Interim – Knocking off Railway Rd

12/13 September 2025

130 kms

Yorta Yorta, Bangerang, Dhudhuroa, Wiradjuri Country

There is something about a road not ridden before. It doesn’t matter where it’s located or the geography or scenery that envelopes it. It doesn’t matter if it’s gravel or sealed, or uphill or down. It’s still a new road. And I must ride it.

There is one road down amongst all those between Corowa and Wangaratta that I’ve never ridden before. I think I was scared off it by seeing the roughness of it once when I crossed it. And by the fact that it was an ‘express’ route, a boring gravel road that closely followed the rail line for much of its length.

But tomorrow we are going to ride that road and get it off our list. I am on the mountain bike, so roughness doesn’t matter. Bring it on. And doing a quickie, express route home is not so much a concern as I do need to get back home by mid-afternoon to meet up with a friend who has been away for a few months. So let’s finally tick off ‘Railway Road’ and ‘Smith Road’ between Wangaratta and Chiltern.

I rise early and pedal the 3 kays down to the train station for the 6.45am Melbourne train. It’s a 45-minute trip down to Wangaratta and no competition for the bike spaces today. The train is on time and I listen to a family of two grandparents, two boys under 5, and a mum who would not win any intelligence awards, play Go Fish. They munch on Pringles and wash those down with Up and Go. Across the aisle, three grown men, with beards and excess weight, discuss all things gaming. Apparently, you can only use the Cherish Key in the Fantasy Room and never in the War Room. Now, I don’t know anything about gaming, but I do think there is a logic to ‘cherish’ not really going with ‘war’.

I disembark the train in Wang in the chilly 3.2C air and ride down to a nearby park to sit in the sun and soak up any available solar radiation. I read the NYTimes on my phone, delete a bunch of old photos and hang out until my friend is finished donating blood. Then I meet up with her for breakfast at a local café. I just get some hot peppermint tea, though the GF pistachio and lemon slice did look nice! It is so nice to finally have a good catch-up – we’ve been trying to meet up for about 6 weeks, but things kept coming up.

So now it’s 11am on a Friday. I need to be back to Albury by 2pm Saturday. I slept for about 1.5 hours in total last night, so I’m not rip-roaring for something too hard (it’s a middle-aged female thing – when my progesterone rises and estrogen drops, I have nights where I just do not sleep. It’s only been a thing since 2023 for me as I progress through this wonky hormone period of life).

I finally decide to just ride out to Milawa and pick up some mustard for my parents. I’ll get about 50 kms in for the day which is a nice, short spin that won’t be too taxing on my nervous system and whatever else gets screwed up with sleep deprivation.

It is pretty cool and windy with clouds building. But there are no flies. And I am not sweating much. So I’m very happy with that. There are plenty of swooping magpies but only one rude one that repeatedly hits my helmet.

The grass is green, there are many bushes in flower. Spring has certainly sprung. I follow the rail trail out to Milawa – I’ve ridden it many times. It’s boring. It follows the road the whole way. But it’s a busy road with no shoulder, so it’s nice to have the bumpy bike path.

Milawa has plenty of tourists roaming about. Oh no, I do not miss living here at all. I had a unit here from Oct 2019 to Feb 2021. It’s the place that had heavy metals in the water and mould in the ceiling. It had no good heating or cooling and the water cut out all the time. Then they transformed the old building behind the units into a restaurant and event centre, and so then the place was super noisy, too.

Since I’ve been gone, the restaurant/function centre has been sold to someone else. The smoked meats restaurant is now a ‘casual fine dining’ place only open in the evenings with main meals ranging from $32 to 55. The takeaway shop that did great burgers for cheap is now ‘Milawa Fresh’. The olive shop is gone.

I stop in the bakery looking for a drink. It used to have a huge selection of pastries, sweet treats and sandwiches, but now the selection is small, all the sandwiches are on white bread (even though they sell sourdough) and it just generally feels run-down and limited. The drinks case is small and I come up empty – as I don’t want soft drink, milk or juice (the only options).

