I left the very pleasant town of Mudgee at 8.30am and headed east along the very quiet Lue Road. The weather was cloudy but warm nonetheless. After a few kms I was saddened to see a dead wombat, obviously recently killed, by the side of the road.

The road offered wide views of the fertile land surrounding the Cudgegong River:

About 29kms from Mudgee is the small town of Lue, of which most of the buildings seemed to be deserted:

The railway station there had clearly not seen a train for some time:

After about 54 kms I reached Rylstone at about 11.30. This is an attractive little town with tree-lined streets and a rich architectural heritage.

About 7kms further on is the town of Kandos, this was founded early in the last century as the centre of a large cement works.
439 Kandos main street, with Coomber Melon mountain in the background.

About 7kms further on is the town of Kandos, this was founded early in the last century as the centre of a large cement works. Below is Kandos main street, with Coomber Melon mountain in the background.

The Lonely Planet route I am following designates Kandos as the end point for today’s section of the ride, which is meant to end back in Bathurst on the following day, looping back there via Sofala which was visited on day 1.

I didn’t particularly want to retrace part of the route, and I certainly didn’t want to stay in Kandos, it was only 1pm by the time I’d had lunch there and there was nothing much to do there, the museum was closed and there seemed to be few other attractions. So I decided to head south east towards Lithgow, from where it would be much easier to get back to Sydney than froim Bathurst, as it’s served by more trains.

The revised route took me out of Kandos towards Glen Davis, along a very quiet road with by far the most spectacular scenery of the trip so far, passing close by the western foothills of the Blue Mountains. The scent of eucalypt was almost overpowering as the temperature continued to climb and the clouds dispersed to leave a brilliant blue sky:

Most of the road was sealed tarmac but towards Glen Davis (40kms from Kandos) there was a few kms of dirt road, however it wasn’t too rough. Just before Glen Davis the route turned off towards Capertee, the revised destination for today.

The last 30kms were a slog; it was still very hot in the late afternoon and the road became increasingly undulating. I finally reached Capertee, which consists of a hotel and a few houses, back on the main highway south from Mudgee towards Portland, at around 7.30pm and found a quiet room at the hotel which, seemingly like all the other hotels in the region, is called the Royal Hotel.

Total distance today - 145kms.