I decided to include
this ride because it was one of my more memorable experiences on a mountain
bike. Whether you want to retrace what I did, I'll let you decide, but
I know I won't be doing it again.
This was before
I had my digital camera so I didn't take any pics, but check the links
as they have all you need to see.
I had read about
the Glow Worm tunnel and the associated railway line in some of the MTB
books and having never been to Newnes before I thought it would be an interesting
ride.
As you will learn
from the links, if you don't already know, Newnes (named after the well
known UK publisher) was set up about 100 years ago for shale oil extraction
and refining. It died and became a ghost town in the 1930's because it
was never profitable.
So, we set off one
pleasant day just before Xmas 2002 for what I assumed would be a short
ride (about 22km round trip how we were going to do it). Arriving at the
Glow Worm tunnel we assembled the bikes and soon arrived at the tunnel
itself which is a couple of km from the carpark. We weren't aware that
carrying our bikes was going to be pretty much an all day thing....
The tunnel itself
was true to its name and sure enough within a few minutes you could clearly
see the faint green glow at the roof of the railway tunnel. The Cateye
EL500 led headlight was adequate to guide ourselves through the tunnel.
You can't ride as there's just too many large rocks in the way.
Exiting at the other
end brought us to a sort of rainforest and more carrying of the bikes was
required to get to the start of the track. Soon after you get to
see some magnificent views of the Wolgan Valley.
This "track" is
where the old railway once was. Nothing remains of it at all now, but you
can follow where it was all the way down to what remains of the oil shale
refinery. Sounds easy doesn't it; after all railways are always fairly
level and the gound beneath would assumed to be flat. Not so!
At least every 200m
or so we would come to some sort of obstruction and have to carry the bikes
over or under it. Fallen trees were fairly common, but the worst of all
was the bridge corssings over the many creek beds that ran into the Wolgan
river. Problem was there were no longer any bridges! That meant walking
down the creek banks and up again, multiple times. With a bike weighing
around 15kg and the temperature rising this was becoming a not enjoyable
ride.
For what started
as a mid morning ride, it was mid afternoon by the time we got to the old
ruins at the plant and I was feeling rather exhausted.
The self guided
tour of the plant was interesting. There's plaques with old photos everywhere,
showing what the structures were used for. There is very little left now.
One thing that really
struck me was what a good example of how resilient the Aussie bush is.
I imagine this must
have been a fairly dirty place with coal and oil everywhere, but there's
no trace of that. Just a few brick structures are left. It had taken less
than 60 years for the bush to completely recover once the plant closed
down. This idea that every square inch of Australia should be turned into
'wilderness' seems to come from those who don't actually visit the places
they want to 'protect'. I suggest a visit to Newnes for these people.
We spent an hour
or so looking through the ruins and then proceeded to Newnes, itself. All
that's there is the Newnes Hotel. That is the only remaining building in
the area, the rest of the village having been dismantled and relocated.
The hotel functions
as a small shop on weekends and holidays; it is no longer a hotel as such.
Now, having not eaten since breakfast and after the exhausting trek through
the bush I thought it would be time to buy something there. And also I
needed water.
Well, if you are
keen rider, don't go anywhere near, or spend one cent at this place. What
an arrogant arsehole runs this joint! As we placed our bikes on the verandah
prior to going in, a loud voice called out from within to advise us to
take them off the verandah. That was a cue for me simply to head off. I
was in no mood to patronise that prick's bike phobic establishment.
My friend stayed
and enquired as to a tap for water...and was told there was none. As if.
I took a risk and
filled my water bottle from the Wolgan river. Given it was summer with
high rainfall and the river had a good flow, I thought I'd take the risk.
I got away with it.
Hot and exhausted
it was time to get out of this hell hole. No way were we going to go back
the same way, so we headed up a fairly steep road a few km past the hotel;
we'd seen it on the way down. I seem to recall most of it wasn't rideable
(going up that is) and only when we got back on the railway line remnants
at the top could we ride again. I was barely able to keep going by this
time and I did find it easier riding than walking where we could. It was
a nice sight to see the glow worm tunnel again and know we'd be out of
there soon. I was just absolutely fucked and almost collapsed when we arrived
at the Clown's Poison at Lithgow for something to eat.
To conclude, the
Glow worm tunnel to Newnes track via the railway line is only suited to
walking. If you must ride from the tunnel, I'd stay on the road that goes
down the hill towards the hotel.
Having said that,
the Newnes site is interesting and worth visiting; just don't do what we
did.
Links:
Fairfax Australian Travel Guide
cablehack@yahoo.com