The mustard place doesn’t have the two mustards I’m looking for in the size jar I want. I get a sampler pack instead. I navigate some hoity toity city people on my way out the door (seriously, I have no idea why so many city women wear those calf-length black boots, no one out here wears those ever!). Then it’s down the back road past the egg farm, back through Oxley where the swooping magpie is more of a ‘flutter on your shoulder’ magpie, and then back to Wang.

I didn’t really enjoy my time living out at Milawa. It was all during covid restrictions, so it was a very weird time. I didn’t particularly like my job then (though I loved my boss and colleagues), and I was still trying to find my way out of all the ME/CFS-mozzie virus-bartonella hell, so I don’t look back with great memories of that time. It surprises me what a negative vibe I feel in myself as I’m out that way today. I’m always a glass-half-full person – always looking forward – always resilient person… but I can definitely look back on that time as being pretty tough. I’m glad I no longer live in this area and I’m grateful every day that I found a way out of all that illness.

I spend the night at the caravan park in a cabin. I have to leave my bike in a shed (you used to be able to take bikes in the cabins, but like so many places that become popular for cycling, that is no longer allowed). In the morning, the manager opens the shed for me and he says they recently got e-bikes, but mine is better, because e-bikes get very heavy if they don’t have enough charge. (They tried to ride to Myrtleford and back on one charge, and it sounds like they didn’t quite make it!).

The air is a bit crisp. But there is no wind. The sun shines down from a clear blue sky. It’s just 4 degrees but will make it up to 18C today. It is just a perfect spring day. The flies are not out yet, and I’ve been trying to get out as much as possible after work and on weekends to enjoy that!

Railway Road follows the rail line closely. It is mostly flat. The surface is very good to start. There is also a very aggressive magpie that repeatedly thumps my helmet in the first 300 metres. Then we are magpie-free until much later in the ride.

Eventually there is a short hill to climb. I enjoy looking over to see the rail-line higher than us as it is built up on a big embankment as we cross a low area before the hill. Then I’m looking down on the rail-line as I go over the hill and it stays on its level course.

The road is in rougher shape past Boralma Road, but it would still be okay on the touring bike. Just not nearly as comfortable!

We eventually roll on through Springhurst – there’s nothing there but a post office, public toilet and primary school these days. It used to have a Butter Factory, general store and a pub. There are a variety of old, delapidated homes flying the Aussie flag and modern homes with no eaves. The railway station is still in use, so you could hop on/off the train here with your bike if you wanted.

We roll on up to Chiltern, following Smith Road. It eventually curves away from the rail and links up to the Back Springhurst Road (which we’ve ridden before) into Chiltern. From here on out, we are on roads we’ve ridden before – the old Hume Highway to Barnawatha, and then the freeway frontage road into Wodonga (Plunketts Road).

It is really just a gorgeous day to be out. There is a bit of traffic, but the local footy team is playing in the finals series at an away game, so it’s probably a bit less busy than normal.

Through it all, I’m just pedalling away. Suprisingly, I’m not thinking about too much, I’m just enjoying being out without the sun frying me to a crisp while flies stick to my face. That season is rapidly approaching.

I do think about how I harbour some ill feelings for the fed and state governments delaying funding agreements for so long. I SHOULD be finishing up my current contract in the next month, based on their grant guideline timeline, but no…. I still have seven months left! I should be about to be free again, but no…. I’m still working very hard for another summer and autumn.

I also think about my post-contract plans. They are not solid yet. The contract spits me out at a shitty time of year to start a ride. I finish up 30 April.

I’m currently thinking I might do a couple weeks in the Snowy Mountains before heading out to Lake Mungo. That ride would incorporate the Billabong Creek – Source to Mouth ride that has been in my head for years. I’d wrap that up by the end of May and head over to see my family for June.

But that gets me back to Oz in the middle of winter and that’s a wet and cold time to be riding. I also think I could maybe pick up some temp work after the contract just to cover rent and to see me through winter. I would just need enough earnings to cover rent and utilities. I wouldn’t necessarily need to save money, but just not spend any savings. I really like the place I’m living at now, it would not be hard to stay on a month-to-month lease through the cold period. It is like living at a luxury resort compared to that terrible place I lived at in East Albury from Dec 2023-April 2025.

