Which is the best RailTrail on the Hume Highway M31 for a one day ride ?
You are heading along the Hume and have a few hours to burn off the boredom of the Sydney – Melbourne journey. In the back of your car is a bike that is feeling depressed and would love to do some rolling. Here are your options.
•the High Country Rail Trail on the edge of Albury. This is mainly a lake ride
•the Murray to the Mountains trail out of Wangaratta
•the Great Victorian Rail Trail that starts at Tallarook
For ease of access, the Tallarook ride wins hands down. Its just a few minutes of the highway and starts at one of the best parts of ride, in the bushland next to the Goulburn River. The Wangaratta start to the Murray ride is a bit dull. By all accounts it gets way better once you are 30km down the track. The High Country trail follows the Hume lake for a good portion of the track. Its very flat but you probably need to drive 20km from the highway before you pull your bike out.
?For scenery, the track out of Tallarook also wins. There are some wineries near Oxley but the scenery is mainly farmland and its pretty dry.
Food wise within 20km one way, the side track to Oxley on the Murray trail wins as there are good places to eat at Milawa. I ate at the www.milawacheese.com.au and had a good coffee. On the Tallarook track, there is a super tea and scones just out of Trawool. This is about 10km down the track. The Trawool resort further on is where Basil Faulty now resides.
On track quality, Tallarook is also the winner. Nice hard baked crunchy gravel, not a mixture of bitumen and gravel like the other two tracks. So in summary, stop at Tallarook.
Tallarook to Yea is a great section and a good choice if you don’t want to go far from the Hume Highway. I would have to say though that for me, the best part of the Great Victorian Rail Trail is between Alexandra and Yea.
Helen. Good to hear because we didn’t do it.