Bike Riding Camp

On Monday 4th December, sixteen sleepy but excited Year 9 students gathered at Boronia Station to start their travel journey to Wangaratta.  After arriving at Wangaratta train station, we made our way down to Apex Park where we had a quick lunch break and applied our sunscreen before commencing our bike riding journey. 

We made our way from Wangaratta to Beechworth, along the Murray to the Mountain rail trail. This 40km bike ride along the trail, in the sun, with an extremely challenging 15km hill, was one of the most challenging days we experienced.  We arrived at camp at 8pm after a long day of travel. 

On Tuesday morning, after packing everything up, we explored the lovely town of Beechworth, where we indulged in the famous pies and vanilla slices, and made our way around the lolly shop! After an hour of exploring, we started our journey to Myrtleford, this was roughly 47km. Despite the heat, we trooped on and arrived at Arden’s Caravan Park, where we indulged in a well-earned Taco Tuesday. 

Wednesday rolled around and we had our shortest day of riding ahead of us, travelling from Myrtleford to Bright. After around 40km of riding in extreme heat we arrived at our lovely accommodation in Bright where we went for a swim in the river, then a swim in the pool, followed by fish and chips and a lovely compliment circle. 

After a lovely day Wednesday, the happy campers were excited to get back on the road. We made our way from Bright back to Myrtleford, where we got to complete the Mosaic Trail & explore small bits of the town. After all this we ended the night with a BBQ, a questionable game of Volleyball, and a fun round of trivia. 

Before we knew it, it was the last day of our Bike Camp, we had a long ride ahead of us and a long train ride home. After completing our final bike ride from Myrtleford to Wangaratta, which was a total 57km, we grabbed ourselves some lunch and hopped on the VLine back home. It was an incredible week watching new friendships form, students challenging themselves and students showing off their skills! 

Gemma van Grondelle

Bike Riding Camp