Aurora Renews: Southen Highlands of NSW on two wheels

What a great weekend! I'm lucky enough to have tagged along on my friend Brian's weekend long bicycle trip in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Here I got to experience the Australian fall, wait, I mean, autumn, as very few Native Australian trees are of the deciduous type that have their leaves 'fall' off. It's real neat to see the weather and season changing here in Australia, a place where as a kid growing up, I just thought it was always summer!

We checked out Morton National Park, Fitzroy Falls, Kangaroo Valley, camped in two beautiful spots (trying real hard to keep our toes toasty!), where we saw heaps of wombats wandering under the near full moon and fog, and I was warned over and over about Drop Bears, which are known to inhabit the area we were camped in :) After a beautiful, long climb out of the valley, we popped up on the other side of Australia's Great Dividing Range, where we cruised down to the warmer, coastal town of Kiama, known for it's picturesque lighthouse and active blowholes.

(an aside - before getting to Kiama, we had a longish climb on a 4 lane highway, the only route we could take. There was no shoulder space for us to cycle on, so we took up one of the two northbound lanes, to ensure we were safe as we put putted our way up the hill, which is a perfectly legal act in Australia. And forgive me in advance, but some of the drivers were so horrible. I felt my positivity waning as I trudged up the hill, people screaming out their windows, and more people honking, and even more people speeding UP to pass us! This made me feel unsafe, vulnerable, hated, and hopeless for sustainable transportation at that moment. I wanted to scream and cry! Luckily, I had jolly old Brian at my side, who didn't back down and just kept on pedaling. Please please please if you are a driver who's never rode a bicycle on a busy road, know that as a cyclist you often feel so vulnerable; and sure, we choose to put ourselves in that situation, but we should be able to feel safe being where we are allowed to be, just as much as you should. And yes, you have places to go, people to see, things to do - and so do cyclists! Know also that we have hundreds of cars pass us, you don't know as a driver how the motorists 5 cars up have just made us feel, and you also have a body of steel surrounding you whereas cyclists do not. So be generous with the amount of space you give us, slow down, and try to see us as a normal part of the road system, not an anomaly. BIG GRATITUDE to those drivers who do give cyclists heaps of space, and who are patient when they pass, you have to know how appreciated this is!)

Whew, okay, sorry for the rant, but it belongs. The weekend as a whole was amazing, I felt so lucky to experience more of New South Wales on my bicycle, and had a great friend to do the exploring with! The weekend was capped off by a spectacular moon rise over the ocean seen clearly from the train window en route back to Sydney - mesmerizing.