But, as you can see, I just don’t know. Usually there is a plan that has a bit more stickiness to it than the others when you contemplate them all, but I haven’t got to that point yet.

However, my current job means I’m deep into all things natural disaster and very aware of how bleak and grim and dire things will get with climate change over the next 15-20 years. This has definitely cemented the decision that I need to just make the leap and do six months riding/six months working. Work for six months and then ride for six months using the money earned in the previous six months. Leave my savings and investments alone to grow into retirement funds. Do this for as long as my body agrees or until I can start drawing down my superannuation.

It would be very easy to keep picking up contracts or other government work that pays well, thinking each time, ‘if only I were a bit more financially secure’…. but, nope, I just need to get the guts up to take the plunge. I know I will not regret it. I know I need to do it because of climate change and because, eventually, my body will only be able to do more boring rides. I know I need to do it because you never know when your health might fail (I know this first-hand!).

So I think of the quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, “what would you do if you knew you could not fail”? And even though I don’t know the timing of everything post-contract yet, I am definitely ready to take the plunge now.

So I’m thinking a bit about that as I ride the gentle hills of the frontage road toward Wodonga. I think of life and how it flows – a sinuous, weaving path that is usually best navigated by floating along with the flow instead of fighting against the current. I reflect on how I’m so privileged to be able to make these decisions and not be stuck with a mortgage, kids, pets, other debt, or a career that is the source of my identity.

Of course, my parents’ health is always a wildcard in the plans. There is always the potential that I may need to return to the US for a period to look after them. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there – in the meantime, we’ll just keep floating down this course to see where it may lead.

When I see how tiny my parents’ world has become, it makes me even more determined to go live life now and not leave it all to the period when your healthspan is gone but your lifespan is not.

There’s a series of magpies on Plunketts Road that harass me, but none of them draw blood nor cause me serious concern. There’s only one car that passes too close.

There may be better ways to hook Plunketts Road to the bike path that heads over the causeway, but I’ve always found cutting through the LaTrobe campus, ducking down to Lawrence St, then catching the bike path at the creek, has always worked well and is stress-free.

The bike path is mostly empty and there is only one annoying couple taking up the whole path instead of keeping to the left. I zoom around them on the grass and then keep a good clip all the way down the causeway. I stick to the main road past Noureil Park and then cut through the swimming pool parking lot to the bike path along the river. Then it’s up the gravel fire trail that’s got two steep bits that gets me to the top of the hill just before home.

We’re rolling in the driveway at 1pm – I’ve got an hour to get cleaned up before I head over to see another friend. It’s been a good 80 km ride today. Nothing strenuous, just a perfect day for a spin.

We have only managed two overnight rides before today’s ride over the winter period. It was an odd winter weatherwise and socially. It seems like any weekend that seemed like it might be halfway suitable for a multi-day ride was taken up with social engagements. I’ve caught up with lots of people this winter – I think people are really looking for connection because things are just so uncertain at the moment. Lots of bad things going down globally, lots of job losses in state government at the moment, lots of budget belt-tightening at local government level, and still lots of cost-of-living issues. I think people just want to get together and commiserate.

Next weekend is my ‘short’ weekend and I have other plans. But maybe the weekend after on my RDO week there are some possibilities. Probably no new roads, but a chance for a night in the tent, I think. Keep your fingers crossed.

I’ll leave you with a series of pics to scroll through showing the colours of fall followed by the colours of spring. My 30 minute walk to/from work follows the river and goes through the Botanic Gardens. I love my commute! It’s the best way to start/end the day, and I have walked to work every single day since 15 April.

I really dislike the life of boring domesticity. I am not cut out for it. But I do like my job, even though it can be stressful. And I do like the unit I have at the moment. There are many kms of bike paths just out my door. And there’s oodles and oodles of kms of mountain biking/hiking options at Nail Can Hill which is just a few minutes away, too. So, if I have to be tied to a job and a home for now, it’s the best it could possibly be.

AUTUMN

WINTER

SPRING