sydney to the gold coast by e-trike

[Diamondback]

Pulled into Casino and found the visitor info centre at around 11:30am.
Decided on the camp site for the next 2 days. We're at the Big 4 park near the airport at Casino.

We plan to have a rest day tomorrow.
Then on to hippie town the following day.
Nimbin for those who might not know what town I was referring too.
Nimbin is a town full of "flower children" and other alternative lifestyles.

I'm sure that will be an interesting place to stay !

We only have about 150km to go till we get to surfers paradise.
But, those 150km are reasonably hilly.

I'm hoping to be on the Gold Coast by Tuesday afternoon.

Stats from today's ride.

51.9km
3.89ah
176.76 watt hrs
3.3 wh/km
228.60 human watt hrs
105 avg human watts
Avg speed 17.1 km/h
Max speed 42.5 km/h

 

[XLR8]

Watch out for those special biscuits the locals try to sell you at Nimbin.

 

[Diamondback]

10-4 on the biscuits !


Because we had a rest day today in Casino,
I had a chance to look at the route options for the ride tomorrow.

This is the LEAST objectionable route ! One major climb about 15km in.

I'm not looking forward to this....

Luckily it's only a 50km day.

I have emailed the profile for the day to voicecoils.

Jason.

 

[voicecoils]

Day 13 photos and captions

1882 only 94 years after white settlement.

Horse looking at me as if thinking WTF ?

Vic ahead on the summerland way

Does this road EVER end ?

There's that railway again !

Whiporie

Campground for the night

Sunset.

This was the view from the camp site at the general store at Whiporie.

Day 14 photos and captions

The Whiporie general store where we camped.

There's that never ending 100km road again !

Still going. It's like the energiser bunny !

Bad self portrait !

Casino welcomes us !

Sign on the laundry block at the camp site at casino.

The river that runs through casino. No idea what it's called.

Camp site for the next 2 nights.

Because we had a rest day today in Casino, I had a chance to look at the route options for the ride tomorrow.

This is the LEAST objectionable route !
One major climb about 15km in. I'm not looking forward to this....

Elevation profile for the ride tomorrow.

 

[Diamondback]

Day 16

Woke at 6am
Not much dew on the tent this morning.
I'm packed and ready for the climb by 7am.
We leave the camp site around 7:30 after a quick breakfast.

45 mins and 8km into today's ride, we spot the mountains were about to climb.
Yikes !

Turns out the hills weren't neat as bad as they had appeared on the profile.

We Rode through some very quiet country roads today.

We Stopped at a little general store where we had a quick bite to eat.

19km to go to Nimbin from the general store.

More country roads and rolling hillside and we arrive at Nimbin around 11:45am
Find the visitor info centre and decide to camp at the show ground again.

We have had good luck with staying at the local show grounds so far.

$15 per night for a powered site.
Can't complain about that ! Hot shower facilities, clean toilets too.

Took a few pictures on the way today.

Stats from today.

53.81 km
5.33 ah
257.58 watt hrs
4.7 wh/km
251.70 human watt hrs
105 avg human watts
Max speed 59 km/h

On to Murwullambah tomorrow.
It's about 50km and reasonably hilly too.

 

[voicecoils]

Day 16 photos and captions

Sunny and blue skies !

More of those wide open spaces.

Vic ahead

Rolling hills and more blue sky.

Pano shot of some of the countryside we just rode through.

The long road !

Hills !

Nimbin 19km

The general store where we had lunch.

Vic and sharyn behind.

Yet more hills.

There's those hills again.

Vic ahead

Sharyn behind.

Cows down by the stream.

Interesting stone formations nearing Nimbin.

We made it.

Camp set up for the night.

 

[Hillhater]

There's that railway again !

It amazes and embarrasses me to say it but.... that is the only railway between Sydney and Brisbane !

 

[Diamondback]

Yeah, we've been crossing over that almost all the way up the coast.

You would assume the topography would be flatter, following a rail line and all !

Anyway, on to day 17.

Woke at 7am. Late start due to only 50km today.

We leave camp at 8am. Ride up to the Main Street of Nimbin and have a quick breakfast at one of the local bakeries.

We leave Nimbin around 8:45am


Ride through some very mountainous terrain (by my standards anyway)

Lots of ups and downs today.
Lots of forested areas too.

Light traffic too. Bonus.

Reached the outskirts of murwullambah around 12pm.

We are staying in a cabin tonight. It's likely to be cold again tonight.
Staying at a little caravan park about 2km outside town.

The final day should be tomorrow.
With a good run we should be on main beach under the arch by about 1pm.

We have a very sharp climb to deal with tomorrow morning.
Up to about 350 meters or so. 13% grade in some places.
Not looking forward to that at all.

Stats from today.

57.34 km
5.10 ah
243.65 watt hrs
4.2 wh/km
237.30 human watt hrs
102 avg human watts
Avg speed 15.5 km/h
Max speed 56.6 km/h

 

[voicecoils]

Day 17 photos and captions

Just after leaving Nimbin. We spot the "Hill" we have to climb over shortly.

Vic ahead

Sharyn behind.

Lots of forested area we rode through today.

We had just descended off that !

Leaving the "hills" behind us (we hope)

There it is again !

Up yet another hill and into more greenery.

Vic and sharyn behind.

Another hill

More hills in the distance.

Some of those we rode through earlier in the morning.

Some rolling hills nearing murwullambah.

Yet more of those pesky hills !

