Rail Trails, Burgers & Beer - A Pedal-Powered Brewery Tour from the Mountains to the Murray

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Having spent the past three weeks exploring the Victorian Alps, the time had finally come to say farewell to the mountains and make my way back to Melbourne, via the 'rural city' of Wangaratta. But rather than simply hopping on a coach for the 80-odd kilometre trip from Bright (possibly my favourite small town in Australia) I wanted to get there in a way that would do justice to the wondrous scenery to be found all along the Ovens Valley; and if I could find a way to incorporate a visit to some of the local craft breweries in the region, well, that would probably be okay too. And so after locating a bicycle hire company (appropriately named The Bike Hire Company) in nearby Beechworth who could drop a bicycle off to me in Bright and then collect it from Wangaratta (free of charge, no less) it was decided: I would cycle the 86km Murray to Mountains Rail Trail - as well as the 15km spur trail to Beechworth and back - and just to make sure I would have plenty of time for the odd brewery visit along the way, I would spread it out over three days. The fact that I would still have to get a coach back to Bright to collect my backpack - then another coach back to Wangaratta again, before I could continue onto Melbourne - was completely irrelevant as far as I was concerned...

Leaving Bright just after midday on a glorious late summer's day - with the temperature in the mid-twenties and just a light sprinkling of clouds - it occurred to me that my trip would probably qualify as some sort of biathlon: instead of skiing and shooting, my two chosen disciplines would be cycling and drinking. And though until very recently I'd done very little of either activity over the past twelve world-turned-upside-down months, I was quietly confident that my years of experience and highly-regarded (by me at least) staying power would prove equal to the challenge. The cycling I was less confident about, but it was for this reason that I had deliberately set my sights pretty low, giving myself three days to cycle no more than 150km, so as to ensure I would have maximum energy left at the end of each day to devote to the all-important beer-sampling.

You see, I bloody love beer. Not that mid-strength, piss-tasting, mass-produced lager that dominates the Australian market, but high-quality, independently-owned, lovingly-crafted beers - whether they be golden ales, pale ales, amber ales, red ales, IPAs, stouts, porters, barley wines, wheat beers, or even the occasional sour, I can't get enough of the precious nectar. And there's no better way to enjoy such lip-smackingly delectable beverages than to sample as many as possible - within moderation, if need be - fresh from the tap at the point of their origin: the brewery bar.

It was for this reason that I had come up with the idea (though I'm sure I wasn't the first to do so) of combining the High Country Brewery Trail with the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail. The theory was simple: cycle a reasonable distance (everything in moderation, after all) each day, then set up camp in the nearest holiday park and head straight to the local brewery to replenish any lost liquids. And with no less than five craft breweries located on or near the trail, I would have plenty of opportunities to do just that. In fact the tone for the trip was set early on, when I called a halt only 6km into my ride to indulge in one of the greatest cheeseburgers of all time, at the Rail Trail Cafe in the delightfully-named town of Porepunkah.

Suitably recharged I pressed on down the trail (which, unlike the East Gippsland Rail Trail that I had cycled about a month earlier, is paved for it's entire length) as the gorgeous scenery of the Ovens Valley unfolded all around me. From vineyards loaded with grapes to fields full of sunflowers; and farms growing everything from berries to nuts to pumpkins and raising cows, deer and alpacas, it seemed that every inch of the flat-bottomed valley floor was devoted to producing a rich harvest of one sort or another; yet always in the background were mountains cloaked in trees, while the impressive granite bulk of Mount Buffalo towered impressively above it all. And all of this was completely lost on me for a short time, as my 'firecracker' pizza from the night before (sampled on a pre-ride reconnaissance mission to Bright Brewery) decided that it wanted to come out... cue some frantic pedalling and contorted face-pulling, as for the first time in my life I wished I had an e-bike and could simply push a button and engage the turbo boosters (at least I assume that's how e-bikes work?!). And then just when I thought I was a goner, there in the distance appeared the rest area at the former Eurobin station, complete with public restrooms. Oh, the relief!

Pressing on at a much more relaxed pace afterwards, I decided to take a little detour from the trail that Nigel (the owner of the company from whom I had hired my bicycle) had suggested, which led me to a lovely little swimming hole in the Ovens River. Well, I use the term 'swimming hole' loosely since there wasn't really a hole of any sort and swimming certainly wasn't possible in the knee-to-ankle deep water, but it was still possible to get suitably wet and offered enough seclusion to allow me to indulge 'sans swimwear' - provided I ignored the nearby road bridge, which I gladly did. There was even a fallen tree trunk located beside the water to serve as a makeshift tripod, allowing me to set the timer on my camera and snap a couple of 'artful nude'-type pictures. Well, I told myself they were artful anyway...

