We arrived in Bairnsdale and gathered at the Mitchell Gardens Holiday Park and, after assembling our bikes, thoughts more or less immediately turned to happy hour followed by dinner at the Whadi Café where - too late - it was discovered that the café was B.Y.O. only! The ordeals of exploring!

Tuesday May 22 Bags were packed and bikes made ready for the journey. After some had spent considerable time attaching pannier bags, they discovered they had fitted them to the wrong side of their bikes. Following breakfast at the Whadi Café we headed onto the rail trail for the first time and set off towards our morning stop at Bruthen.

We gathered at the Bruthen bakery where our leader, Murray, discovered the intricacies of buying take away food in Bruthen. The bakery was too busy to make a salad roll (they had been swamped by a group of cyclists) and the sandwich shop had no rolls but happily suggested the local bakery could supply him with a roll which they, the sandwich shop could turn into a salad roll. Back at the bakery it was discovered that they could now make a salad roll after all. Confused?

Suitably refreshed we headed back onto the trail until we turned off onto the Gippsland Lakes Discovery Trail. This trail is a work in progress and provided a challenging ride for many of us with a few steep descents and drifts of deep sand.

Much of this trail follows the Mississippi Creek along a disused tramline built to transport granite from a quarry to Lakes Entrance. We straggled into our designated lunch stop at the log crossing picnic area where someone who shall remain nameless managed to lock herself in the toilet. Back on the trail and following a brisk climb up Scrivener Road we looked forward to the promised 8 kilometre downhill run into Lakes Entrance. This we found had somehow managed to change into a several hundred metres downhill run! Our accommodation at Echo Beach Park was quite salubrious and more than made up for the challenges of the day.

Following dinner at the Lakes bowling club we had a get together back at Murray and Phil's but for some reason the conversation and energy levels had waned and an early night was called.

Wednesday May 23 The group breakfasted at various locales around Lakes Entrance and gathered back at the park for the start of the day's ride. After an exhilarating heart starter up the same hill we rode down the previous day, a different route to the Mississippi Creek trail was decided upon which took us along the forest road back to the Gippsland Rail Trail - this ended up being not much better than the other trail anyway just minus the hills.

Lunch was at a spectacular disused railway trestle bridge where we met up with our faithful companion, Neville, bringing supplies for said lunch. While discussion was engaged about who would go down to the vehicle and retrieve lunches from the esky, Murray trotted down and brought up the entire esky at a jogging pace!!!

After lunch we headed down the slope, across the river bed and proceeded at a slow walking pace up the steep slope on the other side, except for Murray who simply changed down a gear and rode up.

We arrived earlier than expected in Nowa Nowa and took up residence at the exotic resort of Mingling Waters, a curious mix of buildings by the shore of an inlet. It was very rustic and in the end we decided more fun than the motel across the street which had been commandeered by 40 cyclists from Canberra. And of course Mingling Waters has Mike who went out of his way to make us welcome and to make our stay enjoyable and to supply great food and an open fire.

Thursday May 24 Breakfast. For those who partook it was a fantastic stack of pancakes and maple syrup. Delicious and again the blazing fire. Breakfast was followed by a tour of the art gallery and especially the collected tree artwork which includes the impressive giant tree root in its own display pyramid. The things a dentist can do with his drill and a bit of polish are truly amazing!

On the trail again for a brisk ride to Orbost bypassing more disused trestle bridges. The surface of the trail was quite good and made for easy riding. We all gathered a few kilometres short of Orbost and rode in single file behind our industrious leader into town for a lunch break at Forest Park. With the afternoon free we set off for Marlo by the seaside, a pleasant 16k ride beside the Snowy River. At Marlo is a pub with a large decked area overlooking the sea, an ideal place for a coffee break and to contemplate the universe and whatever. Or at least it would be except that for some unknown reason they weren't making coffee that day so it was ice creams at the general store and then back to Orbost and our accommodation at the Countryman Motel.

Happy hour was a gourmet feast at the bbq area followed by dinner at the palatial Orbost Club, then back to the bbq for chocolates and coffee.

Friday May 25 Breakfast at the Countryman's dining room then time to ready the bikes for the journey back to Bairnsdale. The trip back via Dave's bus with the bikes neatly stacked in the horse float behind gave us a chance to see in luxury where we had been riding during the previous days. Back at Bairnsdale we loaded our cars and said our farewells and returned the way we had come via the Great Alpine Road. Still shrouded in smoke, so still no views.

We had covered roughly 190 kilometres on the journey and remarkably not one puncture. It was a fabulous experience through some beautiful countryside and it was reassuring as cyclists to see how some towns in Gippsland, especially Orbost, are rejuvenating and reinvigorating themselves largely due to the effects of the Rail Trail and some remarkably enthusiastic individuals such as Mike at Mingling Waters and Dave our driver from Orbost.

The East Gippsland Rail Trail is a trip well worth taking and one we would recommend to anyone.

Philip Howe