A ride to Mount Wilson

Four months ago, I cycled up a few Tour de France mountains. It was the best fun I've ever had on two wheels. Since I've been back, my daily ride to Wentworth Falls and back has satisfied me, but I miss the thrill and challenge of a sustained climb. So today, I decide to ride to Mount Wilson, from my home in Katoomba. I figure any place with a name beginning with the word 'Mount' would require some climbing. A quick google map check tells me, I'm in for eighty-five kilometres return. I have a large lunch and set out. 
In my novel, 'the simple gift', the main character, Billy describes the Great Western Highway as 'not great, not much of a highway, but it does head west...' He's right. Trucks and delivery vans crowd me as I climb steadily to Mount Victoria, where I turn off and ride past the Mount Vic Flicks.

The Darling Causeway is a truck speedway and I'm buffeted the undulating length of it before turning onto the Bells Line of Road and heading up and down to the Mount Wilson turn-off. 
Finally, a quiet backroad as I climb to a village of maybe fifty houses and extensive gardens. There are no shops, only one church and surprisingly a Turkish Bath Museum. Unfortunately, it's closed. I could use a good soak.

The famous author and grumpy old man, Patrick White lived here as a child. He was reportedly pleased to escape to Sydney. Mount Wilson still has a retired pensioner feel about it. Daffodils bloom haphazardly across the landscape although the trees are still winter stark. There is not a soul around. I can hear birdsong and the sound of a distant lawnmower. I sit on a stone fence and eat a muesli bar before circling the village. Two cars pass me. I sigh. Time to return home. 

Up and down again. More trucks. At Blackheath, I stop for a coffee, before the fast downhill home. I check my Garmin. I've climbed over 1,300 metres, and descended the same amount, naturally. The elevations of Katoomba and Mount Wilson are almost the same, at 1,050 metres. As the crow flies, they're probably ten kilometres apart. Between them is a National Park and a few deep canyons, so I've ridden in a semi-circle on the only road.

It wasn't the Tour de France, but it was fun.