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| View from the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail |
The week before last,
I had the opportunity to slip away for a two-day MicroAdventure with my
bike-riding buddy, Trish. We loaded up our bikes onto the back of Trish’s car
after breakfast on Tuesday and headed across to Beechworth in north-eastern
Victoria.
Shortly before
arriving in the historic and well-preserved 1853 gold-mining town of
Beechworth, I made good use of my role as Designated Passenger by Googling a suitable spot for lunch.
After reading one
reviewer’s description of the pizzas at The
Bridge Road Brewers (the double smoked ham, cheese and mushroom pizza
allegedly better than sex…), I suggested to Trish that a MicroAdventure should
undoubtedly begin at a MicroBrewery.
The Bridge Road Brewers operates out of 150-year-old stables, once owned
by Hiram Allen Crawford of Crawford & Co, a major horse and coach
enterprise in northern Victoria during the 1800s.
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| A selection of the Bridge Road Brewers' beer and cider |
Beer and pizza, a
match made in heaven and the perfect carbohydrate combination to fuel an
afternoon’s cycling expedition.
Naturally, I chose a
double-smoked ham, cheese and mushroom pizza to accompany my large glass of
Beechworth Pale Ale and for dessert, a rich chocolate mousse and strong
caffeine-fuelled latte.
Tempting though it was
to curl up and have a nap after lunch, we resisted, unloaded our bikes and set
off on a 46km ride along the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail.
The Murray to
Mountains Rail Trail has over 100km of high-quality sealed off-road trail,
stretching from Milawa through to Wangaratta, from Wangaratta you can peddle to
Myrtleford or turn off at Everton and head uphill to Beechworth. From
Myrtleford you can peddle on up to Bright in the Victorian high country.
Our post pizza ride took
us downhill from Beechworth to Everton and along to the site of what was once
the Tarrawingee Railway Station, towards Wangaratta. At this point we had
cycled an idyllic 23km of gloriously smooth downhill, past bright, golden
wattles and lush farm paddocks in the winter sunshine… at which point, Trish
suggested we might like to bike back. Uphill. All the way to Beechworth…
By the time we reached
the outskirts of town, the sun was setting and I felt quite sure my beer,
pizza, chocolate mousse and latte had all been thoroughly metabolised by my
body.
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| The welcome sight of Beechworth after our 46km ride |
Cycling the rail trail
mid-week, towards the end of July, (when it might snow), almost guarantees you
will enjoy the trail to yourself. One solitary cyclist whizzed past us on the
return journey. It is truly a magical route for bike riding and so relaxing,
knowing you aren’t about to be inadvertently run over by a motorist.
After enjoying long,
hot showers, Trish and I were ready to locate a suitable dining location for
dinner… but not just any dinner. It was Tuesday night and Tuesday Night Dinner
is a weekly occasion in my house; one that I often spend hours concocting in my
head and then preparing. My first two choices for dinner weren’t open on a
Tuesday, dagnabbit! So I decided to turn to Facebook friend and senior food
writer for The Age newspaper, Richard
Cornish, for advice.
Richard’s Tuesday
night dinner in Beechworth recommendations were either Tanswell’s Hotel or the Indian restaurant.
It was a cold night
(-2°C) so Indian was tempting but the thought of
a good red and some nourishing pub grub won out.
Tanswell’s Commercial Hotel was established
in 1853 and is located right next door to The
Bridge Road Brewers.
I chose the oven baked gnocchi with leek and
blue cheese as my main meal (after my last MicroAdventure, Trish insisted I stay away from steak, saying, "You are not going to be medevaced out on my watch!") and Trish, on the waiter’s recommendation, chose
the lasagne with salad and we washed our meals down with a bottle of Cofield
Sparkling Shiraz from Rutherglen. 
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| Fried and flaming quince ice cream |
For dessert, I enjoyed the fried quince ice
cream, theatrically set alight by our attentive and helpful waiter, with
generous lashings of calvados (apple brandy). Trish was very pleased with her
choice of pear, chocolate and walnut tart with crème anglaise.
Although I enjoyed my gnocchi, I will confess
to a certain degree of food envy after sampling Trish’s lasagne. Its exquisite
flavour was so exceptional that I went and thanked the chef personally after
dinner and asked him how he made it.
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| Tanswells' chef extraordinaire, David |
Chef David explained his lasagne recipe was
inspired by the teachings of world famous Italian chef and restaurateur,
Massimo Bottura, owner of Osteria
Francescana, a three-Michelin-star restaurant based in the
northern Italian city of Modena.
David told me that Massimo is not a fan of the
southern Italian lasagne recipes with their minced meat, mozzarella or tomatoes
(the style commonly cooked in Australia); instead, prefers the northern Italian
version made with a slow-cooked, hand-chopped meat ragu (with no tomato) and besciamella (béchamel sauce) in layers between egg pasta sheets with
some grated parmigianoreggiano cheese on top.
After dinner, Trish and I walked back to
our room at the Carriage Motor Inn, turned the split system up to 30°C to combat the subzero outside temperature and promptly went to
sleep.
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| Many Beechworth businesses are going out of their way to welcome cyclists - smart marketing! |
Our second and final day of our
MicroAdventure began with a substantial breakfast at the So Simple Café and some excellent coffee. Having already loaded up
the bikes, we drove back down to Everton, parked the car and rode our bikes
towards Myrtleford. It was a relatively easy ride, with a bit of a climb up to Taylor’s
Gap before descending to Gapsted and on to Myrtleford.
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| Pygmy possum? Marsupial mouse? |
Refuelling in Myrtleford on yet more
excellent coffee and a warm, fresh-from-the-oven, raspberry muffin at Coffee Chakra, we got back on our bikes
and peddled all the way back to Everton, a 55km round trip. Along the way we
saw a couple of echidnas, something that may have been either a marsupial mouse
or pygmy possum, numerous kangaroos and wallabies, fresh wombat tracks leading
to a large, cavernous wombat hole and a great variety of birdlife.
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| Yellow-Tufted Honeyeater |
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| Female King Parrot? |
Arriving back at Everton, we loaded the
bikes onto Trish’s car, having completed a total of just over 100km of bike
riding for the two days. Heading home via Beechworth, we decided that no trip
to Beechworth would be complete without visiting the famous Beechworth Bakery and a hot chicken pie
each was the perfect conclusion to our day’s ride.
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| The bakery that put Beechworth on the map |
Driving back into Barham that night, a mere
36 hours since we began our MicroAdventure, I felt completely recharged and as
though I had been away and holidaying for more than a week. Perfect.
Annie Barr
