Mountain bike ride to McMahons Lookout in the Blue Mountains

I�m very fortunate that my occupation allows me time to indulge in a daily bike ride. Usually, I hop on my road bike and complete a 28km circuit of back roads near my house in the Blue Mountains. It�s rather hilly, as you�d expect, but the grind is more than compensated by spectacular views and quiet roads. 

However, lately I�ve noticed that my focus on the ride has shifted slightly from a sense of calm and joy at cycling in such beautiful surroundings to being keenly aware of the car approaching me from behind. I guess I�ve read, or written too many articles on the dangers of road cycling. I�ve even bought a Fly6 rear-facing video camera and flashing light-set to hopefully mitigate against the perceived dangers of distracted motorists.

Don�t get me wrong. I still love my daily ride. But the presence of looming vehicles driven by texting motorists set me thinking. I live on Narrow Neck Road in the Blue Mountains, just a few hundred metres uphill from the majestic Narrow Neck plateau - an eleven kilometre fire trail stretching south, accessible only to walkers, cyclists and ... fire trucks! I studied Google maps for other potential car-free trails and found I had been living amongst a mountain bike wonderland for the past twenty-three years.  

So I went out and bought a bike suitable to take on such dirt roads. Yesterday, having closely consulted a series of maps, I decided to go exploring. 

It began with a brisk pedal down to Wentworth Falls and along Kings Tableland Road to the eerie and barb-wire fence enclosed Queen Victoria Hospital. Now disused and riddled with asbestos, the Edwardian-era buildings housed a tuberculosis sanatorium from 1903 before being taken over by the State in 1958 and becoming an old-people�s home. It�s been derelict for years, now a tumble of decaying buildings and an overgrown garden. 

Beside the hospital is a dirt road that leads 20 km along the plateau. How can I resist? For the next few hours, I don�t see another person or car, accompanied only by birdsong and the jarring of my front forks on the dirt road. It�s-s-s-s-s a l-l-l-little bump-p-p-y! The road leads through National Park extending south along the tableland. Curiously, 10 km into the National park, I come across a jumble of buildings surrounded by lots of Keep Out signs. It�s called High Valley and is privately owned land, within a National Park. The owners must treasure their solitude. A little further on I stop at a cave formation called Battleship Tops surrounded by towering gums. Unfortunately the Indigenous rock paintings have been damaged by fire and weather, but it�s still a lovely quiet site.

Finally I reach a parking area and a sign announcing McMahons Lookout is 800 metres down a narrow winding path, not suitable even for my rugged mountain bike. I walk through overhanging ferns along a muddy path to the lookout. 

Wow! That�s worth all the bone-shaking. I�m high above Lake Burragorang, created by Warragamba Dam. It�s a surreal site - so much water and wilderness so close to Sydney. I�m struck by how quiet it is. Because the dam is the source of Sydney�s water, no-one is allowed nearby. Perched a few hundred metres above, I�m perhaps the closest person to this wonder. The dam is ringed by forest and mountains on three sides and fed by the waters of the Coxs, Kowmung, Nattai, Wingecarribee and Wollondilly rivers.

I eat lunch with a few parrots and pardalotes as guests. 

Back on the bike, it�s a long uphill return to my home. But, for the next 20 km on this dirt track, I don�t have to think about cars and traffic. I am alone.