Bike Packing Lilydale, Eildon, Tallarook – a chilling adventure

 Thanks to Tim Carroll for penning this story about his recent bike packing adventure with two mates.

Tuillio, Rob and I just completed our first bikepacking adventure. We’d hoped to ride in autumn, but as always, work and life got in the way. Rather than postpone again until summer, we chose to head off in mid-winter—right after a week of heavy rain and freezing conditions. (We gave that zero thought.) It was now or never.

Tim, Rob & Tuillio

Day One

We caught the train to Lilydale, followed the easy gravel route to Warburton, then road into The Reefton Pub for an early lunch around 11:30 AM—burgers and chips. We all said, “Don’t eat the chips, they’ll make the Reefton climb harder.”

We ate the chips.

We regretted the chips.

At the top of the climb we spotted a dusting of snow, got excited, snapped a few photos, and continued on. We turned off onto Cambarville Road—a dirt track that leads to the back of Eildon, about 60 km long. The snow thickened quickly, covering the road and surroundings. Lake Mountain had just received record snowfall.

We followed a 4WD track carved through the snow for about 5 km until it froze over, leaving our tyres with zero traction. For the next 3–4 km we pushed our bikes through that narrow track, trudging through 6 cm of snow. Tough going.

But nothing prepared us for what came next.

The 4WD tracks vanished and the road was buried in fresh snow. We now had no trail, dragging bikes loaded with 10 kg of gear. A 5% gradient felt like 20%. We debated turning back to Reefton or Marysville, then decided to push on “just a couple more ks.”

That couple of kilometres turned into 18 km of walking through snow.

It was dark. We were starving. And now extremely grateful for those chips.

We still had Cliff Bars and gels but were craving solid food. It was now 7:30 PM—we’d been riding since 7:30 AM. We reached a T-intersection, consulted Garmin maps, and found another 4WD track we could ride. We weren’t prepared for night riding and had just one working headlight between the three of us. One phone was dead, another nearly flat. We had battery packs, but at that point all we wanted was to keep moving.

A 4WD appeared out of nowhere. Sadly, going the wrong way—no chance of a lift. He initially thought we were on motorbikes. We asked how far to the Eildon Pub. He replied, “Just down the road.”

It was 25 km. That’s not “just down the road.”

We battled along the snowy 4WD track for another 10 km, with Rob repeatedly falling into the snow, still with one headlight. We hit the final 15 km descent into Eildon—and that’s when the freezing really kicked in.

Arrival at the Pub

We walked in at 9:45 PM. Fifteen patrons stared at us. Someone called me a few names.

I didn’t care. I ordered three red wines, tipped the barmaid $10, and suddenly everyone liked us.

Can’t blame them. We looked ridiculous—full Lycra, covered in mud, freezing cold. The kitchen was closed, so dinner was a Cliff Bar.

A few locals offered us the open fire. It took me 50 minutes to stop shaking, I must have been moments from hypothermia. And yes, I was wearing short knicks.

We left the pub around 11 PM, rode 5 km to our bed & breakfast, and washed and dried our kits so they could be reused. This wrapped up at about 3 AM. We wisely shortened Day Two.

Day Two

We road from Eildon to Alexandra, then joined the rail trail from Alexandra to Yea, approx. 70 km.

The original plan? Gravel from Eildon to Yea—about 140 km. Laughable in hindsight.

Day Three

Rail trail from Yea to Tallarook, then back roads to Seymour. V/Line train back to Melbourne, sharing a bottle of red on the country train.

Should we have turned back to Reefton or Marysville?

Absolutely.

Do we regret it?

Not for a second.

It’s good to step outside your comfort zone every once in a while.