Tuesday 5th September

105km +411m
Moving 4:54 Total 8:12

We headed east out of Maclean along the river. Only 6km to the bridge – a right turn and then loop to go over the old Harwood bridge (jumping onto the shared path on the left as you take the immediate left out of the roundabout.) Breakfast from the Harwood store, which we took down to the park. The riverside ambience was kind of nice, but serenaded by the highway traffic roaring up and over the new highway bridge.

To delay joining the M1 we took the ‘scenic’ loop around Chatsworth Island (more riverside scenery). There is a tiny village at Chatsworth. There is a General Store/cafe, but it wasn’t open during our trip. (Probably worth checking out as an option nowadays though!) Fortunately we clocked that there was a public toilet at the back of a little church (as the one down at Harwood that we went looking for was permanently closed.)
While Marc was using the loo, I walked up towards the riverbank to investigate the community ‘thong’ tree, only to be aggressively swooped by a magpie. Lucky I had kept my helmet on – it made contact! (Forgot I had sworn off Spring touring in Australia!)

Now for 25km of unavoidable highway.

Route notes: I had been trying for years to suss out a non-highway option between here and New Italy/Woodburn -heatmaps, local knowledge via various Facebook groups, but nothing seemed viable any more. The trails through Bundjalung National Park were a maybe, but looked very rough. I’ve since learned that the Terra Australis route does go through there, and while the Strava global heat map doesn’t show anything, the RWGPS global heat map does. So it’s doable, but from what I’ve heard, rough and sandy.

I wasn’t looking forward to this, but it was actually pretty good. Wide, smooth shoulders, debris free. The traffic was good, even if the headwinds weren’t. At least 50% of the trucks moved over to the right lane when passing us. We had a break at Bundjalung Rest Area, and got to the New Italy cafe by 10am. Morning tea.

Despite the highway having been much better than expected, we were still relieved to be able to take the back way through to Woodburn. About 7km of dirt road at first. We hit Woodburn at 11.30 and the 64k mark just as the mercury was reaching 30 degrees. Today was shaping up to be a lot warmer than yesterday. Second morning tea, or early lunch?
Food, drink, water top up, and onwards.

Swan Bay Rd – a peaceful reprieve from traffic and headwinds.

Over the river – next stop Wardell. It was hot, and the headwinds weren’t great. A bit of a reprieve on Old Bagotville Rd – 7km of dirt, but also tree-lined. 1.20pm and 88km mark and a break at a Take Away/Cafe in Wardell.

My original route plan was to take the road on the eastern side of the river and cross into West Ballina via the Burns Point Ferry. Just our luck, the ferry was out for maintenance just this week. (Lucky I do the fairly forensic research that I do before these trips. That would have been an extremely dispiriting 25k return side trip. (Going that way is, thus, still on my bucket list!)

Our alternate route, then, was to take Pimlico Rd (which was probably once-upon-a-time the original highway). It comes out on the M1 about 11km north of Wardell. Slight problem is that it’s a left turn only (onto the southbound lane). We therefore did another of our ‘scuttles’ – walked/ran the bike across, lifted it over the guardrail, through a slight track in the median strip, and across the northbound lanes to the shoulder. It was then only q couple of kilometres northbound on the shoulder to the Ballina Interchange, and to navigate the large two-lane roundabout. Not fun, but we took the lane and made it round safely. Only one kilometre along River Street and we could turn off and take a back street a few blocks, and onto a shared path over the bridge (With no shoulder, riding the road lanes would not be ideal – so my prior route plotting came in handy here.) A loop under the road, and we were at the motel. 3pm with 105km done and dusted for the day.

Time for a load of washing!

Chinese restaurant for dinner on the next block. We are familiar with Ballina, and have stayed down the other end of town before this, so we didn’t have any real need to go exploring further.