The trail is light, sandy gravel and is a bit narrow in places. It is straight and flat as it traverses prime dairy country.

It starts at the northern end of Stanhope at Stanhope Park, where there are toilets, and ends at the station site in the centre of Girgarre

Stanhope is a small regional town with basic services while Girgarre is smaller, with limited facilities for visitors.

Stanhope to Girgarre (5km)

• Access: The trailhead is on Blamey St, off Brudenell St (C348), on the northern outskirts of Stanhope. There is some off-street parking.
• There’s an architect-designed facilities block in Station Park, that is hard to miss, with an area for caravan parking and one of those famous fibreglass cows, on Brudenell St. The shops are almost directly opposite on Birdwood Ave.
• A grain elevator remains out the back but this area of the railway corridor is in private hands
• Heading north you come to the first narrow bridge over an irrigation channel and you’ve then got a straight run
• Planting by the local Landcare group is starting to provide some shade
• Approaching Girgarre, there are a couple of diversions to a gravel road to get over irrigation channels where the rail bridges were removed.
• Anthills have also been carefully placed to slow you down
• At Winter Rd, turn left for a well-earned coffee at the Gargarro Botanic Garden, where some of that irrigation water is going
• Continue straight ahead into Progress Park, the site of the old station where you can play tubular bells as you walk around
• A cheese factory is humming away on the other side of the road.