Ballarat-Skipton Rail Trail, 13-14 March, 2004 Report

Robert and Jana arrived at the Arch Motel on Friday night, met with William and drove to Skipton on Saturday morning. We have chosen to start from Skipton the first day as the trail is up-hill to Ballarat. The weather was just right, sunny and 21C. We were told by the manager of the Rail Trail that the surface was upgraded but with some soft soil in places. We started at the Skipton-Geelong Rd end. The surface was indeed soft and full of large pebbles. We straggled all the way to Pittong. There we got a bit lost as there were no signs with the trail being diverted. We finally found it and arrived at Linton along a fairly good surface and beautiful views on the Linton State Forest. The surface again became difficult to ride on all the way to Nimmons Bridge. We were tempted to go on the Glenelg Hwy but persisted on very poorly maintained trail up to Cuthberts Rd intersection and rode last 5km on the road to the motel as it was getting dark. We were just 'pooped' after riding all day on the bumpy trail, and William was seriously thinking of going home.

Jana just before Smythesdale. The surface was very poor then and still is, January, 2003

Next morning other group members: Ludo, Renild, John and Emma phoned us to meet half way. William decided to persist going back to Skipton with us. We decided to ride at times on the road as the surface was just unbearable to ride on. We met at Linton with the others at about 2pm.

They also agreed that the surface was very poor and not suitable for touring bikes. Ludo remarked that he could not admire the views as he was busy trying to survive getting frequently bogged down with his LWB bent. At Pittong we ended up riding on the road all the way to Skipton. All in all it was a very enjoyable albeit painful ride. If the trail was maintained properly, this would have been a most picturesque trail in Victoria. The views and scenery are varied at every bend. The little ex-gold mining towns are full of history. The gold diggings can be seen everywhere along the trail. The Nimmons treasle bridge has been repaired.

It is a pity very little remained of the old railway stations. The first two photos on this page are of Jana's and Robert's ride in January, 2003. The trail surface was improved since then but it is still being upgraded and should be completed by July, 2004. Lets hope this is the case, and that the whole trail is resurfaced with proper soil and not just patched up with pebbles.

Jon's Report:

The Ballarat Skipton SNAIL trail.How do I describe this ride...? It was really hard to think of how to describe this trail. I remember a TV ad from my child hood, where a famous comedian described lying down on a Captain Snooze bed being as comfortable and inviting as putting your foot into a gumboot full of warm sago...mmmm...That wasn't quite the right description...Then finally it came to me...The Skipton to Ballarat rail trail, my first ride with the OzHPVers, could best be described as being as comfortable and inviting as riding through wet cement!

We started at the Skipton end planning to meet the intrepid group that had gone to Ballarat the day before and were on their way back to Skiptonat the half way point. One hour into the ride and we had covered the grand distance of 7 km! Considering that most people can walk at 4-5 km and most break into a slow jog at around 7 km, it wasn't that far. At this point I should point out that there were four of us, two on the "wedgie" variety of HPV, one on an "inline" two wheeler and myself on my "home built" Greenspeed plans trike.

I point this out to rationalize my excuse making, which follows...it was not just me, my choice of HPV or even the weather ( which was by the way perfect!) It was just hard work with rocks and soft "dirt"( read - felt like sand) no matter what your choice of transport. However, to be fair the "girls" on their "wedgies" were making better progress than the "boys" on their slick, highly engineered recumbents.

I discovered a few things on this my very first OzHPV ride. It was great riding with others, all of us agreed that if we had just been by ourselves we would have turned around after a few minutes, and due to the fact that we just kept riding and talking, and stopping to work out where we were supposed to be going, we made it to Pittong, where the trail miraculously changed...but first it miraculously disappeared...the sign posts ended and after a slight detour in the wrong direction we found a beautiful little trail with a firm surface, lined with trees each side with glimpses of beautiful rural and bush countryside. In "no time" we made it to Linton where we met the "intrepid" group of Robert, Jana and William, who informed us that much of the trail was like we had experienced from Skipton to Pittong.

We turned and continued back towards Skipton, back through the bush to Pittong, where we chose to ride on the road at a considerably faster pace! Another discovery was that road traffic in the country side was quite good, people passed leaving plenty of space and someone even gave a friendly wave!

All in all I did enjoy my first ride with the OzHPV group, and my thanks go to Robert and Jana for organising the Be spontaneous ride... but if the Skipton to Ballarat rail trail is suggested again I will have to think long and carefully about my spontaneity!!

For lobbying purposes contact the Ballarat-Skipton Rail Trail Committee, City of Ballarat (03) 5320 5500 or Golden Plains Shire Council (03) 5281 1202

click here for web link

Photos by Robert & Ludo

s L

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