Mud Mapping

March 28, 2024

The Route Plan

Luddite or Old School?

I’ve heard of gpx. files and downloadable ride routes. I even have a few mapping and navigation apps. on my phone. But I don’t use them. I don’t know how to. I prefer pen & paper to plan where I’m going.

The thing is, I began cycle touring in 1978 with a multi-month ride from England to the Middle East using a YHA book, paper maps and road signs. Those formative early years seemed to have hardwired my preference for non electronic route planning, other than a few glimpses at Google Maps instead of an atlas.

Another major factor in navigating this tour is that I’ve previously cycled the first half of the ride, and we’ll be cycling through my home patch for the second half of the ride. So I’m fairly familiar with the general geography of the 1400 km from start to finish. Much more familiar than I was with previous Canberra to state capital tours.

Below are my not-to-scale mud maps of Canberra to Tamworth; and Tamworth to Brisbane. These tell me that almost the entire route is well endowed with towns and villages, so finding essential supplies, and accommodation, won’t be too difficult.

The big picture. Canberra to Brisbane via an inland route. Not via the more populated coastal highways and by-ways.

Canberra to Tamworth via Orange. But we won’t go to Goulburn. Not shown are two villages called Gundaroo and Gunning. We’ll cycle through them to Crookwell which is shown. There’s substantial range between the Upper Hunter and The Liverpool Plains. We’ll cross that range on a backroad from Merriwa to Willow Tree.

A way north. Barraba was where I was born. I lived my formative years there and in Tamworth. The ride didn’t follow this mud map exactly. From Warialda we rode to a place called Yetman, then to Texas and Warwick. From Warwick we rode to Boonah, Ipswich and Brisbane. Not to Toowoomba.

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