The CrossingGreat Victorian Rail Trail
Victoria's Answer To Hobbiton
It was parkrunday with no parkrun for me, but the Great Victorian Rail Trail gave me foggy tracks, deep green hills, a Lord of the Rings joke, and two parkrunners appearing in front of us.
Saturday meant parkrunday.
Yet again, for obvious reasons, there was no parkrun for me. Instead of turning up at a 5 km course, having a chat, doing the thing and going for coffee, I had another full day of walking ahead. So I did the next best thing and asked everyone else where they had run or were going to run.
Then I kept walking.
Considering the late finish the night before, we made a reasonably early start. The first part of the day took me onto the Great Victorian Rail Trail, which very quickly felt like one of the better route choices we had made. After about 20 kilometres I posted that it was a great route to walk or run, and that it reminded me of the Railway Reserves Trail through the Perth hills.
I meant it. It really was lovely.
The trail moved through mist, trees, open green country and those big rounded hills that seemed to be everywhere in that part of Victoria. Years later, looking back at the photos, I still thought they didn’t really do it justice. The hills were deep green and soft-looking in a way that made the whole place feel like Victoria’s answer to Hobbiton.
Of course, by then Lord of the Rings references were never far away. Kalgoorlie had been Rivendell. Victoria now had Hobbiton. The scale of HAA had always made those jokes feel oddly suitable to me. Walking across Australia is ridiculous enough that a few Middle-earth comparisons were probably inevitable.
Then, in the middle of all that, parkrun appeared anyway.
Brendan Peel from Albert Melbourne parkrun and Allan Connolly from Shepparton parkrun popped up on the trail in front of us.
parkrunners. parkrunners everywhere.
It was brilliant to see them, and even better to walk and chat for a while. The setting helped, obviously. Green hills, rail trail, good company, no Orcs hunting us down. Doesn’t get much better than that.
The rest of the day still had to be done. We moved through places like Merton, Woodfield, Maindample and Barjarg, with Midland Holiday Park at Lima South as the finish. There were more hills, more signs, more little Victorian place names, and another long push into the evening.
By the end I had completed 65.4 kilometres across six sessions.
That made it the second consecutive 60 km-plus day. A late finish, a long day and a big effort, absolutely, but it clawed a few kilometres back. At the end of the day, when something is big enough and important enough, you do what is needed to make it happen.
I was already excited about the next day too. We should reach Glenrowan and stay there overnight, which meant we were heading into Ned Kelly country.
There was one more little human moment before the day finished. Annie stopped to check that Ben and I were OK, and ended up learning that yes, we really were trying to get all the way to Brisbane.
The day had started as another parkrunday with no parkrun.
Somehow it still ended with parkrunners on the trail.
Images From The Day
