Rob 'n BOB on the BNT
Healesville - 7 April 2004
G’day Mates! I have crossed the
FINISH LINE! Yesterday I arrived in Healesville, at Donnelly’s
Weir, the official end/beginning of the BNT. Linda Meerman, the
local trail coordinator was there to welcome me with a stubby of beer
to celebrate, the dear! Not only that, I was also invited to come
over in the evening to be treated to a lamb roast dinner. We also
managed to scrub off two bottles of wine between the two of us – a very
enjoyable evening, reminiscing over sections
of trail we’ve both done,
and all the fun and interesting or strange people we’ve met along the
way.
Since
my last writing from Omeo, I
had to wait another couple of days for my brake pads to arrive, but
that was really quite fast, and I had no reason to complain.
Great service from bikefanatics.com, they didn’t charge me any extra
for shipping the pads by express mail. When I phoned Bikeculture, the
shop in Canberra, about the short-livedness (is that a made up word?)
of the brake pads they installed for me when I was there, they said it
must have been a softer compound. Well, 400 km instead of 6,000
is QUITE a difference, and I find it hard to believe that it is only
the compound that can be the reason for their quick demise. But,
they offered to refund me half of the price I paid for them, and I
thought that was fair enough.
Omeo to Dargo was a manageable
stretch of trail, albeit exceedingly dusty. The
roads had
been converted to active logging status, and were 2-3” deep in
bulldust. Great fun to ride through, and even more fun when
logging vehicles would pass or overtake me. NOT! I stayed
in a little hut below Mt. Phipps,
just sitting, sort of lost
looking, on a little island all by itself, with logging roads on all
sides around it. But it was comfortable enough on a pretty cold
night, and I had a nice little fire going at night. The following
day the trail went by “Dogs Grave”, a monument and tribute to man’s
best friend, specifically a lonely miner, who was working and living in
that area for most of his life. This monument is literally in the
middle of nowhere, quite bizarre, but a fair number of 4WD-ers must be
visiting the area, judging by all the tire tracks.
The following day to Dargo was going
to be a mostly downhill day, but funny enough, I still managed to rack
up 1200 meters worth of uphill, something the BNT notes made no mention
of. Collected my food
parcel in Dargo,
luckily the post office was part of the general store, because I got
there on a Saturday evening, and a “real” post office would have been
closed until Monday! I stayed in the local hotel, in the
bunkhouse, but had it all to myself. It was a little sleezy, but
all other accommodation was taken for the weekend, as a lot of trail
bikers use the community for a sleepover on weekends. I had the
most marvellous visit, though, with a group of 8 trail bikers, and they
kept me lubricated all night. One after another would set a stubby of
stout in front of me, after they found out that that was my preferred
beverage! They were all fascinated by my travels and I guess I
was THEIR entertainment for the evening. The next morning the
hotel served up a fantastic breakfast, which I shared in the company of
the same group. Then it was time for some picture taking, and
they headed out, in a cloud of dust and smoke, and moments later I
followed (without any dust and without any smoke).
A long steady uphill, all on bitumen,
brought me to Grant, an historic old mining community, of which there
is, as usual, nothing much left. There the road leveled out and
turned to gravel, and was followed by a hair raising fast descent into
the next valley of Talbotville, another old mining area. It
was a great warm day, and the
river
was nice and refreshing. Met a fellow, Terry, who was hiking the
MacMillans Track for 10 days, and I met up with him again a few days
later. The climb out of this valley was horrendously steep, and I
found myself talking to the mountains in no uncertain terms.
Can’t repeat here what I was telling them, but as I struggled my way
uphill, my language became fouler and fouler! My arms were almost
paralyzed by the time I got to the top! Most of the climb was of
the type “plant feet, stretch out arms, squeeze brakes (hard!)”,
repeat, ad nauseatum. Eventually the track leveled out, as they
invariably do, to continue up and down, still very steep, to then
plunge down along Wombat Spur into the next valley again. This
was possibly even steeper then the track uphill, and I recorded several
stretches of AT LEAST 30-35% slope! I don’t think I could have
even pushed my way up here. But once at the bottom, I was at the
old Wonnongatta Station, now derelict, and Park Victoria property.
The hut was already occupied by a
couple, but it had been raining on my way down, I was cold, wet and
miserable, and I politely informed the couple that I was bunking in
with them. Well, that was absolutely no problem, they had a fire
going already, and Rob and Anne and myself had a great evening of
visiting, with the other Rob making us all pancakes for dessert, served
with their own homemade blackberry jam, delicious!