Eventually I rejoined the rail trail, and after passing by the extensive (and intensively irrigated) Rostrevor Hop Gardens - beloved of both High Country brewers and their customers - and getting acquainted with some of the local cows, I made my way into the former gold mining (and later tobacco-growing) town of Myrtleford, where the first building I came to was the old butter factory - now home to the Old Factory Brewery. And right behind that sits Ardern's Caravan Park, where I scored myself a lovely patch of lush grass on which to pitch my tent. Needless to say I saw no need to venture any further into Myrtleford that evening, as I set about switching disciplines for the first time on the trip. And though the beers at the Old Factory weren't particularly noteworthy, my second burger for the day (which featured completely different ingredients from the first, so was deemed to be an acceptable choice) and the smoked apple waffles that followed more than made up for it.

Another highlight (if you could call it that) of my time at the Old Factory was watching a gentleman of perhaps forty hop out of his 4WD wearing a proper stetson cowboy hat and proceed to chug a can of Coors beer, while his wife and son looked on. From where he could have obtained either of those things in Myrtleford I had no idea (the cowboy hat and can of Coors I refer to - not so much the wife and kid), but I found myself questioning whether I was indeed still in the Victorian mountains or had somehow slipped through some invisible portal into the American Midwest. Or maybe that's just how they breed them out this way. Who knows!?

The decadence continued the next morning, as I settled down to a breakfast of fruit- and syrup-topped hotcakes at a cafe in the centre of town, before hopping back on the bike for the next stage of my cycle tour. This would first take me down the ever-widening Ovens Valley to Everton, featuring the only real climb of the main trail (though only a gentle one at that) as I crossed Taylor's Gap; before branching off onto the spur trail to Beechworth, which climbs 300 metres in 15km - not something I was particularly looking forward to! Still, if anything could motivate me to keep the pedals turning as the lactic acid steadily built up in my quads and calves, it would surely be the prospect of visiting not one, but two different craft breweries at the end of my exertions! After all, I still had lunch and dinner to take care of - and I sure as hell didn't fancy cooking.

Thankfully the climb to Beechworth followed a steady gradient the whole way, so I was able to keep my legs pumping without ever having to go into full-on, lung-busting, Lance Armstrong mode. Which is good, because I don't have a full-on, lung-busting, Lance Armstrong mode. Also, he was a drug-cheating wanker. Nevertheless, I would have liked to borrow his leg muscles for the hour or so that it took me to haul myself and my trusty steed up the old rail corridor from Everton to Beechworth, which mostly passed through a seemingly never-ending series of cuttings as it wound it's way up and over the rolling hills of this former gold-rush country. With dry gullies that looked like they hadn't seen rain in years, this was certainly a far cry from the fertile Ovens Valley scenery of the day before between Bright and Myrtleford.

I did at least take the opportunity for a rest break when I passed an echidna scurrying through the bush just off the trail, though predictably said echidna simply burrowed head-first into the leaf litter as soon as it heard me approach on foot. Having learned from the echidnas in Tasmania that if you wait patiently without making any noise they will generally resume their foraging before too long, I figured I would just wait it out. Unfortunately the echidna turned out to be far more patient than me. Despite standing completely motionless for at least five minutes, my spiky little friend refused to budge. The final straw came when a wind gust rustled the leaves of the nearby trees, prompting the echidna to tunnel even further into the leaf litter as a defensive strategy! Clearly he hadn't heard from his Tasmanian cousins of my fame as a wildlife photographer... or perhaps he wasn't enamoured of my work on the 'artful nudes' series. Either way, the score remained the same: Echidna 1, Me 0.

But the disappointment didn't last long, and before I knew it I was negotiating the 'five false summits' that Nigel had warned me about as I eventually made my triumphant entrance into Beechworth - a curiously-positioned town that still trades off it's 170-year-old history as Australia's most famous (at least according to the local tourist board) gold-rush town, with the precious metal's discovery back in 1852 having sparked a stampede of sorts into the Victorian High Country, that had all but ended by the turn of the (20th) century.

Of far more interest to me however were the two local breweries operating in modern times, and so it wasn't long before I pulled up outside Billson's brewery in one of Beechworth's backstreets (try saying that ten times fast) and proceeded to drink my way through the beer list... though on this occasion I couldn't resist the temptation to start off with a cheeky cider from the Nightingale orchard and cidery in the whimsically-named town of Wandiligong, just outside of Bright... after all, what happens on tour stays on tour, right?!? Hell, I even followed it up with a glass of alcoholic ginger beer! (Both of which were absolutely delicious, by the way) Alas, my selection from the food menu proved to be somewhat less-inspiring, as I ended up ordering yet another form of burger, before following up with churros for dessert! I'd like to say I felt some semblance of guilt for all this decadence, but in truth I was already thinking ahead to my dinner selection at the next brewery on the list...

