May 20, 2013

Outward leg, straight down the highway to Pakenham then struck out through Cockatoo, Yellingbo, Woori Yallock, Healesville, St Fillans, Buxton, Taggerty, Acheron, Alexandra, Yarck, Merton, Woodfield, Bonnie Doon, Mansfield, Tolmie, Whitfield, Moyhu, Docker, Oxley, Milawa, Myrtleford, Eurobin, Porepunkah to Bright.



A couple of good looking bikes which were a lot cleaner here than when they got home

We had fine but cold weather as we headed out then struck rain which made for some slippery corners through some hilly sections before lunch at Healesville and for a bit afterwards but it fined up and the ride through the King Valley was just beautiful with lovely sweeping corners and splashes of autumn crimson and gold to accompany us on the trip and the closer we got to Bright the better the colours became. It was like the countryside was dressed up in its finest for the occasion. Beautiful!



A splash of olour - our caravan park, not as spectacular as in Bright but we were a fir bit out of town

One regret, group ride so no opportunity to stop for photos ..…. Norm forgot his camera and my phone was buried where gloved fingers could not retrieve it. I have made use of some pics taken by other riders. Thanks guys! We will definitely do an autumn ride again by ourselves and stop for many pics to capture the colour of the autumn changes as well as the clarity of the views of hills.

Return leg, Germantown, Freeburgh, Harrietville, Hotham Heights, Dinner Plain, Omeo, Swifts Creek, Doctors Flat, Ensay, Tambo Crossing, Bruthen, Sarsfield, Lucknow, Bairnsdale, Stratford, Maffra, Tinamba, Heyfield, Cowwarr, Toongabbie, Glengarry and home.



Again in the caravan park and needless to say the pool didn't attract any swimmers

After consultation with the local Bright Police who assured us the road over Mt Hotham was clear we headed off for a shorter and in theory more comfortable ride. Nice theory…and some of it was true. The ride was spectacular with autumn colours on steroids between Bright and Harrietville and then increasing fog as we climbed the mountain which somehow softened the surrounding devastation of summer fires on the bush.

We encountered (and survived) some seriously muddy slushy roadwork’s (thankfully there were traffic lights so we could use whichever part of the road we needed to) and ultimately snow, slush and ice on the road we had to ride through as we approached Mt Hotham and saw heaps more snow (thankfully on the side of the road) which looked impressive though somewhat daunting.



Pulling over to check how everyone was travelling after riding through the ice and snow. You will notice there is still much fog about as well as ice on the road.

From here we headed for Dinner Plain and arrived in the sunshine and no snow and had a welcome coffee before heading for lunch at Bruthen then home. One of our members who had a temperature gauge on his bike told us the temperature had dropped to minus 1 degree centigrade over the top of the mountain and I’m happy to say we felt comfortable in our gear.



The snow across the road from where we parked up near the top of Mt Hotham.....and it increased in depth and coverage from here on up and down a considerable distance on the other side. Awesome!

The day remained dry from here until about 10 minutes from Traralgon. I swear Murphy never rests!

Today – every bit of me that could feel tender and complain that it has worked hard on the weekend is doing so!

For road conditions on this ride you can scroll back through other entries over the same territory.