The Great Victorian Rail Trail

G'day Mates,

Are you familiar with the rail trail tracks in Australia? OK, I'll explain.

Rail trails are shared-use paths recycled from abandoned railways. Usually managed by local councils for the enjoyment of the general public, rail trails can be used for a range of purposes including walking, cycling and horse riding.

We are house sitting close to the Great Victorian Rail Trail, Australia's longest rail trail and we have done the Mansfield to Bonnie Doon track but we did it in two times because we were located close to Maindample which is slightly in the middle. We parked the car in a park close to the rail trail....

This Great Victorian Rail Trail starts or end, whatever you want, at Mansfield and ends or start at Tallarook with a total length of 134 k's with a spur line to linking Cathkin and Alexandra. In between there are 14 little towns/villages (some of them are just a few houses)

the old bridge .....we are standing on the new one...

The advantage of a rail trail is that in spite of being in the mountains, the trail is mainly flat, there might be some high difference here or there but it's not like the Tour d'France.... 

Movie time;

There are 12 toilets on the trail and several shelters with tables and seats. Of course there are also public toilets in all the local towns you pass.

Entering Mansfield the trail passes through the Mullum Wetlands before it ends at the Railway Station.......

Of course, it wouldn't be Australia if they didn't turned that old train into a museum.

(it was closed)

at the visitor centre, here you can see that Mansfield is also a winter sports town....

Mansfield really is a lovely little town

This is also funny, you know the expression BYO? Normally it's Bring Your Own drink (alcohol) so in a restaurant you can have a meal and bring f.i. your own wine. Here you can buy a glass of wine and bring you own food;

We had some lunch in Mansfield and after that we biked back coming through stunning farming country scenery's.....

In the old days they shifted the cattle on horses, now its the motorbike, I reckon its a shame...

I love the bark of these trees....

Our second trip was from the same start in Maindample to Bonnie Doon where we had planned to go to a music festival which was on whole weekend.

We hadn't had time on Friday and Saturday so we decided to go on Sunday......  

Before Bonnie Doon the trail crosses Lake Eildon over the 385 metre Bonnie Doon Bridge.... 

It was not only long but scary high as well...

Arriving at the Music festival we found out that it was nearly finished, there was just one shelter left in which people could join what they call "walk ups" , make some music etc......

We only stayed for a few minutes and still had a bit fun....

Movie time;

That's it again Mates!

See you next time, still have some great stories......

Cheers!