Motorcycle Camping in the Aussie Bush
A couple of weeks ago I went motorcycle camping on a weekend outing with a bunch of older motorcycle riders in Sydney Australia.
It was Springtime over here, and the area chosen was well off the beaten track. In fact it was on a bush track north of Lithgow in the NSW Blue Mountains, and was only reacheable using four-wheel drive vehicles or tough off-road type motorcycles. (My Honda ST-1100 was a road bike and no use in the mud and gravel. So I threw my gear in the back of an old Toyota ‘troopie’ (a Troop Carrier) and joined the winding procession of SUVs and several daring motorcycles.
Our site was on what was once a railway track leading to the Glowworm Caves. We got there by following the bush track from just next to the Zig Zag Railway at Lithgow in New South Wales. One of our motorbikes broke both of its hard panniers bouncing and sliding down that muddy track, so I learned from that that soft panniers are much better for motorcycle camping adventures.
Even one of our 4x4s (4WDs) managed to get bogged in a deep mud hole, and had to be pulled out with a winch on another all-terrain vehicle. It wasn’t an easy journey, that’s for sure.
One of the places we visited on the way to our overnight camp was a much more comfortable campsite at Newnes. It even had proper toilets! Such luxury…
Newnes was a booming little mining town when there was a market for shale oil, and when that ended it became a ghost town. And most of the buildings are now gone. The pub, however, survives. And visitors can buy books, soft drinks and a few camping type food items and souvenirs from the owner. The grassy campsite was much more comfortable than our earlier bush camp, and it was easier to reach. We got there the hard way, but it could have been accessed from the other direction even without an SUV or 4WD car. And the camp site has toilets too. What luxury!
Check it out on Google Maps or Google Earth for it is at S33 10.297, and E150 14.229.
Anyhow, all the guys had a great time. We finally got to our campsite and erected the tents. One of the guys had his tent up on top of his old but highly-modified 4WD truck. I slept out in my Hennessey Hammock, but stupidly I forgot to add extra insulation underneath, and I had a cold and uncomfortable night. I didn’t want to go stumbling around in the dark looking for my gear in someone else’s truck. But I should have. As I was I made-do with my raincoat underneath me.
Another adventurous motorbike rider used a plastic tarp stretched between two trees and, amazingly to me at least, he was not attacked by mosquitoes. Perhaps it was too dry. His biggest problem was pumping up his inflatable air mattress when one of the plugs was lost. Dramas, dramas.
We had plenty of collected wood for a camp fire, which we built underneath a large rock cave. It did get a bit smoky but it sure added to the atmosphere, and we couldn’t help wondering about the native Aborigines who probably made use of the cave hundreds of years before the first white settlers took their land from them.
We had a great time sipping our beverages and chatting together around that smoky wood fire. It is funny how we males need to get out like this once in a while so we can be honest with each other and let our guard down for a few hours.
In the morning we all had a quick breakfast and took turns leaving camp for what the Brit soldiers call a ‘shovel recce‘. Then we broke camp and headed back towards Sydney and the everyday rat-race of modern living. But I highly recommend motorcycle camping as a way of getting out there and enjoying life.