June 24, 2022

Pana Organic Pedla Team Camp 2022

On the traditional lands of the Djadjawurung people.

The beautiful Goldfields region (around Harcourt and Castlemaine) was the destination for our 2022 Pana Organic Pedla team camp. Camp is an opportunity to press pause and bring everyone together to connect, strengthen the sense of teamand immerse ourselves in what we love. The region delivered way more than expected with stunning winter weather and a beautiful backdrop for our adventures.

Home base was a cosy yet sprawling house where we could relax by the open fire, share a meal around the kitchen table and consume copious amounts of coffee.

A big thankyou to the key players that made this camp possible. The Pedla, Melbourne City Jeep for the support vehicle and our super soigneur and driver, Carson George.

As always, we remain enormously grateful to our generous sponsors who we’re proud to represent every time we venture out on the bike.

For the riding we mixed it up this year with a day of tarmac followed by a day off road. Day one saw us complete an 87km route taking in all the varied landscapes of the region as well as the quaint and picturesque towns of Chewton, Harcourt and Castlemaine. With the tail end of the Autumn leaf colours on display each town served up new shades of yellow, orange and brown. A perfect backdrop to our similarly coloured Pana Organic Golden Comb inspired kit.
The ride took us through open farming country, past beautiful and historic buildings, under the canopy of Fryers Ridge State Forest and to the door of a delicious bakery lunch in Castlemaine. We closed out the day with the ascent and descent of Mt Alexander before returning to the accommodation and enjoying the open fire.

Day 2 was a shorter 62km route taking us off the busier sealed roads to explore thenetwork of gravel in the region. Without the distraction of traffic, we could spend kilometre after kilometre chatting and taking in the landscape around us.

After vast stretches of open farmland and smooth hard packed gravel, we headed off road and in to the Muckleford Nature Reserve and Maldon Historic Reserve. Although there were some sketchy descents and a few stretches of hike a bike we were rewarded with the isolation and stillness of the bush as well as some moreadventurous gravel riding. The day (& camp) concluded with lunch at the Harcourt general store. Well worth a stop for the coffee and delicious inhouse baked Danish pastries.