WELLINGTON TO WYONG CYCLE TOUR - DAY 2

Cassilis seen from Golden Highway

Route: Ulan, Merriwa, The Battery
Distance: 84km

The road north of Ulan features several interesting sites. The Drip is a series of small streams that flow over cliffs carved out by the Goulburn River. The turnoff is about 10km north of Ulan. There is a picnic area by the car park. About 12km north of Ulan is the Hands-on Rock, a cliff face featuring Aboriginal rock art.

The Turrill Store Fuel Stop is approximately 16km north of Ulan. Here I obtained rain water from a tank, though it had a number of Mosquito wrigglers. According to the Yellow Pages, this service station was still in operation in 2009. This is the last shop along the route until Merriwa, discounting the hotel in Cassilis. Several kilometres afterwards one reaches The Golden Highway, where traffic increases but is still fairly light.

I found the 51km along the highway to Merriwa to be rather monotonous, the only point of interest being distant views of the Coolah Tops (see also here and here) near Cassilis. There is almost no shade along the road, even where it crosses the Krui River 25km west of Merriwa. For this reason the short side trip to Cassilis is recommended to break the journey. (To avoid this rather dull section along the Golden Highway, see the discussion of an alternative route between Gulgong and Jerrys Plains.

Cassilis (tourist information, SMH travel guide) is a village of about 100 people, located located 1km off the Golden Highway and about 43km west of Merriwa. It has a hotel, caravan park and small café.

The Battery Picnic Area

Merriwa (merriwa.com, SMH travel guide, further tourist information ) is a small district centre of 1000 people. It has a supermarket, bakery, caravan park, tourist information centre (open 10am to 3pm daily) and other basic services. The bottle museum is a unique attraction. East of Merriwa the scenery becomes more interesting. Some remarkable cylindrical rock formations formed by volcanic activity, known as The Battery, lies on the highway about 15km east of Merriwa. There is a good picnic ground here with toilets, sheltered tables and plenty of grass to pitch a tent.