Category: New Day Rising

Tabberabbera Road

Gunaikurnai Country

7-8 March 2025

We’re down deep in the drainage. Slanted, crumbly cliffs of sedimentary shales stand above a bend in the creek downstream. Bushy undergrowth surrounds the campsite, twelve-foot tall scrubby vegetation hiding the floodplain and the impacts of logging. There is little perspective down here in the details, you need to get up above and look down to get any sense of how the landscape is structured and to get a bigger picture of how it all fits together.  Yes, we’re sitting down here in the “i’s” and “t’s” that the Type A’s always have to dot and cross. 

Marthavale to Tabberabbera Rd

Gunaikurnai Country 

7 March 2025

We wind up the road, my legs pumping in a slow rhythmic churn. Low cloud rims the valley, clustered about the ridge where Baldhead Road runs. We’ve got a 4.5 km climb with about 275 metres of elevation to gain to get to that foggy ridge.

The bike tyres part the thicker gravel like a boat making bow waves. The tyres flick up sandy bits of quartz and ping them against my shins. I ride outside edge to outside edge up the many curves to avoid the corrugated inner parts. 

East Branch Nicholson River to Marthavale

Gunaikurnai Country

6 March 2025

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. My shoes push against the chunky gravel as I push the bike up another steep grade. Sometimes the handlebars are even with my chest. Sometimes they are even with my chin, as I pick my way up the slope, trying to use rocks and roots as steps as I heave the bike up.

East Branch Nicholson River

Gunaikurnai Country

5 March 2025

I inhale the quiet. I gobble up the silence. I voraciously consume the solitude. It is Wednesday morning. I have not spoken to a human since Sunday morning. And I have not seen or heard a human since Sunday evening at 6pm. This is Thanksgiving for an introvert. 

Barmouth Creek to East Branch Nicholson River

Gunaikurnai Country

4 March 2025

It’s just a black or red line crossing a green background on a thick sheet of paper.  It’s 2D. A paper map. It represents reality, but is not necessarily accurate or true. You can make up wild ideas of what the reality is that the print represents. 

How many evenings have I sat under the soft glow of the lamp contemplating possible routes and what they might look like in person? I look at those black/red lines, seeking out the wiggly ones and trying to figure out how to connect them up to make a route. Then, in my head, I think about what the views might be like, what the track will be like, what the little purple triangle tents that represent informal camping sites might be like. 

3 March 2025

Gunaikurnai Country

Deptford to Barmouth Creek Crossing

The trees arch over the road, their pale green leaves hanging vertically but defying gravity and holding onto the dew. The clouds are hanging about the ridgetops and the air is still. It feels a little expectant and a little bit creepy this morning, as I shove the bike up a steep grade at the very start.

2 March 2025

Gunaikurnai Country

Bairnsdale to Deptford via Engineers Road

It’s cool. There’s low grey cloud covering the sky. It looks like it might drizzle if gravity worked a bit harder.

It’s a novelty to me. After five months of summer so far and so many stupidly hot days in a row back home, I am very excited for a cool day of clouds!

28 February – 1 March 2025

Jaimathang and Gunaikurnai Country

Bus from Omeo to Bairnsdale

It is still very dark. We’re getting toward the end of daylight saving, so 6.00am still features total darkness. But Omeo is bustling in that pitch darkness. The bright lights of a bakery shine into the blackness, beckoning forth the addicts like moths to a flame.