Many Great Roads Lead to Parkes
Story and photos: The Bear
If you’re ever looking for a quasar many millions of light years away, Parkes in country NSW has you covered. The Big Dish, operated by the CSIRO (Commonwealth Industrial and Scientific Research Organisation) out on the Central Western plains found the quasar PKS 2000-330 at a record distance of 20,000 million light years as long ago as 1982. And although it was built back in 1961, its new 13-beam receiver and multi-receiver focus cabin have recently made it once again the best single dish radio telescope in the world. If you're looking to undertake a road trip with a geeky theme, a ride to The Dish is a good one.
And what’s more, as you might have seen in the movie The Dish, you can play cricket on its parabolic surface. Well, you can’t but the astronomers can.
The ride out to Parkes from Sydney is even more varied. You have a choice of two roads across the Blue Mountains, Bells Line of Road (usually just called the Bell Road) and the Great Western Highway, but once you’ve crossed the “Sandstone Curtain” as the folk out West call it, you can choose between a wonderful variety of routes from gravel tracks to major highways. You can see the route I chose on the map, but there are lots of alternatives.
My friend Peter on his Super Ténéré and I on a Tracer 9GT+ spent a couple of days on an 820km ride out to Parkes and back. It was a good trip, except that the ambient temperature rose to 42 degrees when we returned to the Sydney Basin. It’s funny how so many car drivers think that riding in the heat is so pleasant on a bike. I’d rather ride in the cold!
You might think that taking the Bell Road is always better than tackling the Gret Western Highway, but they each have things going for them. The former is certainly more of a motorcycle road with very few traffic lights once you cross the Hawkesbury River and just a couple of tiny towns. Sadly, though, speed limits are quite low and it will pay you to keep that in mind – the Highway Patrol likes this road as much as we do!
While the highway, on the other hand, runs almost entirely through the City of the Blue Mountains, the road has been upgraded to quite a high standard and you have the option of taking the M4 motorway to get you through Sydney’s western suburban sprawl. There are also several good coffee stops. Three of my favorites are Ballimino’s in Glenbrook (turn left after the tourist information office); Fed in Wentworth Falls (right at the lights) and the Leura Gourmet Café & Deli on the Mall. Sit at the back for the view.
Not that the Bell Road is without its gustatory attractions! Mountain Bells Café, opposite the Bilpin Fruit Bowl, has, er… tolerable coffee and quite good apple pies. The coffee is slightly better at the Tomah Café inside the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden at Mt Tomah, and the views are to kill for. Entry to the garden is free, and parking is easy for bikes. Once you reach Lithgow, turn right at the lights near the church into Bridge Street and stop at the Lithgow Tin Shed. They have good, reasonably priced tucker and motorcyclists are always welcome. Oh, and the coffee is good, too.
If you have time, take a look at the Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum. It’s open from 10am to 4pm on Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and is well signposted from the main road.
Not only is there a comprehensive exhibition of the factory’s products – including sewing machines (!) and other guns from around the world – but the volunteer guide will be full of stories.
Whether you reach Lithgow by way of the Bell Road or the Great Western Highway, this is where your choice of routes begins to become interesting. The southern option means turning off the highway into Magpie Hollow Road in South Bowenfels. This takes you over the Lake Lyell dam and through Tarana with its motorcycle-friendly pub to the nest of roads south of Bathurst. Stay on the highway and you’ll get to Bathurst with the classic Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit and the National Motor Racing Museum. The museum is open every day except Tuesday from 9am to 4.30pm and holds quite a remarkable collection of racing cars and bikes. The shop gets a good wrap, too.
From Bathurst, take the highway or any back road leading west and you’ll have an enjoyable ride to Parkes. Although the town is probably best known for its annual Elvis Festival it’s pleasant in its own right and has an outstanding collection of motels, pubs and other accommodation. I’m happy to recommend the Coachman Motel Hotel on the corner of Dalton and Welcome Streets for dinner, but I haven’t stayed there. My preference is the Moonraker Motor Inn with parking out of sight of the road, which is also a pleasant evening stroll from the Coachman.
All up it’s hard to beat a ride out to Parkes as an overnight trip from Sydney. And with the choice of roads, you don’t have to go the same way twice.