Echo Bend Camping Area to Castleburn Creek Campground
Gunaikurnai Country
14 March 2025
The cadence is different. The sound of the tyres is different. The difficulty eases. Give me the same grade on chipseal versus gravel or dirt and I virtually fly right along.
And so we’re flying up the hill today, relatively speaking. After a chugging, rhythmic climb up a medium gravel grade to get out of the campground, we’re slogging along at a decent clip on a long climb on the main road to Dargo.
I’ve ridden this road the other direction in 2017 from the Freestone Creek Road turn-off, and I’ve ridden the other part of the road the other direction from Dargo to the Freestone Creek Road in 2023. There aren’t really any other options for gravel roads in this area unless you make a one or two-day diversion.
So we climb through the forest on chipseal in the quiet of the dark, low morning clouds. I see a few cars and a truck going the other direction, and I vacate the road before a corner with no good sight lines when a gravel truck is coming up from behind. There’s three of them plying the road this morning, driving back and forth between what I assume is Bairnsdale and a quarry somewhere up on the Dargo High Plains Road. Luckily, this is my closest encounter with any of them.
My fitness is good at this point, my back is less achy, and it gives me a good three hours before it starts to become uncomfortable. So it’s all systems go as we weave our way upwards.
We eventually get to the gap and go flying down the other side. Woo-hoo! The road then follows along a creek for a few kilometres. We undulate along gentle hills with long sight lines and I watch the road wobbling up and down ahead. The traffic is all heading the other direction at the moment.
Just past Cobbanah, the road starts to climb as it heads up to Pretty Boy Saddle. We leave the cleared, private land of Cobbanah behind and twist up through the forest. The grade gets a bit grunty, but it backs right off at the saddle. There’s a picnic area and a few short walking tracks to some old mine relics here. But I don’t need a break. I’m in a good groove.
When I rode this the other direction back in 2023, I remember a long and somewhat steep climb in places to Peel Gap heading southbound. Then, the downhill didn’t seem to have too much reward. So that means I’m anticipating an easy climb through the twisties coming from the opposite side today.
And that is correct. I can barely tell I’m climbing as we weave in and out of the hill contours. I pass a couple of tracks that I might like to check out in the future and then take a bit of a break at the gap. I stop long enough to check out the weather forecast, text Nigel my position and check emails for anything from my past and upcoming employer about contract start dates.
The weather forecast keeps changing. One day it says 50mm of rain coming Sat eve. The next day has it 30mm coming Sunday morning. Anything over about 15mm is worth sitting out when you are riding dirt mountain roads. They just become too gluggy and messy to ride after that (you saw what my bike looked like with just 10mm of rain on the road!). Whenever it comes, it’s meant to be very windy, as it’s a major cold front coming from Antarctica. It’s meant to drop the temps from the upper 20s C to the low teens. I would prefer to be in a proper camping area for that where the chance of getting beaned by a large tree branch in high winds is less likely, and where, if worse comes to worst, I can shelter in the dunny with my bike.
So my plan is to head down off the gap and then camp tonight at the camping area near the bottom of the downhill run. If that’s a good spot, we might stay two nights, then head into and through Dargo to some camping areas on the other side before the rain arrives. If the Castleburn Creek camping area is not all that great, we’ll head on through Dargo on Saturday and then wait out the rain on the other side. Dargo is a 4WD and trail bike mecca and will be packed out, like it is every weekend between Melbourne Cup weekend and Kings Birthday weekend (when the seasonally closed tracks open and close, respectively).
This gap is where the man told me I was a diamond and gave me a Violet Crumble back in 2023. No gifts or kind words eventuate today. We roll off the gap in that low angle morning sun that is working its way through the fog and cloud. It ALMOST feels like autumn today. I find that there is always just a single day where summer turns to autumn. Like it feels like summer, and then one day, the sun angle, the temp, the smell in the air and the tinge of colour in the leaves says it’s autumn. It always seems like it just happens overnight. On my 2023 tour, that day was riding into Khancoban. The temps were still hot, but that day just said, “hey, it’s autumn now.”
I weave along through the trees and then the road pops back out into cleared land and heads out and around a spur. I meet a heap of traffic going the other way, at least six cars backed up behind a slower vehicle. The road continues to drop to a creek and then climbs again to a farmhouse. The old road continues on from here in a squiggly fashion.
The new road rounds the corner and then drops like a bomb. And we are the bomb. I remember this long straight from 2023, particularly because I was grunting my way up it. So I do remember that it has a good run-out down the bottom. No need for any brakes. Just pedal into as hard as you can and then go for the ride.
And so we do. We fly down so fast my freewheel sounds like zingzingzingzingzingzing and my tyres sound like a plane heading for take off with a high-pitched hum. Woo-hoo! I whip right by the two steep descent signs, and a Forest Fire Management vehicle gives me a happy honk going the other way. ZOOOOOOOOM!
We hit 67kph. Wow – you could easily do high 70s or more with skinnier tyres. We fling ourselves into the bumpy camping area road. There are two vehicles there camping by the fire pit and picnic table, but they appear to be packing up. I roll by them and say hello and see that there is no one up the end. Very good! We’ll take that one, thanks.
It’s about 11am. We definitely could have hit Dargo and the campsites beyond today, but they’ll be busy, and this should be less so.
After the camping group leaves, I go up to the creek by their campsite to filter water for today, tonight and tomorrow morning, as the creek is more accessible up there. Then I go back to hang in the shade and watch vehicles come and go all day. Some are just there for a ‘look-see’, some come to check out the fishing opportunities, and some come looking to camp where I am, but turn around after seeing it’s occupied (cursing me I’m sure for beating them to it and angry that I’m just a little tent. I learned long ago how to take up a large space – otherwise the 4WDers will camp right on top of you to squeeze the one-person tent out!).
It’s still hot and it’s nice to have that shade (the other site doesn’t have much). Gosh, that cold front is going to feel super cold after it being so hot since the beginning of October.
The guys get a float. I get caught up on my journal. But this site, nice as it is, would not be a good place to sit out the rain. It will definitely become a soggy mess, and I cannot find anywhere that’s a bit elevated that would keep the rain from puddling under the tent. So we’ll move on tomorrow….
Em,
I converted 67kph. That is very fast! That must have been fun. You must feel invincible on paved downhills.
Love,
E
Yes, that bike with those wide bars and wide tyres feels incredibly stable. And you don’t have to be nearly as engaged and quick-thinking and reacting when the surface is sealed. It was great fun!
I wonder how Pretty Boy Saddle got its name. I wonder what the highest speed I’ve ever achieved might be. Sixty-seven KPH sounds exciting. I’ve never had a speedometer or bike computer, but I have ridden down some steep hills on a roadie bike. That was exciting too.
67 kph is not my fastest. I’ve done 47 mph on my touring bike on the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway in WY. That bit also include flying over a cattle grid. I’ll never forget the sound of that – because I actually sounded like a car just zinging over instead of thumping over like normal on a bike. If I’ve done 47mph fully loaded, I’m sure you’ve gone at least 55mph on your roadie. You could get a basic bike computer with distance and mph, because that is really ‘analogue’ these days, lol.