This post covers a full-circle bike trip I made over 3 days and 2 nights in early Spring of 2018, from my apartment in Abbotsford, Melbourne, to Maryville via Tallarook and the Great Victorian Rail Trail, and then back to Melbourne via the Acheron Way and the Warburton – Lilydale Rail Trail.
I journey north by train to Tallarook, then cycle 74 km east to the township of Alexandra along the Great Victorian Rail Trail, camping overnight along the way in Yea at the 40 km mark.
The main Rail Trail continues on to Mansfield but I take the southern spur that goes to Alexandra then continue south for 45 km to Marysville and another 13 km to Narbethong where I camp on the second night.
The following day I backtrack a few kilometres and then go south once again to traverse the Great Dividing Range via the little-travelled Acheron Way, 45km to Warburton, where I recharge the eBike at a café and head west to Melbourne on the 42 km Warburton-Lilydale Rail Trail.
I then slog it out for 16 km southwest on the horrible Maroondah Highway as far as Ringwood and finally have a peaceful 30 km ride west on the excellent Eastlink/ Koonung Creek/ Main Yarra cycle path system to get back to my apartment in Abbotsford.
Day 1. Monday 1 October 2018. Melbourne · Yea. |45 km cycling; 100 km by train|
On a cool and blustery Sunday morning I cycle the 5km from my apartment into Southern Cross railway station to catch the 12.53 to Shepparton from platform 4B. I’ll take the train as far as the village of Tallarook, where the Great Victorian Rail Trail starts. The trail is the main objective on this trip.
Three different railway personnel reassure me that I’m on the right track regarding all of the train departure details. There’s no need to buy a ticket – my ‘touch-and-go’ City Metro Myki pass works just fine – and I go to main intrastate departure platform, 4B.
Except that my eBike with all it’s gear doesn’t actually fit into the platform 4 elevator, and it is only with a great deal of trepidation and difficulty that I manage to manoeuvre it down the stairs onto the platform without killing anybody, myself included.
On board, the train guy (I say “conductor”; he says “train manager”) tells me the rules stipulate that I have to unload my bike and store the luggage next to it, which seems utterly pointless, but I meekly obey without protest. Then, just as the train is about to depart, he casually mentions that I’d better get off since ‘his’ train doesn’t stop at Tallarook anyway. Furthermore, he informs me, there is only one service per day to Tallarook and it has already departed for today.
So, resigned to having to go back home to wait another day, I quickly gather up my stuff and get off the train a moment before it silently slides out of the station. I sneakily resort to using the escalator to get my loaded bike back up off the platform (not so easy either, but at least doable).
But on my way out of the station I decide to double-check with the nice older guy manning the ticket gate barrier. He’s interested in helping, bless him, and happily proffers the information that actually I can still go to Tallarook today – I just have to catch the 1.32 to Seymour from platform 7B! Easy peasy! It’s still only 1.05pm so I eagerly follow his advice. Thanks mate!
The platform 7 lift easily accommodates my bike, and there is absolutely no hassle and plenty of space to lash it into the bike/ disabled section in the front carriage. Next time, though, I think I might get on the train at North Melbourne station – it’s the first stop, only 2 minutes out of Southern Cross – and has gentle ramps down to the platforms where you can easily walk the bike, and has a lot less foot traffic to deal with as well.
The train stops at Tallarook station just before 3 o’clock – but note: passengers barely get about a minute to disembark, so be absolutely ready. At the only station exit, clear signage points to “Rail Trail” that directs me to go left back under the railway line, then left again and immediately after to a right fork that soon leads down to the start of the trail proper. This is only a couple of hundred metres north of the Tallarook pub, where I camped for the night in their backyard almost exactly a year ago.
It takes me just under 2 hours to ride the 40 km along the Great Victorian Rail Trail to the fairly large town of Yea (large by Australian standards, that is – population 1,200) that has all the amenities.
The ride is fairly flat, as rail trails generally are, but watch out for those kamikaze magpies – I was attacked on 4 separate occasions. Just keep your cool and keep riding (and swearing) and you’ll be fine – their behaviour is usually more magpie-bravado than actual menace. They typically give you a warning first with a distinctive shriek, and then generally come at you from behind, preferably out of the sun so that they can project a huge – and hence scary – shadow onto the ground in front of you. They then snap their wings loudly about a foot from your head – quite impressive really – especially if you haven’t seen or heard them up to that point.