Trike and trailer inside the cabin. It's a fight to get it through the door !

Vic & Sharyns bike Fridays in the bedroom of the cabin.

 

[voicecoils]

Day 18 elevation profile

This is the profile for the 1st part of day 18. From murwullambah to main beach.

Then we have to do a run to oxenford. That's another 20 odd km. that's to the place were staying till I get the gear home.

According to the app, this is one sucker of a hill. 16.9% in places on the run up, and even steeper on the descent.

 

[Diamondback]

Day 18

We wake around 7am. At least I do !

As we're staying in the cabin, we've less to pack up this morning.

We are about to start the last day !
It's about 50km to main beach at surfers paradise,
and then another 20 odd km to our final destination.

I'm kinda sad that its all about to be finished,
but kinda happy too, my legs will sure thank me tomorrow !

We hope to be at the beach around 2pm.
we have one very big climb to overcome about 10km into today's ride.
then it's all pretty flat.

 

[Diamondback]

We follow the tweed river out of town and turn off towards the mountain.

Turn off the old hwy and towards Tumbulgum.
We ride through this sleepy little town.
Then cross the tweed river and start the climb.

Again, its not as bad as the profile had made it seem.
We climb up and into the town of Teranora.
Then we start the descent into Banora point.

As we're descending into Banora point,
we catch a glimpse of the ocean and tweed heads.

A quick stop at hungry jacks for breakfast at tweed heads.

We have about 25 km to go before we get to main beach.

 

[voicecoils]

Congrats Jason, nearly there!

 

[Diamondback]

Rode along the roads parallel to the gold coat hwy.
staying as close to the beach as possible.

Pulled up onto main beach outside Q1 just before 1pm.

Left main each after lunch and rode out to oxenford.
Got to oxenford just after 4pm after.
Few wrong turns and some shopping stops.

Feels great to have finally made it ! I'm kinda sad too.
Sad that I have to return to reality on just over a week
and go back to work !


Stats from today's ride.

79.6km
5.77ah
280.00 watt hrs
3.4 wh/km
333.80 human watt hrs
92 avg human watts
Avg speed 14.4 km/h
Max speed 51.60 km/h


Total stats for the 18 days
(16 riding days)

1113.95 km

107.52 ah

5113.60 watt hrs
5169.50 human watt hrs

I made my goal of contributing at least 50% of the power.

I have calculated the approximate cost of the electricity used for the entire trip at $1.38.
That's worst case scenario using the highest rate we pay for electricity here (27c per kw/h).

That's 0.123c per km !

Thanks to all for the comments and encouragement.
I will do this again someday. Maybe next year I'll do Melbourne to Adelaide ?

Huge thanks to Abraham for the posting of the many many pictures.

Jason.

 

[XLR8]

That's a great journey. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[thewmatusmoloki]

You guys must be feeling pretty fit by now.

Famous too, what with people yelling Gday as you go past at Palm Beach and all :wink:

Thanks for sharing.

 

[voicecoils]

Day 18 photos and captions (last day!)

We rode through Tumbulgum

Pano shot of the valley from the mountain we just climbed.

First glimpse of the ocean ! We're getting close now !

Shot from tweed heads

Surfers paradise

We made it !

A not great pic of me on the beach.

Sky scrapers at surfers paradise.

Pano shot of main beach.

 

[voicecoils]

Trip stats summary:




Compiled from Jason's daily updates and attached in .xls for anyone who wants to make pretty graphs?

Edit: corrected error in excel data (max speed in average speed column on day 16) has been fixed and the file re-uploaded

View attachment Jason-Syd-Goldcoast-2013 v2.xls

 

[Diamondback]

You guys must be feeling pretty fit by now.

Famous too, what with people yelling Gday as you go past at Palm Beach and all :wink:

Thanks for sharing.

Yeah ! That really took me by surprise !
Sharyn was like does he know you ? I assumed that you were a fellow forum member.
Glad to know that there are other Aussie ebike riders out there !
Made my day too , thanks

 

[Diamondback]

Trip stats summary:Compiled from Jason's daily updates and attached in .xls for anyone who wants to make pretty graphs?

Thanks for doing that table.

I'm hopeless when it comes to anything other than basic excel stuff.

Jason.

 

[jkbrigman]

What next? How will all of you part company, and how will you get home?

 

[Hillhater]

Seem you timed your trip just right.
That long warm sunny spell of blue sky has now turned very wet cold and windy up much of the east coast.
I hope you were not planning on riding back !

 

[Carlos Dewerchin]

Hi Jason,

I have been reading and re-reading all of your daily reports ! Thanks for sharing with us your adventure all those days long, permitting us to appreciate the country you were crossing without the sweat and tears, from our easy chair. The trips we do weather permitting, are peanuts compared to your odyssee. Congratulations again to you and your teammates who were riding along by rain and sunshine.

If you don't mind, I have a couple of questions about your GPS. As for as I could see a Garmin type . . . . ? How is the readout in full sunlight ? Is there an audio out contact ? Can you hear easily the information while you are riding, or do you think that an earphone could be useful ? I wanted to investigate the possibility installing a WIFI link to a couple of mini-speakers fitted on bot sides of the headrest. Is there a POI-function ( Point of interest ) foreseen in the app you use ? Name of the app plse ? Are you fully satisfied with your GPS or do you think about another one with more possibilities ?

Thanks for your time and efforts to share this information too !

Have a nice day

Carlos

KEEP TRIKIN' WHEN YOUR BODY IS STRIKING !