Coming into Bacchus Marsh from the east, you ride through an arch of tall elms: the Avenue of Honour, planted after the First World War with a tree for each local man who enlisted. It is a moving entrance to a town that sits in a deep, fertile bowl where the Werribee and Lerderderg rivers meet, ringed by dry hills. The flats along the rivers have been orchards and market gardens since the nineteenth century, and roadside stalls still sell apples, pears and vegetables straight from the farms.
The landscape around the town is more dramatic than most of Melbourne's surroundings. To the west, the Werribee Gorge has been cut deep through ancient sedimentary rock, and to the north the Lerderderg Gorge winds into a rugged state park of eucalyptus forest. Kangaroos, wallabies and wedge-tailed eagles are common, and the gorges glow orange in the evening light.
For riders, the most interesting road is the climb west over the Pentland Hills towards Ballarat, where the Western Freeway rises steeply out of the bowl, offering wide views back over the town and the plains. The older roads through Myrniong and the hills to the north are slower and more fun, with tighter corners and quieter traffic. Summer brings heat and bushfire risk, and on days of total fire ban the hills can feel tense. Wind is a constant companion on the open ridges.
Bacchus Marsh has plenty of fuel stations, supermarkets, bakeries and cafés, so it is an easy and pleasant place to stop. A coffee on the main street, a bag of local apples and a short walk under the elms make a satisfying break before heading west into the Grampians, a long ride away across the volcanic plains of western Victoria.