Fluoro Fran and I decided to head off early to the Central Coast (north of Sydney) to deliver my son to a mates place and take in a couple of bike rides. This entailed some bike selection as the cavernous boot of the Honda Odessey can handle three bikes and two people or three people and two bikes. I fitted in a 29inch cruiser bike and a 27.5inch mtb. As a loved one was sitting in the back, bikes were secured very well. We got on the way at 11am, another sterling punctual performance.

After dropping off our son in Woy Woy, we headed to the Chittaway Bay on the south western end of Lake Tuggerah. It was a lot further from Woy Woy than it looked on the map, nearly 40 minutes in the Central Coast traffic. We unloaded the bikes and hopped straight onto a perfect shared bike path at the kids playground. For the next 15km it’s a well-made path that has smooth flowing curves all the way to The Entrance. This path is really nice and suits all types of bikes, kids, dogs sledding, grannies on trikes and rusty foldups.

It was ice-cream at The Entrance (fish and chips would also be popular) and then we went across the river and off to see if around the Lake was a possibility. I had my cruiser bike so I was sceptical at this stage. I nearly ran over a small red belly black snake. Its strange how snakes don’t register when you are on a bike until they are very close. At this stage the tail was getting boring and then I saw the beware of snakes sign. We rode on a little more, my eyes glued to the path for moving sticks. The trail came to the section where you have to ride on the main road. The verge looked good enough but why bother, the trail around the south side of Lake Tuggerah was so good. We turned and headed back.

To the south of us the skies had turned black, we picked up the pace. It was really enjoyable going back, the wind whipped up and the birds all started going crazy. When we were pulling into the car park, a wind squall ripped across the lake and the water was sucking off the lake into vertical rain. We jumped in the car with the bikes lying on the ground as the wind hit us. Very wild for a few minutes.

As we drove back I noticed mushrooms on the side of the road. It was hail and they were bigger than golf balls, baseball sized was the expression used on the news. The traffic was SLOW. I wished I was riding back on the lake.

Perfect ride, you don’t need a racing bike or lycra, thongs and boardshorts would do… When you get to The Entrance, enjoy the old beach charms and the pelicans.

The trail is 15 min from the crazy Pacific Motorway, so chill out, leave the highway and have some fun. I hate that motorway, too many tailgaters and bad drivers.

30km return trip if you go across the bridge at The Entrance to where the trail ends at the highway. 22km if you ignore north of the bridge. Dead flat. Do it twice for 60km… Don’t bother going across the bridge to the north unless you want to work your way around the lake for 60kms. I will try that sometime in the future with my eBike when the skies are blue. I might even take snake socks.

See the purple trail in Google Maps here  >>

See the easy trail at the bottom of Tuggerah Lake in purple and the more technical trail to the top in green.  The section near Magenta is on a high speed road and whilst it has been well done, you would never take a teenager on it.

See more on the area on the Newcastle and Central Coast Page