thought it had been a few days since I showed a picture of my motel. The room here is one of the smallest I've had on this trip. There certainly isn't much space to sit ... A street name sign. This is where I had dinner. The inside doesn't look like I expected. The screen here is showing ... Bathurst. The court house. The building with the twinkly lights is the civic centre. Bathurst. Bathurst. If I wasn't trying to get some photographs of the town before the light faded, I might have gone in ... Bathurst. Not a great picture but there are those purple and white agapanthus in the flower bed in the middle ... Bathurst. There's a bit of Earthshine there. The structure in the foreground is a war memorial. Basically, if something is in a park in Australia... Bathurst court house. Bathurst by Moonlight. By the way, sorry if you don't agree with my convention on capitalisation. I'... The Post Office has lots of little lockable mailboxes. They aren't big enough to hold parcels which ... The power has gone off in my room, although most of the rest of the motel still has power. I've open... A quarry. Boulders. Scenery. Scenery. Just a house on a hill. The rock which has been cut away to make room for the road seems to have been strangely polished. Anybody want a boat? This farm had some unusual sheep. A second carriageway is being added to this road. It goes through the hill which the existing road g... This funny little rest area, which unusually has no paved parking, is a monument to somebody called ... Blayney. A man refuelling his boat. A train. None of these shops are open on a Sunday. Blayney. With the lot? The weather forecast predicted a headwind today and tomorrow and a tailwind after that so I decided ... I helped this beetle get back onto its feet but then found that there were many more like it on the ... Blayney is remarkably quiet. This road goes past a school so I wouldn't really expect it to be busy ... A horse. Because I've got time to spare, I'm giving the bike a service. I've tightened the brakes, replaced t... In front of the motel is a plaque commemorating the opening of the motel, in 1976. It was then calle... Last night was the first time I arrived at one night's accommodation not having already booked the n... Now I'm starting to wonder whether this place is open at all. After a while, a long-term guest arrived as assured me that the owner would be around in the evening... The room actually looks quite nice. It's got a good kitchen area. All the motels in New Zealand had ... The room does have some defects though. For instance, this is the screen which is supposed to keep i... That's the biggest rotary washing line I've ever seen. It is actually rotating in the breeze too. I don't know what the building which says "1917" is but the one on the right is the Masoni... Blayney has the noisiest birds of anywhere I've been so far. They were at it while I was servicing m... Here's one of those very succinct distance markers that Australia has, but dating from the time when... Like Armidale, Blayney has a cluster of churches. On one side of the road, there's a yellowish one, ... ...and on the other side are these two. Clouds. Cockatoos are pretty noisy but at least they do sound like birds. Some of the other birds make very ... Sheep in the shade of a tree, not that it's that hot today. It's certainly noticeably cooler than it... Sheep and a wind farm. This was the largest wind farm in Australia when it was built in 2000, although it has only 15 turbi... You view the wind farm from inside a sort of hide, as if you don't want to scare the turbines. The lake here appears to be called Carcoar Dam. It seems that Australians use the word "dam&quo... There are two people sitting under the awning of one of the caravans. Some of their guy ropes have t... A building in Carcoar. signs on the highway called Carcoar "historic" and had a symbol of a castle. I don't know ... Street lighting in Carcoar. Carcoar. Carcoar. The Belubula River is a little stream babbling through the central section of this bridge but it loo... All of the little dots on the bridge are bolts holding the planks in place. The first time I crossed... Carcoar. "The Old Chronicle... The school, also decked in tinsel. Looking up at a railway embankment. This is the Post Office and village shop in Mandurama. Having made detours to both the wind farm and... For a while, I considered spending last night there. I rather wish I had now. There might have been ... These is the other side of one of those panels of mailboxes. I've just seen somebody open one from t... An old wind pump. I don't know whether it was the highways people, the murder squad or some random traveller but someb... Just a group of plants. From their proximity to the corn, I would guess that they might be cornflowers but I could be wrong. I don't know what these numbers mean. They are sometimes painted on the road too. It looks like the ... The road disappearing into the clear blue sky. It's 25 km to Cowra and mostly downhill but the wind is making it quite hard work. More tinsel. I hadn't seen any for days