Victoria ~ Farm Roads to Bendigo

June 8-13 , AUS Post 42

Mt. Beckworth

After three days in the city, we were ready to retreat to the forest. We found a free camp not too far off our route to Bendigo that just happened to take us through a bit of wine country. Somehow we managed to arrive at Eastern Peake Vineyard just in time to sample some local wines before closing. Nothing better than heading to camp with a bottle to pair nicely with our sourdough loaf for dinner. After a short ride between farm paddocks, we crossed a valley and entered the forest grateful to find a haven amongst the expansive farmland surrounding us.

Hamilton’s Crossing

From now on we would be traveling on mostly gravel roads, criss-crossing between paddocks of sheep, cows and canola, completely avoiding traffic with no one else in sight, stopping road-side for mid-afternoon snacks of either peanut butter or tuna wraps. We began to wonder whether anyone actually lived on these farms.

Our next free camp was right along side the road in a beautiful little break between farms on the Loddon River where giant gums towered above us and flocks of cockatoos darted amongst the branches squawking back and forth to each other for no other reason than to drown out the silence.

Bullock Camp

We arrived at our last free camp before Bendigo to wait out a rainstorm. Not finding any other water sources along the way, we were able to collect enough rain water from our tarp to fill all of our bottles. With the last of our sourdough loaf, we made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. This time paired with a mug of hot chocolate. Once the rain cleared we spent a day wandering the forest before riding over the hills into Bendigo.

Bendigo

From our camp we were able to follow four wheel drive tracks through the hills to the edge of Kangaroo Flats where we picked up the local bike trail into town. After a light breakfast that morning, the coffee “brewhouse” shown like a beacon calling our names. Before we could order, Nivaun got a message from our Montague campground hosts in Tasmania (we last met up with them in Devonport on our departure day) - once again they were not far away and decided to join us again for “morning tea”. After catching up on each other’s travels, we parted ways to re-stock our pantry, and head for the caravan park just out of town. From the center of Bendigo, we started on our next rail trail that would take us 50km to Heathcliff, on the O’Keefe Rail Trail. Between farm roads and rail trails we were slowly making our way to Yackandandah - still 421kms away.