I had a few hours to spare on a day trip to South Western Victoria so took the 24″ GUni along to ride the Crater to Coast Rail Trail, which runs 29km from Camperdown to Timboon (though the plan is to extend it all the way to Port Campbell).

The trail climbs steadily from Timboon to Camperdown so is generally ridden in the opposite direction. The most scenic and fun part of the trail however is around Timboon, so with the time available I headed off on a loop from Timboon ‘uphill’ to Glenfyne and back down to Timboon, which is also known for its GREAT ice-cream! 😛

Given the nature of the trail i.e. being based on an old train line, there’s often not much to do but ride along and enjoy the surrounds – nothing wrong with that! The trail north of Curdies River however contains short sections of idyllic single track. Due to all of the old trestle bridges being out of action the trail turns off the rail line numerous times, dropping down into damp and cool heavily forested gullies, crossing Limestone Creek over wooden foot bridges before climbing back up to the rail line.

Approaching Glenfyne the trail gradually climbs out of the forested gullies into surrounding farmlands as it heads towards Cobden and Camperdown. Time for me to turn around and enjoy the downhill scoot back to Timboon for some of the town’s legendary ice-cream.

All up a fun ride and with Timboon only 18km from Port Campbell there was just enough time to head down to the Great Ocean Road and get a fix of the mighty Southern Ocean before heading home.