It’s getting to be a bit of a tradition Mark, Jeff and Johnno heading off for a Xmas break mini tour. The route this time was to be cracking loop ride along the Murray from Albury to Walwa, up to the Burrowa Pine NP, Colac Colac (pronounced Clack Clack), Corryong, Tallangatta and (quite unplanned) back to Wodonga…Johnno had to bail a bit early…Mark and Jeff pedaled on!
Mark suggested we head to NE Victoria and Jeff did the detailed research for each days riding and also our camping/accommodation options. Johnno hadn’t been to this part of Victoria before so he was champing at the bit…particularly the prospect of visiting the Burrowa Pine National Park (and beyond).
Day One: Albury to somewhere along the Hume Reservoir
We were scheduled to catch the 12.35pm Albury Train and had planned to meet up at about 11.30am at Southern Cross Station…all was on target until Johnno on his ride in realised that his new chain (that he had put on that morning) was slipping and incompatible with the old rear cog of his recently acquired second-hand Rohloff hub. So 10 K’s from home he nursed his bike back…put the old chain back on and high tailed it to the nearest Metro station to catch a train into Southern Cross. It was going to be touch and go as to whether he would make the train or not – in the end made it with 10 minutes to spare! Marks ride into Southern Cross was also an eventful one – copping a drenching from one of the ‘passing showers” that were forecast that morning.
The train ride was great – Both Mark and Jeff grew up as best mates in Melbourne’s Western suburbs and it was a thoroughly entertaining half hour or so while the train traversed Footscray, Sunshine and out past Broadmeadows. Lots of reminiscing and laughs – I am sure the folks around us thought that were completely loopy…
Out past the ‘burbs the undulating landscape of Victorias Great Dividing Range rolled past our train window. It was a much slower ride that usual, due to track work going on, but that was fine…we were on our way and relishing every minute of the train trip! We rolled into Albury at about 4.30pm and amongst the what seemed ubiquitous tattooed locals; we stocked up on provisions and hit the road at about 5.30.
A lovely tailwind saw us making good time heading out of Albury when we spied a (first of numerous) wild plum tree growing along the side of the road. We gorged on these lovely plums for about a half and hour!
A little further along the road was the impressive Bethanga Bridge crossing the Hume weir back into Victoria andnd the Murray Valley Rd which was sublime to cycle on – Its undulating profile follows the banks of the Hume Reservoir and regular short climbs were rewarded with corresponding downhill rolls. It was getting late in the day and we were riding in the twilight which was lovely but it seemed that our planned night camping spot near Granya might just be a little out of reach without riding in complete darkness. We decided to pull up stumps and set up camp along the ‘no camping permitted’ banks of the Hume Reservoir. It was an idyllic spot with the backdrop of the reservoir, bird life abounding and a perfect mild evening. We cooked our dinners utilising the stump of an old Red Gum as our dinner table as night closed in. Illuminated by a waxing moon we hit the sack after a great first day. Mark didn’t bother about fitting his tent fly and between the Melbourne – Sydney planes, the satellites and the starry night on show the night sky on the banks of the Hume was far from still.
Day Two: Hume Reservoir to Walwa
We woke to a cacophony of bird song (and the gentle hum in the distance of various watercraft as they cut their first laps for the day). Jeff had a quick dip/wash in the Hume Weir and brekkie was served back at the stump – a cuppa and we were ready to roll. The ride for today was again to follow the Murray Valley Road to Walwa for New Years Eve.
We didn’t get too far along the road when we saw a sign to the Wymah Ferry, a cable ferry across the lake back into NSW. The ferry operator was more than happy to shuffle the three of us and our bikes across to the other side to what seemed to be pretty isolated caravan park, aptly named the Wymah Hideaway. We stopped in for a coffee. Mark and Johnno made the mistake of being lured by the offer of a ‘cappuccino’, which was straight out of a sachet! Jeff made the good call and ordered a tea. Still it was a nice spot and the owner was full of great information about the region and road ahead. Of particular note was his reference to the Granya Hotel again a ‘pub’ after a spell as an alcoholic’s refuge…seemed a good (if not a little tragic) business model we thought! Back across on the Ferry to Victoria and we were heading east and Walwa bound.
