The Bridle Track

Last Sunday Mick and my brother were planning on going fishing along the Bridle Track, but that didn’t eventuate.  However, on Tuesday last week, as the weather was rather nice, Mick and I decided to go for a drive out that way.

A bit of history…..

The Bridle Track runs from Bathurst to the mining town of Hill End through extremely rugged country and was established in the 1850s.  The main road to Hill End is via the village of Sofala, whereas the Bridle Track takes a much more direct route following the Macquarie River.  It derives its name from the fact that it was only wide enough to walk or take a horse, but was too narrow to take a carriage of any description.  Over the years it has gradually been widened, but remains a very narrow unsealed track and is popular with 4WD enthusiasts, campers and fisher folk.  You can read more about it here.  It is quite an interesting story.

Back in April, we took Lou and Tony up to Hill End for a lovely day out.  You can read about it here. 

We went up to a lookout and you can see the type of landscape that the Bridle Track had to negotiate.  Not just a gentle stroll in the park.

Mick and I have camped out that way a few times when attending the annual Sidecar Rally that for many years was held at one of the campgrounds.  Sadly, it is not held there any more.  I have a couple of photos from those weekends in my Motorcycles page, if you want to see where we were and what our setups were.

A notorious part of the track is Monaghan’s Bluff, which basically is a single track around the side of a cliff, with a horse shoe bend in the middle.  It is a long way up to the top of the cliff and a long way down to the river at the bottom of the cliff.  There was a big rock fall there in 2010 and the Track was closed.  While it was closed there was a smaller rock fall and it was decided that it is too dangerous and unstable to repair that part of the road.  A new road has now been built to bypass that section of the Track and was opened earlier this year.

So, without further ado, let’s go for a drive……

Not exactly a motorway.

This is the sort of track that a lot of it is like.

A lot of the Track runs beside the Macquarie River.  There were plans in the late 1970s to build an army base out here.  Some locals were greatly opposed to the idea and started to share photos of the river.  Most of us in Bathurst had no idea that there was such stunning scenery not far from town.  Fortunately, the base never proceeded and the landscape is still wild and greatly untouched.

One of the main reasons for our trip was to see what the new road was like.  It is a highway compared to the rest of the Track.  The road builder has done a fantastic job in really difficult conditions.  Apparently, they had to blast rock nearly all the way, as it was too hard to use conventional methods.  

You can see here where the new road heads up the hill and the old road turned left to go along the side of the cliff.

There were a couple of spots on the new road where you could pull over and have a look around.  It’s a long way down to the river.

We were parked pretty much above Monaghan’s Bluff and Mick decide to put the drone out to see what he could see.  I can’t show it all that well here, but it really did give a good indication of just how scary that bit of road was and you realise it was definitely a good idea to find an alternative.

You can see here how narrow the road was and you can see one of the rockfalls.

Once we were back down by the river we found a nice camping area to have a picnic lunch and for Mick to try his luck at catching a fish.  He didn’t have any luck.  That was the other reason we went out when we did, as the fishing season closed this weekend.  You can potentially catch trout, carp and Murray Cod, an Australian native fish.

While Mick fished, I knitted. 

Not a bad place to be sitting and knitting.

Back on the road to Hill End there is some lovely rock work from many years ago.

This river crossing is entitled “Root Hog Crossing”.  We didn’t need to go there, but it is popular with serious 4WD drivers.  Before the rocks were placed to show the way, many drove straight across and ended up in a very deep hole.  One world renowned motorcycle rallyist nearly drowned there some years ago.

We timed our trip perfectly, being on a Tuesday, as the road was really quiet.  There had been a light shower of rain the night before, so we could see tyre tracks on the road.  There had only been one motorcycle on the road before us on that day.  While Mick had the drone out one vehicle went past, in the same direction as us and another went passed while we were having lunch.  At another spot, while we were pulled over, a local farmer on his motorbike pulled over for a yarn.  This was the only vehicle we met heading in the opposite direction all day.  Fortunately, there was sufficient room to pull over to pass each other.

Now, if it had been on a weekend, and particularly on a long weekend, it would be incredibly busy with 4WDs and campers.  The farmer said it is quite scary how fast they go and where they go, getting in trouble and then expecting the locals to pull them out.  Of course, now that the new stretch of road has opened, there are even more people wanting to see what it is like. No thanks. We’ll stay away on the weekend.

The Track turns away from the Macquarie River and you have to cross the Turon River at a causeway.

From there it is the steep climb up Hawkins Hill to Hill End. Only Aussies would deface a sign like that.

Anyway, after a rough, steep climb you suddenly pop out into village of Hill End.

We were too late to get a coffee from the General Store, so a cuppa from the thermos and bickie in the park were in order. This one tree shone like a beacon.

Everything seemed to glow in the afternoon light.

And another colourful tree.

We returned home via the much less adventurous Turondale Road.  The little corrugated iron church is always a favourite landmark.

We arrived home just on dark, after a thoroughly enjoyable day out.  One of the perks of not having to go to work any more.