backroad to Bathurst

[b055m4n]

hi fell'as is anyone familiar with the Coxs river road at Little Hartley or Jenolan Caves road into Oberon and north along the O'connell road and or onto Lagoon road into Bathurst any info such road conditions or what to look out for would be appreciated.

[Neale]

Depends how far out of the way you want to go.

About a month ago I drove the out to Janolan Caves then back through Oberon & O'Connell is pretty good & usually has hardly any traffic past the caves. But it is a fair distance extra.

This is another good one that doesnt go as far as the caves but heads out that direction.



Another good road that is not as far out of the way is through Taralga via Diamond Swamp Road. This would be the best if you dont want to go to far out of the way & not go on dirt



If you dont mind a bit of smooth dirt roads. The road from Lithgow Via Lake Lyell/Sodwalls/Tarana/O'Connell is great & Its also got some good scenery around Lake Lyell & near the Sodwalls where there are some old railway viaducts.



But has a few sections of dirt between Lake Lyell & Tarana.

Here are some pics of the dirt sections that I took on a recon run a few months ago for the bathurst cruise.





And heres some of the scenery.

[Neale]

Also if you dont want to hit the dirt avoid Lagoon Rd as it is like the dirt sections shown in the pics because of roadworks.

[b055m4n]

Thanks thats great feedback mate good info love the photos great scenery,another route from Wollongong would be the Illawarra hwy then Canyonleigh road then onto Brayton road then Bannaby road and onto Goulburn- Oberon road, Do you know anything about those ?

[Neale]

I the road between Taralga & Bathurst is good. Better that the Crookwell Rd is also pretty good unless you dont like Kangaroos & dirt sections.

I havent done the section between there & Wollongong though.

[deesun]

If you dont mind a bit of smooth dirt roads. The road from Lithgow Via Lake Lyell/Sodwalls/Tarana/O'Connell is great & Its also got some good scenery around Lake Lyell & near the Sodwalls where there are some old railway viaducts.
Dirt sections must be new this year as I take that way every year, probably resurfacing. Stop along the way at Tarana Pub, great outlook and a nice quaint little place. There are a couple of corners to be wary of though. As said beautiful scenery.

[Neale]

They have been recently fixing up those parts but it can take them months to re surface parts of the road.

They may be fixed. They started it around June/July but when I went down them in August they were dirt & no sign of anything happening. They have taken nearly a year to fix Lagoon Road.

Its almost like instead of resurfacing the road they just strip the tar off & run a grader over it occasionaly. The same thing has been happening on the Crookwell road between Goulburn & Bathurst.

[b055m4n]

That O'connell rd was good Duckmaloi could be a great road if it was'nt so bumpy but a great drive in the XR8 doing what it was designed to do rapid crosscountry i should add O'connell rd was in drizzle and wet road very exciting without being stupid..