but this is the third example today. The mailbox of a place which sells farming machinery. Machinery. This section of the railway doesn't even carry freight trains. That could be why I have encountered ... I think the War Museum and the Fun Museums here are separate places. A collection of masts. These flags seem to represent a funny subset of Europe. I wondered for a while whether different fla... The disused station in Cowra, now home to an antique vehicle club. For a change, this isn't a school of arts. It's specifically a ballet school. An Australian-Italian peace monument. Apparently the town has made a long-standing contribution to w... This might be the first logging truck I've seen in Australia. It carries its trailer in a different ... The Santa figures seem to be standard-issue in this town. I've seen lots of them, each with a little... This shop sells "Australiana", tat with an Australian theme. This is the bar of the motel where I will be staying tonight. I assume the 11 pm curfew just refers ... The bathroom window is an odd shape. None of the parts move or open at all. I think it's just because of the colour scheme of the bedspread but when I glanced at the bed just n... I suppose a tumble drier will work upside down. I've never really thought about it. I quite like the way this motel is arranged. The parking is all around the outside and there's this ... A deco-style gym and a school. Lorries here have a rather strange shape. There aren't any wheels at the back of the front unit. The Cowra Peace Bell is a copy of the one in front of the United Nations building. Apparently, there... People investigating the bell. The public are invited to ring it. The woman here did but I didn't; I... A pizza restaurant and cinema. Sunset in Cowra. I was just returning to my hotel wondering where I might be able to buy some supplies when I happene... Price labels here give a bit of history. An odd arrangement. The disused railway in Cowra. Today's road. Dust being thrown up by a piece of agricultural equipment. A bit more of the railway. A green tree and a white tree, and a cowboy on a horse watching me, whom I didn't spot until I had a... Dry scenery. A farm. Until now, the signs have always said that if you see a fire, you should call 000. My phone doesn't ... These are the most coherent toilet door graffiti I've ever seen. Just a building. More scenery. I now see that the wheels under the front of the rear unit are actually part of the front unit. I wo... A dish up a big mast. I don't know what the shield around it is for. It doesn't seem to have kept th... It looks like the police can choose to target different aspects of bad driving on different days. This village is less dry than the surrounding area. Young. To get these ice creams and cold drinks, I had to stand in a big queue of people buying hot chicken ... Hey, Bryn, look at this one! As it went round the roundabout, the long pipe sticking out of the back... Young calls itself "Australia's cherry capital". These look a bit like cherry trees but th... Funny-looking thing. I saw lots of posters and models of cherries but the only real cherries I saw were one squashed one ... Young. The historical information signs seem to be a standard design in towns all across Australia. "Cherry City Disposals" The Soldiers Memorial Tower. Young. Young. Another milestone. Today, I'm actually getting on with things and doing the whole 74 miles in one da... Orchards. The wombat statue and the Wombat Hotel in the village of Wombat. The Wombat wombat. According to the plaque, the idea and the money for it came from a man in Surrey. Wombat Salvage. This is the kind of colour of soil that I would expect to find in Australia. These sheep are well disguised in the dry hay. Later, I would be riding alongside a large field whic... Trees in a pond of red weed. This was almost all I saw of Wallendbeen. The Milestone Sculptures, celebrating the Australian wheat industry. I would later see one more in C... I've realised what these are now without having to be told. They're Galahs. It was one of these that... After a while, they all flew up into the trees. Scenery. Twisty road. I'm happy now that I'm through the trainless region. This is the Sydney-Melbourne railway line. In case you can't read the sign, this celebrates that Cootamundra broke a world record in 2004 by ha... I have found that on these trips, there are some jobs which it's best to do at the earliest opportun... This hardware shop has electric bikes in the window, and some hoops which for a moment I thought cou... Cootamundra. Cootamundra. It's another war memorial but it's slightly unusual because it includes a water feature. He's got a bike. I wonder where he bought it. While walking through the town, I passed a couple of pubs advertising rooms for $40. It's a shame th... The Post Office in Cootamundra. This is the building of some stock and station agents and auctioneers. It lists the current prices o... The view along a road. Looking the other way. This is the Wattle Tree Motel. Several businesses in Cootamundra have "Wattle" in their