The Murray Valley Highway was carrying very little traffic and again it was perfect for cycling. Our aim was to stop of at Burrowye for lunch thinking there may be a general store or at least somewhere to refresh our rapidly diminishing water supplies. It turns out that there is nothing in Burrowye beyond an old homestead and a Murray Grey farm. We happened upon the farmer and asked him where we might get some water. He generously pointed to his river water tap and offered us their ‘smoko’ table in the shade…so we stopped here for a good spell, made some lunch and had a cuppa. Turns out that there was now a bit of a gathering happening around the shed, our farmer mate was joined by the local garbage pick up fella and another bloke, fully equipped with his 22 rifle! We were convinced that they all thought we were completely bonkers riding in the heat of the day out here, but they also seemed to have some sort of appreciation for 3 guys out doing something a bit different. Sort of along the lines of f*&#ing idiots…but good on ‘em! This was to be a recurring theme!
Watered and fed we hit the road again and climbed up Mt Alfred, ‘the big pull’ that we were warned about back at the shed (which was completely overstated…it was a doddle really). Still it was getting really hot so it was a bit of a relief to roll into Walwa and given it was New Years Eve perhaps even a bigger relief when we found out there were rooms available at the pub!
Walwa is a nice little town – its got everything that you’d ever want…An awesome pub, and IGA, a gallery, petrol station, a mechanic, a medical clinic and a great primary school. We had a leisurely wander around town and headed back to the pub, which was setting itself for a big night! A marquee was erected out the back and the jukebox was rearing to go– It was a really nice night…Kids were running around the place – families doing their thing – The farmer that we met back in Burrowye was even there for a while and yep he was still looking a bit bemused at the three cyclists in town! We had a lovely meal – albeit with the limited vegetarian fare for Jeff. We took a mid evening ride a few k’s down the road to see the river which was also the site of the Walwa caravan park which was jam-packed and ‘going off’. Caravan Parks are often ‘interesting’ places –all of its humanity was well and truly on show New years Eve 2014!
We went back to the pub, had a few more NYE drinks but we didn’t end up seeing the New Year in and ended up hitting the sack at 11.30ish. Jeff not wanting to necessarily sleep on the noisy side of the pub picked the street side, away from the marquee (and all that noise) but guess what… at midnight you could have heard a pin drop in the marquee…all of the action was happening on the veranda of the pub only metres from Jeff’s room…The irony of which wasn’t lost to Jeff or indeed Mark and Johnno in the morning!
Day Three – Walwa to Burrowa Pine National Park
We woke early to the tune of someone yelling, lets call them profanities down the corridors of the pub, at about 5am! We headed to the ladies lounge/bistro for our continental brekkie…that’s where we caught up with a fella called Ross, who had overtaken us a couple of times on the road the previous day, he was also in the bar on New Years Eve. Ross was born in Walwa, but now lives in Lincoln Road, Croydon, just around the corner from Jeff! He shared with us over a cuppa and toast a bit of his life story…and life had certainly dished up a challenge or two Ross’s way over the journey. He had been in and out of mental institutions for 30 years and was amazingly frank in a short space of time. It was very touching to hear his story and quite an amazing way to start what was to be a pretty amazing day all round.
We had a short ride today along the Cudgewa Bluff Rd to the National Park. A steady climb on a really good dirt road was rewarded with a lovely decent to Cudgewa North and then it was a bit of a slog really into the NP. It was really hot and what was only a 32k ride had left us all pretty spent at its end. But what an end point! We set up camp in the Blue Gum Camp Ground, an idyllic clearing in the bush. Later that afternoon we headed into the park proper.
Johnno is a botanising bicycle rider and regardless of where he’s studying the surrounding vegetation. For the first couple of days we were riding in predominantly in modified agricultural landscapes so there was a limited amount of botanical interest – We still saw some great things with the Old Man Sneezeweed perhaps the highlight! The Burrowa Pine NP was to be an entirely different proposition. This park is of great botanical significance because of the number of rare and threatened plant species growing there including a number of things that only occur within the park and nowhere else!
Johnno was completely in his element – with Mark and Jeff kindly countenancing his compulsive plant obsessions! During what was a pretty short walk to Campbell’s lookout (and a bit further on) we discovered plant rarities and other extraordinarily interesting wildflowers, but we what we were really seeking to find were the Cypress Pines that the park was named after, which we could see as significant stands on an adjoining spur but had remained elusive on this side of the park. We eventually ‘encountered’ the pines on a rocky rise at about 850 m elevation and what a sight this was – we were transformed into a landscape that looked more like an area of northern hemisphere wilderness, rather than the Australian bush. On this little rocky rise was also the endangered Broad-leaved Hop Bush and a number of other botanical curios.
