Taree to Newcastle | A 3 day bike ride| Cycle Touring

All it takes is 10 seconds of courage to change your life. I had never been on a train, with a bike, in a box but here I was; in Taree, about to embark on a three day bike ride.
Some of it would be main roads, some would be small lanes and a significant part of my trip would involve riding gravel, following an old mining road.
This was a bicycle ride from Taree on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, out to Old Bar, down though Khappinghat Nature Reserve and along the Lakes Way to Forster. From Forster I came through Booti Booti National Park around Smiths Lake and out on to the Old Mining Road leading from Seal Rocks to Myall Lakes via the Old Gibber Road. This was 20km of deserted gravel, finishing at Tea Gardens. The following day I caught the Nelson Bay/Port Stephens Ferry across to Port Stephens and then cycled down through Stockton and on to Newcastle via a second ferry.
It was an epic four days of travel, three days of cycling. Two trains, two ferries, three motels and a lot of sweat.
Please note, the Tea Gardens ferry service announced it had shut soon after this trip. Good news is, they have announced they are starting up again after Oct 9th 2022.
Thanks for watching
Mike Coles
mike-coles.com

[@shariscroggins7221]

Genuinely proud, indeed! Beautiful ride, Michael. Thank you for sharing!

[@goldenstardust]

Main road riding is no fun, but often unavoidable. The offroad segments were lovely. Thank you for sharing your journey so eloquently.

[@karenchowell]

Wonderful video thanks for sharing !! I live in Wingham not too far from Taree and would so love to see more cyclists out on the roads seeing our beautiful countryside the way you have !!

[@shanebywater]

Enjoyed watching the video. Keep them coming

[@jonathankerr882]

Awesome video, i used to spend time in Myall Lakes / Lemon Tree Passage, i miss that life now

[@mike-coles]

It’s a beautiful part of the world.

[@bikenbeers]

Nice video, well documented ride. I agree the highways and busy roads are not much fun but once you get to the isolation and serenity of the gravel roads all that is forgotten. I recently did a ride (and short video) in the Belanglo state Forest and didn’t see another cyclist/car/motor bike on my ride, just a few cows. It made for a more enjoyable experience.

[@kxvinxavier]

Inspiring and awesome ride and video. Amazing!

[@frankducett9]

At first I thought you might be in Kansas or Indiana, the buildings and cars, but the people were driving on the left, where could it be. Oh Australia of course. I found your videos and stuck Gold. Or at least Silver. 😊

[@pushiepedlar2942]

great video! Spent my highschool years in Taree and had many adventures along this stretch of coast. This has inspired me to go back!

[@mangomingo3085]

Hi Micheal, just came over your channel and l’m really enjoying your videos. I’m from the uk and your channel reminds me of leonardmlee, a KZbinr from the uk. You both have a similar style of presenting. Would be great if you both could do a bike ride together as he travels to different countries cycling. Keep up the great work with your channel, fan from the uk 🇬🇧

[@mike-coles]

Ha ha! Thanks for the kind words. I’ve watched Leonard. He makes excellent videos, however I think he’d probably rip my legs off if we rode together!

[@mangomingo3085]

I’m sure you could keep up with him lol 🚴🏻‍♂️ Your video for riders over 50 years to increase fitness was really good. Looking forward to future videos

[@mangomingo3085]

Great music choices you play in your videos

[@dummatube]

Fantastic Colesey! I’ve spent many great days camping and kayaking in the Mungo Brush area. I would have been tempted to just load up with oysters and prawns at tea gardens and head off to a nice secluded camping spot next to the lake!

[@mike-coles]

I stayed at the pub, right beside the ferry at Tea Gardens and yes, it was tempting to stay there for a week instead of one night. Lovely spot.

[@dummatube]

@@mike-coles I used to put that Kayak on the little Pug 205 GTI and hare up there in time for a bacon butty brekky, buy the seafood, go up the back road to the ferry crossing and rent a chalet. I used to hang out with the cute chef at the camp ‘restaurant’ - she cooked me lobster and I shared my wine stocks. Happy daze 🥂🤪

[@paulninnis14]

What a fantastic video Michael, well done. You used a drone for some shots, what sort do you have and did it take much to get the hang? FYI, it has just been announced that the Ferry Company that runs Tea Gardens service has stopped running. Hopefully someone else will take over, but at the moment we don't know. Some friends and I are setting off on a 6 day ride from Albury in a loop through central Vic. and up to Cobram then back to Albury. I hope to record something, hopefully as well as you did.

[@mike-coles]

G’day Paul. I have a Mavic Mini 2. The other cameras are iPhone 12 and GoPro 8. So nothing fancy really. Terrible news if they shut the ferry. It’s such a great part of the area. Good luck with your trip.

[@hyomandibular]

Is there anything about the Sutra as a touring bike that you don’t like?

[@mike-coles]

I’m not a fan of the bar end shifters and coming from a mountain bike background I wasn’t too keen on the drop bars. So I have installed rapid fire changers and flat bars, which I’m much happier using. You can see the new set up on the Port Macquarie video. 👍