After the pandemic sparked a greater curiosity about his own backyard, Tim Schaare-Weeks set out with a few friends to stitch together a bike touring route that would take them from the Sydney Opera House to the top of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia’s highest peak. With a dose of good-humored Australian sarcasm, they christened the ride ‘The Grondo’. Let’s crack on with the Grondo…
The Grondo Inception
Prior to the COVID lockdowns in Sydney, my partner and I thought it would be a good idea to start a renovation which would mean living out of our bedroom, showering outdoors, and eating from a camp stove for maybe 5-6 weeks. When the next lockdown hit, they paused all construction and our project ground to a halt indefinitely. Facing a winter of outdoor showers, we made the decision to move and find some refuge an hour west in the Blue Mountains.
While I’d always loved being outside, spending more time riding bikes bang in the middle of one of Australia’s great national parks made me realize how little exploring I’d done in my own backyard.
A few months later, our first child arrived and I passed some of the quiet time at home, exploring maps and thinking about how I could stitch together a ride that would help scratch the itch of seeing more of Australia. I settled on the idea of riding to Mount Kosciuszko via as many national parks as possible.
After pitching it to a few mates, some loose plans were hatched. We all booked leave and the wheels were in motion for The Grondo.
Grondo: noun, Australian slang. A portmanteau of ‘gronk’ and ‘fondo’. Gronk: A person lacking in fashion sense, motor skills, and/or social skills; a likeable idiot, also known as a Bogan. Fondo: Italian slang for a bike ride.
To top it off, we decided the whole trip would be much cooler and probably mean a Radavist article if we shot the whole thing on old point-and-shoot film cameras. For those interested, we captured these images using an Olympus Pen EE3, Canon AF35M, and an Olympus XA.
The Highs & Lows of Riding the Great Dividing Range
On a ride where you average 93 km / 1600 m elevation a day, the vibe wasn’t always going to be high. Nonetheless, I was surprised by how high our spirits remained throughout the trip.
It’s not to say everything went swimmingly because, well, it didn’t. We had issues with washed-out bridges, reroutes, unexpected hike-a-bikes, tire blowouts, missed resupply windows, almost hitting kangaroos, and one unforgettable night at -10°c with everything freezing solid.
But like all good trips with good stories, the good outweighed the bad. To the original inspiration of the trip, the five of us got to properly see our own backyard at a pace where we could appreciate the changing geography. From coastal beaches to subtropical rainforests, from native scrub to alpine plains, Australia is a special place that I now appreciate all that much more.
It wasn’t just the landscape, though. We encountered many fine folks along the way – like our mate’s brother dropping off cold beers after a long hike-a-bike, the owners of the Nerriga Hotel letting us sleep in their backyard after a missed resupply, a fellow bikepacker sharing a hidden camp spot, and a friend riding celebratory drinks to the top of Mt Kosciuszko as a surprise for us all when we finished.
The Grondo delivered on its mission of very good vibes on bikes with friends.
Final Thoughts
When I sat down to write this, I knew I could spend a long time telling you about the ins and outs of every day. But the truth is the best way to understand it all is to go ride your own Grondo one day with a few friends.
While everyday life can feel a bit fucked at times, it’s opportunities like this that remind me the vibes are out there and that most people are genuinely good folks, given the opportunity.
The Route
The Grondo spans 840 km (532 mi) and 14,656 m (49,026 ft) elevation, which we covered in 9 days during April. If you give the route a crack yourself, you should probably expect heat, rain, snow, sun, and lots of climbing.