First though I had the small matter of checking into the holiday park at nearby Lake Sambell to take care of, after which I lingered at my campsite to give myself time to sober up... only to get right back on the beers again a couple of hours later at the High Country's longest-established craft brewery - and surely one of the oldest in Australia for that matter - Bridge Road Brewers, hidden down a narrow laneway just off the main road in town. It was here that the absurdity of Victoria's coronavirus-related restrictions really hit home, as I was required to wear a mask whenever I went to the bar to order a beer, but could then take it off whenever I sat down at my table... or went outside... or went anywhere after midnight... and so on! Still, when your state Premier is Daniel Andrews, masks are probably the least of your worries...

Slowly but surely making my way through Bridge Road's extensive beer list was a little like listening to your all-time favourite album: it was just one hit after another, after another! Sadly the same couldn't be said for the sad excuse for a pizza I had for dinner, but at least I'd finally ordered something other than a burger for the first time on the trip (pizzas being the only option on the menu!). But it was the beers that stole the show: from the classic Beechworth Pale to the scrumptious Robust Porter, the delightful Chevalier Saison and the hopped-up Bling IPA, it was truly all thriller and no filler. But the proverbial cherry on top had to be the tulip glass of B2 Bomber: a 10%ABV Belgian-inspired Imperial Black IPA that had me walking home in the dark with a spring in my step, a smile on my face, and absolutely no clue whatsoever where I was going...

For the final day of my journey on the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail, I first had the exhilarating experience of whizzing back down the spur trail from Beechworth to Everton. To give you an idea of just how much difference a 2% average gradient can make, what had been a 70 minute slog uphill the day before took just 35 minutes to negotiate on the way back down. Thank you gravity! While the slope wasn't quite steep enough to maintain my speed without pedalling, what little pedalling I did have to do was only in short sharp bursts, allowing me to simply sit back and enjoy the ride the rest of the way.

Rejoining the main trail back in Everton, there was a final 27km stretch to negotiate across the wide open plains that lead into Wangaratta, which was by far the biggest town (and the first one with traffic lights) that I had encountered since I headed up into the mountains three weeks earlier. As a consequence I ended up accidentally doing a full lap of the city centre before realising that I had passed my holiday park right back at the very beginning, but eventuay I found the trailhead sign that signified the end of my 116km journey down the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail. But this didn't necessarily mean that my ride was over, as I still had one more brewery that I wanted to visit - the Black Dog Brewery in Taminick, about 18km away by the most direct route. So having checked into the Painters Island Caravan Park beside a wide bend in the now-sluggish Ovens River, I tried calling the brewery to make sure they were indeed open, as both the hospitality and tourism industries in Victoria have been decimated by the protracted lockdown (almost four months long) of last year, as well as the more recent five-day lockdown of just two weeks earlier that had eradicated any confidence business owners might have had that the state had finally left it's troubles behind. Quite how anyone is supposed to run a business (particularly one that relies on face-to-face contact) in Victoria at the moment is anyone's guess - though the less said about that the better I suppose...

In any case, the lack of an answer from either of the phone numbers listed on the brewery's webpage raised all sorts of red flags, and given that the ride to Taminick would involve a climb similar to the one I had endured on the way to Beechworth, this time crossing over the Warby Ovens Range (entailing a steep climb in both directions) I decided that discretion would be the better part of valour and chose instead to find a liquor store in Wangaratta where I could purchase some of Black Dog's beers to enjoy back at the holiday park. The fact that the bar/food joint where I had planned to stop for lunch on the way to the brewery turned out to be closed (in direct contradiction to their posted opening times) only served to reinforce just how badly Victoria's coronavirus restrictions have affected the state's licensed venues, whilst justifying my decision to abandon the ride out to Taminick.

Thankfully though I did find a liquor store with an entire refrigerated wall of craft beers, and ended up not only walking out with a mixed half-dozen of Black Dog's brews, but also - most unexpectedly - four different beers from Blizzard Brewing, who are based up in Dinner Plain where I had recently spent some time. The reason for my surprise was that Blizzard have been closed for many months - another victim of both the pandemic and Victoria's shambolic response to it - which left me wondering just how 'fresh' those cans of beer must be!? With no way of keeping my beers cold until I made it back to the caravan park, I set off at top speed to tackle the twists, turns, bumps and low-clearance bridges of the excellent Three Mile Creek bicycle track, marvelling at how bicycle-friendly Wangaratta seems to be. With pedstrian- and cyclist-only suspension bridges spanning the Ovens River in multiple places and a multitude of parks liberally scattered throughout, it certainly wouldn't be the worst place to live. Even during a pandemic.

