2025-01-28 -36 144

Location

Wellsford State Forest, east of Bendigo.

Participants

Tom
Max

Expedition

Having recently moved to Bendigo, I've been easily distracted by all the small jobs associated with unpacking. As a result, despite thinking of it numerous times, I didn't check the geohashing app until after I'd gone for a decent length bike ride. "Oh shit!" I thought "there's an awesome hash, but now I've gone for I ride, I don't really have enough recreation time to do the hash as well". And with that, I pretty much gave up, though its proximity did irk the recesses of my mind for the rest of the day. Until...

After having a lovely early BBQ dinner in the warm Bendigo evening, I told my partner about the hash. She suggested I take my son, Max, to the hash after dinner, leaving her with a quiet house to study in. Well I didn't need to be told twice. We got on the electric bike and headed out. Although the hash was 10km away, there was no direct route. I decided to head out along the creek paths towards the botanical gardens, an off road route I'd taken dozens of times. The ride was uneventful, though I did enjoy watching the estimated battery life of the ebike, measured in distance, go up and up as the tail wind blew us along. Once we reached the gardens, we spent a moment to mourn the wonderful aviary that I spent hours in with Max as a toddler. It's been demolished since we left Bendigo, presumably because birds should be free, not caged. Oh the torturous ethics of zoos!

From there we had a small road bash on some busy Bendigo roads, but these turned out to have large bike lanes that made the experience pleasant enough, if not enjoyable. Then we hit Golf Course Road. The plan was to ride 5km east along it, and I had no idea if it would be a busy 80km/hr sealed thoroughfare with no shoulder or a barely passable 4wd path full of rocks and corrugations. Thankfully, it turned out to be neither, but instead was a well graded clay dirt road with no traffic! As we zoomed along through the box ironbark forest with the evening sun glowing behind our backs, Max commented "It's very beautiful here, isn't it Dad?". You know when a five year old can appreciate the beauty that it's top-notch stunning, and indeed it was.

By this point, I'd forgotten that a single track mountain bike track went within 3m of the hash, and instead followed some slightly larger tracks on Googlemaps' suggestion. To our surprise the track followed a small channel which was flowing quite fast by Bendigo standards. A relatively easy 70m bash through light scrub took us to the MTB track and the hash.

The way home was also eventful, as we found a charming waterfall in the channel we'd missed on the way in. The sun was less charming, shining in our eyes along Gold Course Road, but we did spot some kangaroos, and enjoyed the roar of a small plane just over our heads coming into land at Bendigo's small airport.