Last week Clive and I did a 3 day cycling trip to check out the recently opened Mansfield Rail Trail. We took the train to Seymour, then cycled to the head of the rail trail at Tallarook and took the 134 klm trail up to Mansfield, with a little side step to Alexandra. Finished to trip in Benella where we caught the train back to Melbourne, then (for me) home to Geelong.There is an active map here:
http://www.railtrails.org.au/trail?view=trail&id=90
Day 1: Seymour to Alexandra 90 klm Surface Gravel. 90klm is a bit far for an unsealed track, we left Seymour at 9:00am and arrived at Alexandra at 5:00pm, averaging 12 klm per hour which in retrospect was pretty good for gravel.
Stayed at the Best Western and went to the Seymour Pub for a meal, which turned out to be the biggest serving of roast pork and crackling I have ever had. Yum.
Day 2: Alexandra to Mansfield 80 klm. Surface Gravel. This is magpie swooping season and we could rightly name this section 'magpie alley'. If we got swooped once, we got swooped 20 times.
Stayed at the Alexandra Motel, which I can't recommend - for the price you would expect 4 star quality. The local Alexandra pub had just won an Australia wide award for their Parmas (Parmigiana). I ordered one with prawns and wasn't disappointed. Yum - yum.
Day 3 Mansfield to Benella 65 klm Surface Sealed Road. First half with little shoulder, the rest had plenty of road shoulder.
Can't go away without having crumbed cutlets just once. So tonight was crumbed cutlets night. Yum - yum - yum.
Had some time to kill before catching the train, so checked out the local Antiques Shop. Found a very lovely Record 405 combination plane, in a box and almost complete. It is still bothering me that it remains in the shop.
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| Clive at Seymour with the Goulburn River in the background |
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| The original Hume Highway Bridge crossing the Goulburn River near Seymour |
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| Bridge over Goulburn River near Seymour |
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| Rail Trail near Tarwool |
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| We stop for Devonshire Tea |
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| Lunch is less salubrious than the D tea, but equally satisfying |
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| Cheviot Tunnel is 200m long built with bricks.If you close your eyes you can 'see' the trains coming up the grade. |
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| Magpie Alley. This guy at Alexandra was particularly annoyed with us. |
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| Alexandra Rail siding. Now a particularly interesting museum. |
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| Creek which will eventually find its way into Lake Eildon |
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| The Brankeet Arm of Lake Eildon. Now full of water. |
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| Crossing Lake Eildon at Bonnie Doon. |
.JPG)