na... These are grand public toilets. Some of the businesses in the main street. Most of the towns I've visited have consisted mainly of i... Birds. They've got bikes too. Perhaps they all bought them before the bike shop closed. Gym machines in the park. Cootamundra was the birthplace of someone called Sir Donald Bradman, whom a plaque here refers to as... David Gregory was the first. He was captain for three test matches from 1877 to 1879 and achieved 2 ... Captains. Ricky Ponting is the only one I've heard of, and that's only because he's the answer to one of the q... This must be the current captain. Strangely, they have managed to make a model of his head but not a... The road and the railway. I've been riding alongside this railway for nearly two hours and haven't s... Old telegraph wires alongside the railway. They look to be in good condition. I don't know whether t... A four-way see-saw. Jumee. The station in Jumee. There seems to be a specific style of building in Australia which is used just for pubs which are al... The station cafe is grander than I expected. Lunch. Once again, I forgot what an iced coffee is and ordered one. Jumee station. There's already somebody waiting for a train even though it will be two hours before ... The level crossing in the middle of Jumee. The level crossing has been closed to road traffic so that this train can come through but the train... Road and railway. This engine has tinsel on its handrail. A grain silo. A railway bridge. A disused bridge over the Murrumbidgee River. The railway doesn't go anywhere in either direction an... The Murrumbidgee River. Wagga Wagga. Now this is a proper bike shop. Wow! A web search last night showed three bike shops in Wagga Wagga, all of which I would pass on my way ... Wagga Wagga. Wagga Wagga. The theatre, at one end of Wollundry Lagoon, a lake about 1200 m long but only about 30 m wide. A park. I assume the propellor on the left is some kind of memorial. Presents! Wagga Wagga is more colourful that I expected. Acually, it's about 150 years more modern than I expe... A statue. My motel. Three of the reviews described it as "perfect for visiting a soldier in Kapooka"... Today went remarkably well. Not only did I do the 57.28 miles in 5.661 hours, meaning that apart fro... Although the Robertson Oval has some serious floodlighting, it only actually has a capacity of 350 s... As has been the case in many previous towns, this street was full of enticing pavement cafes when I ... I wanted to show the old tiled advertisements around the bottom of that pub but unless I stand in th... At the start of this trip, I was becoming something of a connoisseur of the salt and pepper squids o... The telephone in my room has an unusually specific purpose. Bridges over a dry river bed. The railway. Today's ride is about 80 miles and the 7 intermediate little towns divide it up almost perfectly int... I couldn't find anything which explained where this engine came from or how it got damaged like this... They seem to be surveying the fire station. Town 2 is called The Rock, presumably because of this hill. When I was driving on New Zealand's North Island, I encountered an incredible number of roadworks. T... Roadworks. Town 4: Henty. Henty's grain silo. The wind pump here is an advertisement for a company called Aussie Windmill Repairs. The building be... The reconstructed Headlie Taylor Header, made from salvaged parts from original ones. It was the fir... That must be a bumpy ride. Town 5: Culcairn. Today's Northbound daytime passenger train. Culcairn, where I stopped for lunch. I wonder how unusual people in cafes think it is for somebody t... Now it looks like Santa is trying to sneak up on the bear from behind. Sorry, there shouldn't have been two versions of this picture. This is where a branch line used to come off the main railway. You can just see that the rails are s... Looking back towards Culcairn. The road and railway again. I'll look out for them. The road which I have been following for the last few days ends here where it meets the Hume Highway... Look, I could go either way. This train has an interesting cargo. A whole family of tractors. I passed this place called the Boomerang Hotel. Strangely, it didn't appear to be exhibiting any slo... The telephone exchange and a bicycle superstore, which I don't need to visit. The "BOOK YOUR FUNCTION HERE!" sign surprised me because, apart from one, all the other si... On the left is an advert for what looks like quite a versatile hardware store. In the background is ... Opposite my hotel. The Australian Buildings. I didn't go inside. Albury. The cinema. Another bike shop. It would have been more useful if some of them had been in Cowra or Cootamundra. It looks like the wool shop has closed. Another sunset. The tailwind which has helped me for the last two days has now gone. There was nothing to explain why this waterwheel was in the park. Football practice. The water trough, which doesn't look like it could hold much water any more, is the same design as t... The Murray River, separating New South Wales from Victoria.