In Yea, I wolf down a poor imitation of a Cornish pasty from one of the several bakeries in town, and buy a couple of indispensable items at the local Foodland supermarket, such as a 4-pack of Jack Daniel and Cola and some kitchen hand-towels and hand sanitizer, and then get directions to the “Big4” caravan park on the edge of town.
The lady at the caravan park wants $37 for a powered site for the night, but my rapid intake of breath engenders the immediate offer of a really nice unpowered site for $25 right next to the camp kitchen, where I can use one of the kitchen power outlets to recharge the bike batteries for free. It sometimes pays to bargain over caravan park fees in Australia, I’ve found, if it’s done in good humour, that is. Plus, I have a shelter and picnic table all to myself as well!
Day 2. Tuesday 2 October 2018. Yea · Narbethong |93 km|
It rains a bit as I am packing up early next morning, so I simply move the tent in under the shelter and wait for an hour for it to dry off before packing it away and heading out at 8.30am.
The rail trail becomes more interesting after Yea, but the magpies are unrelenting and do their best to hurry me along.
I breeze through Alexandra chased by a pack of mad barking dogs. That’s ok, I wasn’t going to stay there anyway. This is all new territory for me and I consult my smart phone to put me onto a route towards Maryville. I choose the Mount Pleasant, Hobans, Breakaway and Acheron linked roads that get me as far as the B360 Maroondah Highway at the village of Acheron. Not that I see anything resembling a village there. It must be just off to the side of the road somewhere.
It’s still a bit too early for me to call it a day at Marysville (actually, the real reason I move on is that the caravan park is full), so I soldier on. I think about tackling the climb over the Great Divide to Warburton but realize there’s no way the bike batteries will last.
Instead, I stay on the relatively flat C512 and make for the Black Spur Caravan park. But when I get there I find to my dismay that it’s permanently closed. I panic and backtrack 2 km to the Black Spur Inn. I’m relieved – they have no problem with me charging-up in the front bar.
I feel a bit guilty about that, being a non-customer and all, and decide to at least sit on a low-alcohol beer while charging. The owner talks me into pitching my tent in their backyard for free and coming back into the pub when they start serving dinner at 6pm. Which I do. And buy dinner. And have a few more (full-strength) beers. I figure my ‘free’ camp costs me about $45.
Day 3. Wednesday 3 October 2018. Narbethong · Abbotsford |142 km|
Extreme cold and patchy rain during the night fail to dampen my good humour this morning. I set off early in excellent spirits, backtrack 4 km, and tackle the Acheron Way. I was worried about huge trucks on the narrow, steep and twisting dirt road and was going to give it a miss, but the folk at Black Spur allay my fears and tell me that as it’s not timber-cutting season yet there wont be any lumber trucks to worry about.
I feel like I’m the only person left alive. Majestic arrow-straight eucalypts, trunks charred from the last bushfire, tower menacingly over the track and envelope it and prehistoric ferns rise from the tangled undergrowth. I’m in the Great Forest National Park. Morning dew wafts down from the forest all around and the sun’s rays poking through the trees make solid rods of light and shadow. Rock wallabies abound and shrieking parrots go about their business. I’m lucky enough to have close encounters with a fox and a wedge-tailed eagle that are either too lazy or too smart (or too dumb) to take flight (yes, even a fox can take flight) until I’m almost upon them. They know I’m not going to hurt them.
After the long climb to Acheron Gap the track wends its way along the ridges through the national park before commencing its final 5km downhill run into Warburton as a proper bitumen road – the Mt. Donna-Buang Road – from the Rainforest Walk tourism centre.
“The Cog” café/ bike shop at the start of the Warburton – Lilydale Rail Trail in Warburton lets me charge up for an hour or so using their power outlet while I chow down on one of their expensive salad sandwiches, then I’m off along the trail to Lilydale. This is always a good ride and today is no exception.
The weather’s good. I’m feeling good too. So I forego the chance to jump on a train at Lilydale and instead brave the 13 km horror stretch of the Maroondah Highway to Ringwood. Admittedly, I ride mostly along the footpath (where there is one) along here to keep out of harm’s way, but the road, and the traffic are truly horrible. At Ringwood, I escape to the sanctuary of the East Link/Koonung Creek/ Main Yarra Trails for all the remaining 30 km to my home. [I’ve since learned that I can avoid the Maroondah Highway by taking any number of alternative quieter routes].
Home at last
[Footnote: This turns out to be the last tour I get to do on that eBike because 2 weeks later it was stolen from the foyer of my apartment building].
-ends-