At Campbells lookout Mark, when seeing the “safety rail signage is there for you safety” jumped the railing to sit unencumbered on the precipice of what was a significant drop below. Jeff joined him a few meters back from the ledge and whilst it was completely safe to do so Johnno with NO head for heights stayed well back…all the time admiring the courage of his two more adventurous spriits.
We sat here for some time taking in the magnificent view to the east across the national park across to the Snowy Mountains on the far horizon.
We experienced a quite extraordinary thing on the walk back from the Pines….a Splendid Lyrebird in full song. We couldn’t see the bird but boy we could hear it. All manner of noises we emanating from the thing…kookaburra noises, crow noises, rattling noises, pings, pops, clicks…Wow!
The first half of the walk skirted a creek line that formed a series of small rocky waterfalls and waterholes., One particular waterfall was linked by a fair old steel ladder that took up 5+ meters of grade change. We spend quite some time cooling off (and rehydrating) on the way up and on the way back down the walk finished at the Bluff Falls, a major waterfall that Jeff and Mark took to with gusto experiencing the ultimate in outdoor showers.
Back to the campsite – cooked up a treat and before we hit the sack we took a walk to the lower camping sites and the park boundary. Micobats were putting on an extraordinary aerobatic display in the fading light. What a day to start off 2015!
Day Four: Burrowa Pine NP to Clack Clack!
The riot of bird song was again our waking ‘alarm’…wonderful! We didn’t have far to ride today but again it was going to be hot so we got on the bikes pretty early – Just of the park we stopped at a working dairy to refill our bottles for the day and chatted with the dairy farmer for quite a while – They had just finished milking and he showed us around the refrigerating vats and quite proudly (when asked) let us know his daily tally of ~3500 litres of milk! It was a pretty freewheeling conversation discussing all manner of challenges in the dairy game, local footy, the conditions of the road ahead and of course the weather. The farmers 16-year-old son without breaking stride headed over to the ute and drove it back to the farmhouse, along the road for a little while too! Isn’t it great that things are just that little bit different in the bush we reflected…
We were heading to Cudgewa hoping there may be a shop open that might serve us a decent cup of coffee. Alas the Speckled Hen was closed and the pub not yet open, which didn’t stop the publican giving us at least 5 minutes of local advise on the best route through to Colac Colac , (pronounced Clack Clack!) and he offered up heaps more information on the area…good old fashioned country hospitality with aplomb.
We set up camp at the Clack Clack Caravan Park and rode the 8k’s or so into Corryong on a brand new shared footpath between Clack Clack and town. It was really hot but that didn’t stop us having hot pies and pasties for lunch at the famed Corryong Bakery! We had a look at a few of the old opp shops and spent a good while upstairs in the Emporium – all manner of old stuff there from pure junk to absolute treasures…
We dropped into the top pub for a cool drink and that’s where Johnno found out (when he checked in at home) that his daughter Amy was about to be proposed to by her long time partner and soul mate Tearlach. Lets just say the he got a little emotional at this news! Well more that a little he was a blubbering mess! Thankfully two great mates got it and it was quite a moment…quite a moment indeed!
We met up with a fella on the main drag of Corryong who recognised us from earlier that day just out of “Cudg IE WAR!” (Now that’s how you pronounce Cudgewa). Earlier that day he was herding a big mob of cattle along the long paddock/roadside just out of town. We recalled gingerly making our way through the hundred or so animals (and the three sheepdogs trying to keep the mob in check)…We weren’t really sure how this would go…turns out the drover also wasn’t completely sure what the reaction of the mob might be to these 3 weird looking 2 wheeled ‘animals’ in their midst.
We had a great meal at the pub and headed Clack Clack bound…all the time Jeff was casting his eye to the ranges where a ripper of a storm was brewing over the Snowy’s. It was dusk and we decided to stop for a while and take in the light show on the horizon to the east…and what a show this was…as things got darker the almost continuous lightning was literally lighting up the horizon – we thought perhaps 50 k’s away – Turns out it was closer to 200k’s away… it would have been an awesome thing to experience that storm cell at close hand!
Back at the Caravan Park and more glamping was on show this time with generators humming and what sounded to be predominantly Guns ‘n Roses playing way too loud through speakers that were clearly not handling the volume – We cut a lap of the caravan park and took in vibe of its all…none of us said it at the time but their was clear evidence of ‘serenity’ in the air at the Clack Clack Caravan Park that evening!