The next day I attempted to leave the
valley along the official BNT route, which follows a walking track up
to Howitt Plains, but once the 4WD track narrowed to single track, I
found it was strewn with fallen logs and quite rocky as well, and
almost impossible to continue. And this was BEFORE it even went
uphill! The other two option out of the valley, were along Zeka
Creek Track, which is closed because of bogs and overgrown with
impenetrable blackberries, and Zeka Spur Track, which everybody told me
already was impossibly steep. I made an executive decision to
turn back, make myself comfortable at the hut again, and perhaps find
somebody to give me a lift out of the valley. I know, it’s
cheating, but I’m doing this trip for fun, not to be miserable!
Within hours a group of NSW farmers
drove up in their 4WD’s, and after a yarn immediately offered to drop
me off at the top of the spur. I didn’t even need to ask!
But since it was getting a little late to head out, they suggested I
should have a steak and wine dinner with them first (Yeah, NSW farmers
know how to live life!) and they would levitate me the next
morning. After they set up camp they came and collected me, I
shared their jovial company all evening, with lots of great food, beer,
great wine (too much!) and they dropped me off at the hut again and the
end of the evening. 
Incredible.
Next morning early one of
them, Rod, drove me up the impossibly steep track to the Howitt
Plains. I could possibly have done it on my own, but it would
have taken me ALL day, and I would have been totally exhausted, it not
only went up very steeply, ¾ of the way up it dropped down
steeply, to regain the lost altitude again in another incredibly steep
stretch to the top. Andrew Harding, another bloke in the group,
took some digital pics, and e-mailed them to Gwen and to TVC already, I
believe.
I felt a little dazed, after being
dropped off at the top, all by myself again, but this soon went away
after I started riding again. Following Butcher Country Track,
also with very steep ups and down, loose gravel, rocky, slippery, but
following a ridge, with very nice views onto the neighbouring ridges,
but otherwise not much fun to ride. I decided then that there are
two kinds of track in Victoria – both following the contours of the
mountain – but “roads” following them horizontally, and “tracks”
following them vertically. After 
all the horrendously steep
climbs and descents, I decided it had become time to take a bit more
relaxed approach and, where possible, start following roads instead of
the BNT tracks, while staying in the vicinity of the BNT route.
After a long and steep descent I ended up along the Macalister River,
where soon I came upon a cave at one of the river crossings. It
looked too tempting, and I camped right under it. It made a
marvellous camp!
The following day was a shorty, and
not too hard. I caught up with Terry again, who had hiked here
along a different route, and he needed to camp at the Barkly River, and
I decided to do the same. His wife is Canadian, and he’s visited
many parts of Canada himself, and we had lots to talk about all
afternoon and evening. It was a great spot along the river too,
very picturesque, with some nice rocks and steep walls.
The next day was going to be my
first
opportunity to test out my new resolve to follow “roads”. It
worked quite well, initially, and I was able to ride uphill all the
way, until I had to cross over from the “road”, which mysteriously had
turned into a “track”, to the Licola – Jamieson Road. This meant
following a “jeep track”, an even viler version of track than regular
4WD track, for a distance of only 1 km. It was rocky, rutted,
totally steep, and almost impossible. It took me an hour and 15
minutes to struggle my way up, and I was even more determined to give
up on tracks and stick to the roads. I came out on the road just
below the top of Mount Skene (1550 m), with glorious views over the
mountains, including Mt Buller in the distance, the local ski resort
area. Then a long and gradual descent, with a few gradual little
climbs in between, all the way to Jamieson. All rideable - what a
concept! By doing this little detour I avoided Lazarini Spur, as
well as Mt Terrible, both of which, everybody agrees, are some of the
toughest sections of the BNT.
I defeated my previous uphill record
this day, now it stands at 1683 m. In Jamieson I treated myself
to a hotel stay again. At $30 a night, including breakfast, these
simple country hotels are a bargain. The following day first a
paved road up a ridge, to descend down to the Taponga River, with
numerous camprounds. It is a very popular area with campers, but
this weekend wasn’t very busy. On the way out of town I
discovered there is another hotel in Jamieson, with a brew pub
attached! If only I had known! Anyway, I went in at 9 AM to
try their four different brews, and had a nice visit with the
brewmaster in the process. It was another nice warm day, but even
at that, the Taponga River was bitterly cold, and only good for a very
quick dunking.
