the Jenolan Caves circuit

Today�s ride starts in a car park looking up to a hill recently denuded of trees by Forestry NSW. I�m a few kilometres west of the village of Hampton, which consists of a pub, a general store and a spectacular view east to the Blue Mountains escarpment. After electronically pawing over  Google Maps, I�ve created an itinerary from here, west to Oberon, south-east to Jenolan Caves and back up the mountain to this car park, a circuit of seventy-eight kilometres, with quite a bit of up and down in between.

It�s a cool morning of 11 degrees as I set out, accompanied by bird song and the occasional roar of a logging truck. To my left are high plateau sheep pastures of lush green grass and trickling streams. To my right, forested hills yet to feel the wrath of the chainsaws.  Although Hampton and Oberon share a similar elevation of 1100 metres above sea level, the road between them dips and climbs incessantly. It�s hard to get a rhythm with these constant variations, but on a clear sky morning of cobalt blue sky, I relax and count sheep. 

A wombat wobbles alongside the farm fence. I stop for a photo and he obligingly ducks under the wire and comes closer. Like a tank on legs, he sniffs the breeze and no doubt smells sweaty lycra, stopping above a ditch and eyeing me suspiciously. A logging truck scares him into the undergrowth and I remount and climb one more rise before a sweeping downhill into Oberon, population 2200 and, as the welcome sign tells me, sister city with Eceabat, Turkey. I�ve been to Eceabat, a town on the Dardanelles Peninsula, a few hours donkey ride from Gallipoli. Perhaps the only thing these towns share is the loss of life of so many sons during World War One. It�s fitting that the first building I notice riding into Oberon is the carefully restored RSL Club.

I enter the Monkey Bean Cafe and order a cinnamon scroll and coffee. The only other customers are an old couple here for their morning routine of coffee and cake. The owner talks to them about the difficulty of creating pretty patterns in the crema of their coffee. A thousand tea-ladies from the CWA roll in their graves.

My Garmin tells me I�ve climbed 510 metres, dropped 508 metres, and the first thing I confront on cycling out of Oberon is another hill. This one offers a wild apple tree ripe with fruit on its verge and sweeping views across the pastures to Mt Blaxland and beyond. I stop for a crunchy apple and admire the quiet. No trucks on this road. I�m surprised the road keeps climbing. I�d expected to drop steeply into the Jenolan Caves. At the quaintly named village of Edith, a sign confirms our high elevation. The village appears to be inhabited by families of sheep and noisy currawongs. I keep climbing until Shooters Hill and then the wild descent starts. The road narrows, dips and corkscrews into the valley. The Garmin tells me the gradient is 16% on occasion, mostly maintaining over 10%. I�m sure glad I�m not climbing back up this road. The surface is patchy and the shire council have inserted narrow speed bumps running diagonally across the road. I suspect to aid water run-off more than to slow traffic. But, for whatever reason, it makes the descent fraught with danger. The bumps are very hard to see. I�m pleased there�s no traffic.

Jenolan Caves are the world�s oldest known open cave system, with scientists dating them to be approximately 340 million years old. There are ten caves at Jenolan that are open to tourists. I admire the names while eating a pre-packaged sandwich from the Guesthouse - the Temple of Baal;  Pool of Cerebus; Imperial Cave and my favourite for obvious reasons, the Chifley Cave. Oh Ben, where are you now? We need you more than ever. 

There are a few tourist groups waiting for the ticket office to open. Me, I�m trying to decide whether to disobey the sign that indicates the road up to Hampton is closed to outbound traffic, to allow the tourist buses clear access coming down the narrow mountain road until 1.15pm. There seem to be very few buses here. I suck it in and irresponsibly cycle around the sign and through the Grand Arch. Wow! That is one pleasant hundred metres, cycling in the cool dim surroundings, looking up at the eerily-lit cave ceiling. 

I cross an old sandstone bridge and head towards the light on the hill which is only sunshine not Mr Chifley�s socialism, to begin the slow steady climb up a very quiet road with, thankfully, no traffic. It�s an eight kilometre climb, in shade, of approx 5% average gradient and is perhaps the easiest, most calming part of this circuit. Nothing to do but relax and roll the legs around. After the climb, the road winds  between open farmland and more NSW Forestry Plantations. Yep, more trucks. 

I arrive back at the car park in the early afternoon. I�ve climbed 1,650 metres and descended a similar amount. It�s a good circuit. I�d recommend a longer stay at Jenolan to explore one or more caves. Remember, the Hampton Road is closed for east-bound traffic between 11.45am and 1.15pm. If you really want to attempt some serious climbing, I�d suggest doing the circuit in the opposite direction. The climb out of Jenolan to Oberon would be quite a challenge. 

I have recently published an eBook about my bicycle journey across France, including a number of Tour de France mountain climbs.

     baguettes and bicycles  is a travel adventure, a restaurant safari and a guidebook for those who enjoy slow food, easy cycling and... fast descents.

     To purchase this book for $2.99, go to my Amazon page, here.