top of page
Writer's pictureKath Rozycka

Bike Touring The Convict Trail - Ourimbah to Wisemans Ferry

1 Apr 2023

Today was a very eventful day. My train to Sydney from Melbourne got in around 40 minutes late, and the time pressure was on to build the basics of my bike so I could chuck my bags on and run with it to the right train platform to get to Ourimbah. There was a baggage storage near platform 1 of Sydney Central that let me store my bike box there along with my duct tape, dolly (to wheel my bike box around easier in the Melbourne train stations) and pedal wrench. It was $48 for storage from Saturday morning to Monday evening.


On the two-hour train ride to Ourimbah, I built the rest of my bike and my friend Fed caught up with me at a later stop. This train journey actually had really great forest views already, getting us excited for the ride. Once we got off, our series of mishaps began. My clip-on polarised lens from opsm (they weigh 6 grams!) had snapped at some point in my bag, so we did our best to tape them to my glasses so my eyes had some sun protection. I then realised I hadn’t checked that our caravan park allows after-hour entry, so I called them in a panic saying we should be there around 7pm, which turned out to be ok. They didn’t really give us a latest time though, so I wasn’t sure how flexible that was.



An ashphalt road running through a forest. It is mostly sunny. The road has a gravel shoulder, and you can see Fed on her gravel bike with grey panniers, pink shorts and a blue jacket and helmet.
The Start of Our Ride

We started riding around 11am and were greeted with a 10km incline, varying between 5 and 13%. Fed managed to cycle the whole way, but I did have to walk for the steeper parts. We took a first lunch break at the top, where I found my flatbread had gone mouldy because it didn’t actually have as long a shelf life as the wraps I usually use! Tuna and beans straight out of the can it is then.



A café table with a serve of burger and chips, a red helmet, and on the other side of the table some fruit toast and me laughing at something. I’m wearing a bright red rain jacket.
Hub of Mangrove Mountain

The next 15kms were undulating, paved, and surrounded by greenery which made for a pleasant ride. It started spitting, and by the time we got to the end of this section it had built up to a proper rain. We spotted a cafe called the Hub of Mangrove Mountain at the turn to the start of The Convict Trail and had some lunch, it was a really nice place. I also got a pack of not-mouldy wraps for tomorrow’s lunch.


We then had our first sharp descent, and we found that this unsealed section was much rockier than we anticipated, and involved sand in some places. We were both on 32mm tyres so had to descend very slowly, especially since the rain was still going very strong, so we didn’t get to enjoy a rapid descent after that arduous ascent! Our steep ascent afterwards went similarly slowly.


Around 4pm, just after starting the second undulating section, we realised we were only halfway through the day. We spotted a campsite, that neither of us had done enough research to know anything about, and realised it would have been a lot smarter to have picked that as our campsite, but we already had a reservation in Wiseman’s Ferry. Fed was really positive that we would make it all the way though, so we took a little snack and toilet break and pushed on. Clare’s bridge was nearby too.



A dirt road with leaves and bark strewn across it running through a eucalyptus forest. I am riding away from the camera on my road bike with red bikepacking bags and wearing navy blue rain pants, a red rainjacket and helmet and a fluro orange backpack with reflective stripes.
The Convict Trail

We were making very slow progress and started to joke about how we’re making absolutely terrible time, but were still enjoying ourselves and catching up. Around 7pm the sun started to set and we started getting a little more concerned with trying to make sure we spent as little time night riding as possible. However, we still had 10-ish kms to go on this terrible surface. We were at a fork in the road, and our route was telling us to go one way, but google maps was telling us the other way was slightly shorter, and reached a sealed road sooner. The surface at this fork looked higher quality on the alternate route too, so we decided to go that way instead of seeing the other convict trail landmarks, as it would be pitch black by the time we got to them anyway. We noticed something we hadn’t seen before on google though…. That we had to catch a ferry into Wiseman’s Ferry. Ok so maybe that doesn’t sound like the most surprising thing for a town with ‘Ferry’ in its name, but I had so far never come across a river that did not have a bridge going across it into a reasonably-sized town! We started looking up information about this ferry we suddenly had to grapple with, thinking surely it won’t be running anymore today by the time we get to it. But apparently it is a 24/7 free ferry that continuously runs! So you can cross every 10 minutes or so, over the course of the ENTIRE day! Once again on this trip, my planning was lacking but luck was in our favour. We called the caravan park again to let them know we would be another hour or two.


We were both very glad to not be alone in the dark in what felt like the middle of nowhere on this sort of cycling terrain. As full darkness hit and we had just a bit of a descent left to go (which was mostly walked due to its steepness and roughness), a 4WD passed us and they slowed down to ask if we need any help, we both said we were very close to our destination so no thanks. Once they left, we agreed that we were confident enough with getting to the campsite not to risk getting into a car with two strange men. Especially since in the country they’re more likely to have some sort of gun.



A fork in the unsealed road with a sign. The sign reads ‘Old Great North Road’ and has information about the difficulty of both paths for cycling or hiking. The paths run through a forest of eucalyptus and bushes.
Our Fork in the Road

However, something I had not experienced yet was braking very hard for very long while having an arthritis flare-up. So soon, my hands gave out and I ended up in quite a lot of pain. The map showed us we just had a few hundred metres until the nice, sealed road, but it took me about 20 minutes with Fed’s help to get down. This 20 minutes involved a lot of feeling miserable and tears on my part. Finally, at this point before completing the descent, I actually put in the effort to find my compression gloves I couldn’t be bothered to find before, and it slowly started helping my symptoms. We reached the road and it felt like we were on the home stretch!


The last few kilometres went really smoothly actually and were the easiest part of the day. And I didn’t need to worry about braking hard with the current condition of my hands. Thank goodness this hand trouble didn’t start earlier in the day, when we had much more descending ahead of us. We got to the caravan park around 8:30pm after our rough day, and made TVP bolognaise for dinner before immediately hitting the hay.


Recent Posts

See All

Commentaires


Bike Touring East Tassie - St Helens

Bike Touring The Convict Trail - Wisemans Ferry to Vineyard

bottom of page