Keppels Hut was my next stop. I
detoured the BNT route and took a more manageable combination of roads,
and it was a thoroughly enjoyable day, where again, I broke a new
uphill record of 1759 m. Amazing what I can do when the ascents
are of a manageable grade. Keppels is a beautiful hut, where
luckily I arrived on a Sunday, and had it all to myself. It is a
very popular hut with horse riders and 4WD-ers, and the previous night
a group of four shared the little cabin. It would have been
crowded. People have left all kinds of foodsy articles and there
even was a lone bottle of Amstel beer. I greatly enjoyed it and
wrote my thanks to the unknown provider of this treat in the log book.
During the night I had a visit from
“Simon”. He has been referred to in the log by a great number of
people, and according to one entry Simon is a pygmy possum. I
heard him several times, but only was able to catch a few glimpses of
him, as he quickly darted away every time I turned on my torch.
From here it was only two more days
to the finish line, and I decided to follow the BNT proper. From
Kepples it started with a beautiful long descent, through Yarra Ranges
National park, along a beautiful giant fern lined forest track. I
could have followed this all the way to Marysville, and should have,
but the BNT leaves this road, to climb up Camerons Cascade Track,
which, being a “track” was again impossibly steep, and went up 270 m in
1 km, an average 27%! But once it leveled out, it was quite
enjoyable and then descended into Marysville, where I arrived at
noon. I dashed to the bakery and indulged in a sensible toasted
foccacia sandwich, and several non-sensible sweets. There was
lots of time to cover a bit more trail and I continued to Narbathong,
where I stayed with John and Jo Kasch. I could set my tent in one
of their horse paddocks, and they even have a shower and toilet
available for tired trail travelers. In the evening I was invited
in and while enjoying a few glasses of sherry had a great visit with my
kind hosts. Jo made us some delicious toasted sandwiches, and it
was a totally enjoyable evening again, as I’ve experienced so often on
this trip.
Yesterday one more climb onto the
Great Dividing Range. It was a day that had it all – a very steep
ascent along a muddy, boghole rutted trail, red soil that in moist
conditions is more slippery than snot, great views, and a screamingly
fast and long descent down to Healesville. At the top of the
range I detoured to the Mt St Leonards lookout, from where I enjoyed a
stupendous view over the Yarra Valley. I could even see Melbourne
in the distance, but it was a bit hazy, and not too clear.
After being welcomed and
congratulated by Linda, I continued into Healesville and checked into
the Grand Hotel downtown, another old country hotel, and at $20 per
night, a steal of a deal. My dear wife would probably not want
stay at any of these places, but I’m a little less critical, and as
long as it looks clean on the surface, I am easily satisfied. My
room even has its own sink and opens out on the balcony overlooking “Main Street”.
The reality of having finished my
trek hasn’t quite sunk in yet. No more BNT markers to
follow! Five months and one week it has taken me to follow the
5400 kms of trail. I actually covered just over 6800, which, as
explained in earlier episodes, was caused by necessary and unnecessary
detours, wrong turns, retracing tracks to recover lost items, and what
not. 
Once I get home
I’ll work out some of the finer statistics
of my trip, such as overall average kilometers covered per day, total
number of kilometers climbed, and all that sort of fun
stuff. I’m
sure I could this all my little PDA, but I’m in Healesville, in the
midst of the Yarra Valley, and there is a lot to see and do –
visit
wineries, the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary, bicycle to Melbourne,
possibly take the ferry to Tasmania, possibly bicycle parts of the
Tasmanian Trail, and I don’t know yet what else. I am totally
committed to enjoying my remaining two weeks in Oz!
So Mates, this is it! My final
update from the BNT! I did it! I knew I would, but still,
it gives me thrill and incredible satisfaction knowing that I have
actually ridden the whole trail. There were the odd detours,
forced, or voluntary, but in the main I followed the BNT as it is
described in the guidebooks. A
GREAT BIG THANK YOU to all the
people who have made my trip such a success! All the volunteers,
coordinators, administrators, secretaries of the BNT! All the
other wonderful people I’ve met, who have been kind, generous and
hospitable. Thank you, THANK YOU!! The memories will last
forever. And I hope that someday, somehow, I can return all the
favours that others have done for me.
Cheers All,
Rob ‘n BOB
