Rode to Bethlehem 

Words & Photos: Wolter Kuiper

The tree was in position, the decorations were up, and the fairy lights were twinkling on the front fence, so what was I supposed to do for the remaining weeks until Christmas? Back across the ditch I would have had an excuse to ride the Tauranga Cycle Trail to Bethlehem or the Whanganui River Rd to Jerusalem but in Oz there’s not a lot doing in the way of biblical place names. There’s Nazareth Aged Care and a Bethlehem hospital or two, but I’m trying to stay out of those for as long as possible.

I settled on mapping a ride south through the Victorian bush to Mt Jerusalem and beyond. In the absence of a Nazareth, I settled on the town of Seymour, thanks to the fact it had a train station and would give me somewhere around the geographically correct distance of 130 km to the outskirts of Melbourne.

My 'donkey' for this trip was a Cube all-road e-bike, which was an appropriate shade of grey and almost certainly more reliable than the original quadruped. Catering for some commuters, the first train of the day has us in Seymour by 7:20am for an uninspiring coffee and a lap of the Goulburn River Trail, which fails to deposit us on the highway as hoped.

After a bit of backtracking, we are soon heading south via a short section of the Great Victorian Rail Trail and climbing the first of the planned ascents, on the aptly named Landscape Rd, towards Lone Tree Hill. Monarch butterflies are everywhere, one even collides with my teeth. At the Murchison Hill Lookout another, obviously lost, studies my map board.

I have several punctures before realising there is a crack in the rear Schwalbe and that I haven’t brought a tyre patch. Luckily, I’ve saved a muesli bar wrapper but, by this stage, I’ve used up my gas bottles. Although not as high as Landscape, Murchison Spur Rd offers stunning views of the Valley of 1000 Hills. There are newish houses dotted along the gravel road and a memorial to the 2009 bushfires, which might explain the fresh real estate. Here the sky sweats listlessly, while far north Queensland is drowning.

No. 1 Camp has toilets and tent sites if you’ve brought dinner ingredients, but I brave the corrugations of Forest Rd and a shared path to Flowerdale, where there is room at the inn, because I booked it. Next morning the high clouds have got real, and I don my Storm Trooper and Helter Skelters before even leaving my room to fit the recharged battery.

Heading further north briefly I’m looking for Long Gully Rd, winding its way up King Parrot Ck. Really it should be called Steep Gully Rd and is much rougher than I remember from my motorcycle trail riding days. Now there’s lots of exposed, wet rocks and no clear line. I clamber up to the ridge and realise there’s an even steeper climb to Mt Robertson, at 614 m, that I wouldn’t even get up in 'Walk' mode with the panniers removed.

I’m stuck with a long transport along the road in the pissing rain, cheered somewhat by the numerous school bus shelters covered in Christmas decorations. Watsons Rd takes me towards Kinglake and Mt Jerusalem with considerably less climbing than planned. Forestry’s been laying stormwater pipes and clearing spoon drains on this logging road and the exposed, wet clay is soon jamming the tension pulley and sending the chain clawing up the swingarm. I resort to spraying the pulleys with water but that doesn’t help for long. The chain is covered in a grey slurry of chainlube, water and clay.

After a hot lunch and drip-dry session in Kinglake I head south again to pick up Mt Jerusalem Tk, hoping to get below the fog that shrouds the town. At 450 m this Jerusalem is just over half the original (754 m) and guarded by a lyrebird sentry that screeches loudly to its mates as I approach. I salute the unmarked peak slightly west of the trail before heading down towards town.

Not surprisingly, there's no sign of a Bethlehem but there are a few stables around Steels Creek. I’m just happy that my van is parked not far away so I can put on some dry clothes.