Back at Painter's Island I handed over the bicycle (to be collected the following morning) and switched disciplines for the final time, before getting stuck into the various canned offerings from Black Dog Brewery. And then a little later when the hunger pains started to strike, I tracked down a nearby pizzeria in the hope of eradicating from my memory the flimsy offering from the night before in Beechworth. I'm pleased to report that both the beers and the pizza proved to be a raging success! The beers from Blizzard Brewery on the other hand would have to wait until the following day when I made it back to Bright... where, inevitably, I would also drop into Bright Brewery for an encore performance.

So although I had only been able to to make it into four of the five currently-operating breweries along the length of the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail - a far cry from the 14 breweries I visited during a 3-day cycle trip through Portland in the USA many years ago - I had still managed to get through 22 different beers (and one cider) in the space of four extremely enjoyable days. And the final verdict? Apart from perhaps the beers at Old Factory in Myrtleford (who, to be fair, have only been operating for a couple of years) and the pizza at Bridge Road, the standard of both food and beer was excellent, just as I had expected it would be. And the best beer? Well, after sampling it for a second time upon my return to Bright, I had to award that title to Bright Brewery's 8.5% Inversion Hazy Double IPA, with honourable mentions going to Billson's Ginger Beer, Bridge Road's Bling IPA and Bright's raspberry, vanilla and coconut-flavoured Wagon Wheel Porter.

While I have no doubt there will be many more cycle touring adventures to come, and countless brewery visits both in Australia and abroad (once the world goes back to some semblance of normality at least), I can't be sure whether I will ever have the opportunity to indulge in another cycling & drinking 'biathlon' in the future... though there is that Belgian beer-cycling tour I've always wanted to attempt! In any case, after a year of being separated from both my bicycle (still locked away in a friend's garage on the opposite side of the country) and, to a lesser extent, the ability to properly enjoy good beer in welcoming venues, I have to say this experience has been an overwhelmingly positive one (though my liver may disagree) and can only hope that some day soon people everywhere will be free to enjoy such pleasures. Life is just too short not to.


Disclaimer:
In the interests of accuracy, I should explain that although the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail does have one end in the mountains at Bright, the other end at Wangaratta stops well short of the Murray River. Conversely, the nearby High Country Rail Trail does run alongside Lake Hume (a damned section of the Murray) but doesn't really traverse the fabled High Country. Thankfully plans are afoot to extend the Murray to Mountains spur trail (that currently terminates in Beechworth) through to Yackandandah, with a view to eventually extend it all the way through to Wodonga to join up with it's 'High Country' neighbour - so perhaps one day there will be a combined High Country Murray to Mountains Rail Trail that truly visits all of the geographical features promoted in the name!'

Also, though I made no attempt whatsoever to explore any of the towns I passed through on this trip, beyond the confines of their respective local breweries, this is in no way a reflection of the relative merits of each town - all of which seemed perfectly lovely - but merely a demonstration of the narrow-minded focus I brought to the task of exploring the region's many independently-owned breweries.

Oh, and the beers from Blizzard Brewery turned out to be excellent, regardless of their age.

Cheers.

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Photos

Secluded swimming spot
Rest break beside the Ovens River

All geared up and ready for action
At the trailhead in Bright

Scenic crossing point
The Ovens River in Porepunkah

Worth stopping for
Iced coffee and cheeseburger at the Rail Trail Cafe

Well-placed facilities!
The old station at Eurobin

One way to avoid tan lines
Sunning myself in the Ovens River

Unlikely (but delicious) combination
Smoked apple waffles and Red IPA at the Old Factory in Myrtleford

Back in the saddle
Hitting the rail trail on day two

Tunnel of Trees
Climbing up the spur trail to Beechworth from Everton

Brewery number two
Billson's Brewery in Beechworth

Thirst Quencher
Enjoying a refreshing ginger beer at Billson's

The perfect nightcap
Bridge Road's 10% Belgian Black IPA: the B2 Bomber

Rest Break
Crossing Reedy Creek on day three

The Finish Line
At the northern trailhead in Wangaratta

Shaded Campsite
My tent site at Painters Island in Wangaratta

The river flows on...
Ovens River suspension bridge in Wangaratta

Switching disciplines
The cycling may have been over, but there was still plenty of drinking left to do...

The Dream Team
Taking time out at Reedy Creek on the final day

Trusty Steed
Bowser Station, near the end of the Murray to Mountains

1 day down; 2 to go...
Lush grassy tent site in Myrtleford

2 days down; 1 to go...
Creek-side tent site at Lake Sambell, just outside Beechworth