Welcome to our grand 2015 Rail Trail Challenge!
In 2015, we decided to cycle all of the Victorian rail trails that are over 20km long. The reason for not including the shorter ones in the challenge is that some of them are hundreds of kilometres from Melbourne and it didn’t seem worth going all that way for a short ride (some are only 1km!).
There are 14 trails in total that are over 20km. Many of them could be done over a weekend, or even a single day, but others required a bit longer.
The trails
Ordered from longest to shortest, the rail trails, along with their respective blogs and additional information, are:
- Great Victorian Rail Trail, Tallarook to Mansfield (with a detour to Alexandra) – 134km total
- Murray to the Mountains Rail Trail, Wangaratta to Bright (with a detour to Beechworth) – 116km total
- High Country Rail Trail, Wodonga to Old Tallangatta – 40km of actual trail and approximately 80km total
- East Gippsland Rail Trail, Bairnsdale to Newmeralla – 94km
- Great Southern Rail Trail, Leongatha to Welshpool – 75km
- Ballarat to Skipton Rail Trail, Ballarat to Skipton – 56km
- O’Keefe Rail Trail, Bendigo to Heathcote – 50km
- Gippsland Plains Rail Trail, Stratford to Traralgon – 42km
- Old Beechy Rail Trail, Colac to Beech Forest – 46km
- Lilydale to Warburton Rail Trail, Lilydale to Warburton – 40km
- Camperdown to Timboon Rail Trail, Camperdown to Timboon – 40km
- Port Fairy to Warrnambool Rail Trail, Port Fairy to Warrnambool – 37km
- Bellarine Rail Trail, South Geelong to Queenscliff – 32.5km
- Bass Coast Rail Trail, Wonthaggi to Kilcunda/Anderson – 23km
Find out more about rail trails in Victoria.