After a few slightly more adventurous and far-flung hikes, I returned to the trusty Gippsland Plains Rail Trail for my final walk in March.
Wrapped hay bales lined up against the fence beside the rail trail. Also, a cool tree.
We (Dan, my parents and I) started walking from Tinamba just before 9am, after our car shuffle was held up by roadworks. Our plan was to walk 10km to Heyfield and have lunch, then Dan and I would walk back while Mum and Dad would pick up their car outside the cafe and head home. It was a cool and slightly foggy morning, though the forecast promised a sunny day with highs in the mid-20s.
I haven't posted a map of the whole trail before. We've now walked all of the trail between Heyfield and Stratford.
 Posing with my huge bum bag, while Dad buys snacks! |  Off we go! |
The nice thing about this part of the rail trail is that almost two thirds of it does not travel beside a road. Instead it cuts southwest through farmland, diagonally across the grid of back roads, before running alongside the main road into Heyfield for the last few kilometres. Although there weren’t any particular highlights on this section, it was probably the most pleasant so far. There were stretches of shady wattles (including blackwood) and some really lovely established eucalypts around Heyfield and on the hill (“hill” being a generous description) in the middle of the section.
Crossing the waspy bridge! They were less active in the morning than on the way back.
 Mushrooms popping up all over. |  Some very big mushrooms, in fact. |
My folks set quite a good pace! I told Dan it made me notice how often I stop to take photos or look at things along the way - let alone field recording, which takes a minimum of a few minutes each time. Luckily they stopped at the handily spaced benches (pretty much breaking the section into thirds) to let us catch up, take off the pack, stretch a bit and have a snack. We arrived in Heyfield a little sooner than we would have at our usual 4kph standard!
The trail is occasionally used as an access track for farms, or crossed by farm tracks. We saw a few vehicles in the morning.
 Water and distant hills through the long grass. |  I don't know my grasses. This one looked cool, though. |
Possibly the best bit of the day came in the form of a cute, friendly little cat at the Stag & Doe cafe in Heyfield. It was pretty snuggly! We enjoyed our lunch and drinks (thanks for shouting us, Mum and Dad)... but I enjoyed meeting the cat more.
At a crossing of one of the back roads, the rail line is still visible in the asphalt.
 The spiky nuts or cones of a casuarina tree. |  What the casuarina tree looks like from further back. |
Crossing the main road into Heyfield, where traffic lights for the roadworks worked in our favour (not that it's a hugely busy road anyway).
After lunch, my folks dropped us back up at the trail (saving our legs all of 500m) and we faffed around for a bit - emptying our shoes of gravel, reapplying sunscreen - before setting off at 12:10pm. Dan and I discussed how much easier we were finding this walk than the Maffra-Tinamba one last month... and then it got sunnier and hotter and the flies came out. Still, there weren’t too many flies and it wasn’t too hot, so it wasn’t all that bad.
Dad got us a few snacks from the Tinamba general store. And when I really needed some sugar, the Cherry Ripe actually tasted amazing.
 Lots of long, straight path on the rail trail... |  ... yep, a lot. Enjoyed the larger trees beside the trail in this section. |
It often feels quicker walking the return leg, regardless of how long it actually takes. We knew the benches would break our trip in thirds, so we had something to aim for. We didn’t stop long - just enough to sip some water, do some circles with our ankles and take the weight off. The shady trees and a very slight cool breeze kept us pretty happy for the first half. We both had a couple of twinges in the foot and leg department, but we kept up a fair pace up over the hill (well, it does offer a slight gradient!) and down onto the plains.
A body of water (possibly part of an irrigation channel?) on the way there...
... and the same one on the way back!
We hadn’t seen any other walkers or cyclists on the way to Heyfield, but we saw four cyclists (a pair and two solo) on the way back. The last one we met just before we crossed over the bridge not far from Tinamba, and he kindly warned us of the wasps that frequent the structure. We’d noticed them in the morning and they were still hanging around. They weren’t aggressive or anything, though, so we just wandered through and tried not to disturb them. I wonder why they all hang out on that bridge? Are they collecting wood for nests underneath it?
Site of the old Heyfield station. There were lots of signs in this park about post WWII migrant workers in the area.
 A butterfly caught in one of many spiderwebs along the trail. |  The cute cafe cat in Heyfield! |
There's something very soothing about this kind of path - this is where you're going, no need to think too hard, just walk and be present.
We didn’t see a huge number of mammals - Dad spotted a bunch of rabbits, but I only saw their poo, and there were a few herds of cows along the way. Once again, we were treated to clouds of butterflies, making us feel like Disney princesses. There were also a lot of spiderwebs with large orb weaver spiders in them - as well as a couple of unfortunate butterflies, dragonflies and other insects. Birds once again made up most of our sightings - magpies, currawongs, little ravens, sulphur crested cockies, corellas, straw-necked ibis and fantails all made multiple appearances. We heard a kookaburra and a butcher bird and saw a shrike thrush and a couple of blue wrens. Towards the end of the walk a small brown bird of prey (maybe a brown falcon?) darted ahead of us on the path and was pursued straight back out into the paddocks by a few magpies. We also stopped to watch two whistling kites turning circles above us. They’re big birds!
It's hard to get a good photo of the distant hills - they come up a little better in black and white.
 Dead trees beside the trail. |  Classic Australian scene: paddock and windmill. |
Dan and I made it back into Tinamba at 2:40pm - exactly two and a half hours after leaving, which is spot on in terms of our average pace. We got a nice cold bottle of lemonade at the general store and headed home for a shower, tea and hot cross buns. Yum!
Dan, somewhere near the top of the "hill" between Heyfield and Tinamba.
Notes
I’m not sure if it’s my general fitness, the nice terrain, the cooler weather, new shoes or a combination of all four, but this was a pretty easy 20km walk. I carried a heavier pack than I have so far in my training walks (maybe 7kg?) but I still felt pretty good afterwards. I also used the big bum bag again, which I’ve patched and done a couple of minor alterations on (see below).
 Removing the zip that attached to a larger bag. |  Removing rattly zip toggles (see bottom). |  Patching and reinforcing in contrast colours! |
I was a little tight in my calves as usual, but stretching helped. My feet were less achy than after other flat walks. And I definitely wasn’t as tired as I have been after my previous few outings. I’ve been a bit concerned about making the step up to 25km walks, but maybe I’ll be fine! However, I’m still not 100% sure what my training walks will be like in April and into May. Options include:
- Increase mileage (weekly walks of about 25km)
- Increase pack weight (up to about 10kg including food and water)
- Do more consecutive days (e.g. 15-20km one day and 10-15km the next)
- Do some multi-day walks with camping (keeping the days pretty low mileage)
Looking back towards the low hill from the Tinamba side. No special highlights, but a really nice quiet section of rail trail.
Before I head off on the Heysen Trail, I definitely want to have done at least a handful of multi-day “shakedown” walks to test out new gear/gear combos. I also know that in the first week of the Heysen there will be a couple of 28-30km days, so I want to make sure to do a couple of walks of that distance with similar ascent/descent and a decently full pack before I leave - just so I know I can do it.
This walk, and the Gippsland Plains Rail Trail generally, is on Brayakaulung (GunaiKurnai) Country. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.
RSS Feed
