VICTORIAN ALPS CYCLE TOUR - DAY 1

Murray River from Hume Dam

Route: Albury, Hume Weir, Bonegilla, Ebden.
Distance: 23km

If catching the morning train Sydney, then you will arrive in Albury about 3pm (trains from Melbourne arrive earlier). There is just enough time to cycle out of Albury and find a campsite by Lake Hume.

The sister cities of Albury and Wodonga form a major rural centre boasting a population of 100 000. Albury has several bicycle, camping and outdoors stores. Any last minute equipment should be obtained here. To cycle out of Albury, make your way to Borella Road (Riverina Highway), which crosses the railway line about 500m north of the train station and will take you all the way to Hume Weir. This road can take a lot of traffic between 3pm and 5pm and near Albury I found it to take the heaviest traffic of the entire trip.

Eventually the traffic will ease as you approach Hume Weir. This small town has a caravan park, small general store and waterslides. Instead of taking the main road south to cross the Murray, head toward the dam wall. Cyclists, unlike motorised traffic, can cross the dam wall. This saves an uphill climb and also constitutes 3km of blissful car-free cycleway. With a little improvisation, the main road to Bonegilla is soon rejoined.

Cycleway across the Hume Dam wall

Bonegilla boasts a service station (which is the last shop until Tawonga) but more importantly was also the home of Australia's largest immigration reception centre. At the intersection with the B400, go straight ahead on to Maher's Road. About half a kilometre along this road, turn left into the High Country Rail Trail. After 4km or so along the trail one will find a number of potential campsite by Lake Hume with nearby picnic tables and toilets. (If you would rather stay at a caravan park, turn left onto the B400 rather than going onto Maher's Road. There is a caravan park about 1km down the B400 on the left hand side. In December 2005 this caravan park was charging $20 per person for an unpowered tent site.)

Camping by Lake Hume

An alternate route for Day 1 would make full use of the High Country Rail Trail. Either catch the train to Wodonga (not possible with Countrylink) or, from Albury, take the Albury-Wodonga cycleway to Wodonga and join the High Country Rail Trail to Bonegilla. See my Google map and the High Country Rail Trail map for further details. The distance would be similar to the route described above.