Day Five: Clack Clack to Tallangatta
This was to be the real hot one – forecast for Tallangatta 41C! We headed out pretty early to take advantage of what remained of the beautifully cool Clack Clack dawn air. There were a couple of reasonably serious climbs in prospect today … the first a short sharpish rise – the second a long steady climb of 14 ks that ‘summited’ off the main road at Lawrence Lookout, at a tick over 800m altitude. This spectacular lookout afforded sweeping, almost 360°views across the Snowy Mountains, Burrowa Pine National Park, Mt Lawson Sate Park and beyond…
We stopped off for lunch at Shelley. We didn’t find the entrance to the rail trail here so rather that bypass Koetong (which was our plan) we ‘had to’ stop and have a beer at the Koetong Hotel, a great old pub which is a remnant of a what must have been a vibrant logging town in its heyday. We picked up a short section of the rail trail a kilometer or so past the pub. It ended quite abruptly at a ‘derelict’ trestle bridge. This of course had to be explored by Jeff! Even Johnno on this occasion took brave steps out onto the structure! The vision is for the rail trail to span the entire length of the old line from Wodonga to Cudgewa…It’ll be a ripper if this is ever fully realised.
Back on the road and we descend apace out of the hills into the rolling agricultural landscapes of the Mitta River Valley. It’s damn hot so we were relieved to pull into the aptly named ‘Pure Rest’ roadside stop at Bullioh. Mark, (clothes and all) was soon fully submerged in the creek cooling off and taking full advantage of this pretty little spot!
We rode on to Old Tallangatta. In 1918 the confluence of the Mitta Mitta and Murray Rivers, upstream of Wodonga was selected as the site for the Hume reservoir. The reservoir would ultimately inundate Tallangatta displacing much of the town and its residents… The ‘new’ Tallangatta Township was subsequently completed in 1956. During dry periods (which we were fortunate to experience on this ride), the water level of the reservoir drops revealing again the site of old Tallangatta. A series of interpretive panels helped us pick out the most obvious features of town… the old railway embankment, the main street and the diagonal road to the higher ground and the old butter factory, which is still intact today…
The ride from here was back on the rail trail, which skirts the edge of the Hume weir all the way to Tallangata. We were very much hoping to get a room at one of the two pubs in town. The Victoria Hotel was fully booked but fortunately the Tallangatta Hotel had rooms free for the night. The front bar of the pub wasn’t the friendliest place we had experienced to date on the ride so after a quick walk through town we headed across to the Vic for a beer and chatted with the Chez the very experienced publican. Who gave us some real insights into the world of a country pub owner.
We walked down to the Reservoir (Jeff had a swim) and headed back to town for a bite to eat and quite unexpectedly there was an Indian Restaurant that looked half decent – and it was! The rooms of the pub were stifling…the pedestal fans were on full tilt all night!
Day Six: Tallangatta to Wodonga (and beyond)
It may have been a consequence the hot restless night but Johnno was torn as to whether he should shorten the ride by a day and head home so he could be with his wife Lisa when the official announcement that his daughter Amy was to be wed… He bounced the idea past Mark and Jeff who completely endorsed this course of action. So after a brekkie at the bakery it was a merry dash along the rail trail the 40k’s or so to Wodonga station to intercept the 11.35 ‘reunification express’ train to Melbourne.
We rode through Huon, which was apt, until very recently Huon was Johnnos pseudonym on the 3RRR gardening show…the show finished up forever a few weeks earlier. Johnno caught up in the moment declared at Huon station that Huon could be his ongoing nickname…Jeff cleverly noting the Re-Huon-ification of Johnno happening amidst the dash to the reunification express!
The old station was great – the station platform had been restored and there was a really old train carriage on the siding that we explored… seeing the “No admittance – Private Property” sign when we had finished…Ooops!
We made it to the outskirts of Wodonga and some mean spirited coppers pulled Mark over because he had his Akubra on and wasn’t wearing a helmet – Mark completely took this in his stride…
We made it to the station with plenty of time to spare. Mark and Jeff hadn’t yet worked out what they were planning to do from here… they decided to also jump on the “express” and get out at a place called Avenel and take things form there. They ending up chasing the tailwinds to Murchison for their final night…
What a week!
'Clack Clack' Classic 