The Hunter Valley, located approximately 160km north of Sydney is Australia’s sixth most visited region, attracting more than 2.5 million visitors each year. The reason for this becomes apparent when you get there. It is one of Australia’s most famous wine-growing centres, with almost all industry in the area is grape or wine related in some way. It’s a great place for a ride and is a much gentler area than the more mountainous sections a bit further inland, like the Great Dividing Range.

The Great Dividing Range is the setting for some of the most interesting scenery in the state and includes the highest mountain in the region, Mount Kosciuszko at 2229 metres. The range stretches more than 3500km and runs the entire length of the eastern coastline through New South Wales. At the southern end of the state the range forms the Snowy Mountains and affords some truly amazing scenery, especially in winter. It should be noted that riding in this area during the colder months, can be extremely uncomfortable unless you are suitably prepared! You can entertain yourself with a variety of winter sports or choose to go cycling, caving, rafting, kayaking, horse riding and any number of other activities during the more clement months.

The Great Dividing Range is never very far from the coast, so it makes a mix of coastal and mountain riding a distinct possibility and it would be a shame not to experience both on your way through.

Sydney is the capital city of New South Wales and the site of Australia’s first permanent European settlement. It is one of the world’s most beautiful settlements. Nestled around a large harbour, it has the natural advantages of walks around the foreshore, spectacular views, bay side parks and gardens, plus the architectural magic of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. The English writer Anthony Trollope, when he visited Australia, wrote of Sydney: ‘I despair of being able to convey to any reader my own idea of the beauty of Sydney Harbour. I have seen nothing to equal it in the way of land-locked sea scenery.’ The centre of the greater metropolitan area is a low-lying plain which stretches west for nearly 50 kilometres, until it reaches the eastern edge of the Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountains, located approximately 100km south of Sydney are not, as the name might suggest, mountains at all. They are in fact a series of cliffs surrounding a plateau, riddled with gorges with some over 700m deep. The ‘blue’ aspect of their name, comes from the blue-coloured tint the range takes on when viewed from a distance, this effect is caused by the release of oils from the surrounding eucalypt forests. In fact most mountain ranges in Australia appear blue from a distance, but the name stuck with this particular region.