Robert Munro

/ Rob Munro

Great Divide Trail

I had a few days spare visiting Australia in December 2010, so I decided to cycle the 'Goldfields' section of the Great Divide Trail: a few hundred kms of mostly single-track through the mountains, forests and old mining towns north of Melbourne.

Starting out in Bendigo - from the very beginning it was a dedicated trail separate from traffic.

Ceswick Forest - the trail was perched on a small embankment for long sections..

Recent rains had flooded a lot of the trail - this part was washed away and I had to hop between loose rocks with the bike in one hand.

All that was left of ... not sure - even the plaque had been reclaimed by nature.

I didn´t make it to camp in Wombat Forest until almost 10 on the first day. I was so tired I didn´t even notice this log I was sleeping on until the next morning.

Reclaimed land. The top left was an old tramway, abandoned more than a century ago with full trees now growing out. The top right was a lake built for processing gold. The bottom pics are all that remains of Wombat Station - once a town at the end of a railway line. Any signs of people are long gone.

When hippies learn graffiti - some tips on life along the old railway line.

A descent to natural springs and Sailor falls

On a clear day, from the top of Jackson Hill you can see into the canopy of the neighboring gum trees.

It might just look like a fallen tree, but when you have to stop suddenly and lift your bike and gear over it, then repeat 20 times.

A short gap in the forest, for some funky/scary letter boxes, and of all things a chocolate factory (no complaints)

A burnt-out forest had hundreds of small branches growing from the tree trunks and a carpet of blue flowers.

Contenders for the hardest-to-even-notice trail award. You wouldn´t have known that this was meant to be the most famous hiking/biking trail in the region.

Crossing one of the many creeks. The very old logs and small sandstone retaining walls said that this was once an important place, but who knows what or when.

A pyramid that once supported a giant water wheel for crushing gold. This was the only place I ran into other people on the entire trail (hence the only photo of me).

Kids, don´t play in abandoned mines. (Unless they look fun)

Mt Alexander. It looked easy from a distance. Up close, it wasn´t suited for bikes at all. It took me 4 hours to bush my bike up the 4 kms up through mud, long grass, fallen trees and fences (I could have talked up in 1 hr or ridden down in 20 mins). Good thing I´m stubborn.

The view from on top.

And even more amazing (and unexpected) than the view was the huge open plateau of wildflowers and butterflies (and dozens of kangaroos that I was too slow to photograph.

An Echidna - one of my top-ten favorite monotremes. The storms lifeted as I cycled down the mountain to the high plains, where I followed an old aquaduct to Bendigo, my final destination.