Rail Trail to Warburton

The forecast for the weekend was excellent and a good opportunity to get out and about. Kelley had heard about a rail trail from Lilydale (last station on our line) to Warburton in the Yarra Valley. We set off on a sunny Saturday morning but our planning wasn't so flash, the trains weren't running so we had to ride to the next station, not too far away.

The start of the Trail was quite difficult to find but once we were on it, the riding was good and the surface was excellent.



We took it pretty easy, we later found out we'd been on a slight uphill for the first hour and we were grateful for a couple of short stops and some sustenance.



Woori Yallock bakery - superb steak and cracked pepper pies.



We arrived at Warburton early afternoon and checked in to the Alpine Retreat, an old hotel that hadn't changed in any way for about 50 years. Warburton was a sleepy little town with a main street containing trendy cafes and some craft shops and not much else. A nice setting though, next to a river between the hills.

Warburton main street.



We had some fish and chips for lunch, said hello to the local ass (below)and just wandered about.



After some deliberation (concentrating on whether the Ashes would be on downstairs) we ventured down to the bar for dinner and were treated to a great night - a tremendous feast, Australia smashing England in the cricket and some interesting conversation where we learnt the following points:

- there was no water in Ballarat Lake (repeated several times)
- if we'd driven up, we'd have time to walk up the mountain
- we should get a cat, or a dog - it would put some love into our hearts

We were up and away early on Sunday and powered back along the Trail to be home by lunch time, 100km of riding done over the last 2 days, a good start to hopefully plenty more trips in the summer.