Days 12, 13, 14 and 15

Day 12

Leaving Halls Gap we headed to Sunbury via the most direct route we could find, as Marissa was fortunate enough to have acquired an appointment with a dentist at 4pm to fix the cracked tooth she got from eating one of the free Minties at the Halls Gap caravan park.

We stopped at Macca’s in Aratat for a coffee then followed the freeway to Melbourne. When we reached Ballarat we realized we had time to spare so did a detour through the Ballarat Avenuue of Honor and the CBD. There is a lot of history in Ballarat from the gold mining days of the early to mid 1800’s, and a lot of the old architecture has been preserved in the city centre. As a result, Ballarat is dotted with lots of lovely old buildings, and a lot of early 1800’s homes still remain today.

From Ballarat we followed the freeway east to the Gordon turnoff. We decided we had enough time to get a little side tracked on some of the back roads, and used the GPS to find a path back to Sunbury avoiding the freeway and major highways. The result was we were taken along a collection of lovely little country roads that were often nothing more than a single lane of bitumen. The scenery along these quaint little back roads and the wonderful historic villages they took us through was wonderful.

We rode along one particularly beautiful road that meandered its way through golden fields of canola, before dropping steeply into an escarpment that offered exceptional views of over the sleepy green valley below and right through to the township of  Bacchus March some 30 kilometres away.

It was lunchtime when we reached Bacchus Marsh and we stopped at the pub for a counter lunch before riding the last 30 or so k’s to Sunbury. It was still early afternoon by this time so it was a good opportunity to give the bike a long overdue tub while Marissa was at the dentist getting her tooth fixed.

Day 13

Today we were in for a treat. My good friend Dick Prisgrove was leading us today on a local ride along Sunbury through the Macedon Ranges and along a lot of backroads out to Daylesford, then eventually onto Maryborough where would have lunch at the recently restored old railway station and café. 

Dick had planned the day well, and led us through some of the most amazingly scenic country roads I have ever traveled in my life. It was one of those days where you couldn’t help but feel privileged to be witnessing nature at its absolute best. . Fields of multi facetted shades of green interspersed with brilliant blues, yellows and reds from the wildflowers growing beside the road, it was a kind of visual sensory overload that was simply, breathtaking, and no amount of photographs can do justice to the majesty of what we were fortunate to be seeing.

Its also days like these that you realize the true value of local knowledge, as I doubt we would have discovered many of these roads on our own.  

We eventually reached Dalyseford which is a wonderful little town that we could spend a week exploring if we had time. Daylesford is known as the spa capital of Victoria and is rich in natural spring water. There is a historic bath house where you can relax in the thermal spring water, and taps in the parks that you can pump the various different spring waters straight out of the ground. Don’t let the fact that some of the springs taste like battery acid put you off. It’s well recorded that these waters are supposed to be good for your health.

After leaving Daylesford we headed to Maryborough and had lunch (Pumpkin soup) at the railway station. The station had been set up in the 1800’s, but was then disused for many years, before being restored recently as a café and antiques shop. One train a day still comes to the station so it’s still used today for its original purpose.

After lunch we began heading back towards Sunbury via a different set of back roads that took us through Malden and towards the town of Castlemaine. We stopped at Malden to check out the lookout, and climbed the tower there to take in the 360 degree views over the surrounding countryside.

We eventually got back into Sunbury around 6pm and enjoyed another good night with Dick and Ella.

The weather forecast was looking a bit crook for the weekend, so we decided it would be a good idea to leave Sunbury the next morning and begin making our way up into the Victorian high country ahead of the change coming through, and wait out any bad weather up there if necessary.

Day 14

We left Sunbury around 9:30 on Friday and with our wet gear on we could feel the heat in the day. The temp was forecast to reach 28 today and stay fine but windy, and windy it was. The road from Sunbury north to Lancefield was a shocker, as we were being blown all over the place by the windy conditions. We refueled at Lancefield then headed east through to Yea, where we stopped for lunch at the local bakery that was packed with tourists, before heading onto Bonnie Doon, then finally Mansfield where we had booked a room at the Commercial Hotel for 2 nights.

It was only around 2 pm when we got to Mansfield, so after checking in at the hotel, we dropped the trailer and went for a ride up to Mt Buller. We were surprised to see that there were still some larger patches of snow dotting the mountain, and we took the opportunity to have a bit more of a play in the snow before making our way back down the mountain. It’s a great ride up and down the mountain for the obvious reason below.

 

As it turned out it was a good night to be in Mansfields as tonight was their annual “festival of lights”, which is a celebration of the local CFA fire fighting groups in the surrounding area.

After diner we wandered outside and joined the surprising crowd to watch the parade of lights including bag pipe band, 30 or more fire trucks, ambulances and SES vehicles all with their emergency flashing lights ablaze. The parade was then followed up by a spectacular fireworks display at the local botanical gardens that was surprisingly impressive given we were at a small country community. It’s just a shame we didn’t take the camera with us.

We had decided to stay in Mansfield for 2 nights because I was hoping to do the ride up to Craig’s Hut near Mt Stirling on the second day. As it turned out, we got talking to the local police at the parade and asked about the road to Craig’s hut are were told the road  closed at the moment because it was badly damaged after the last heavy rains, and there is currently more than 100 trees across the road as well. Serious bummer!                         

Day 15

After a noisy and mostly sleepless night at the pub we decided to get out of Mansfield this morning while the rain was lighter than anticipated and head to Bright. The road from Mansfield to Whitfiled was very foggy and wet, so we took it really easy through here. Despite the weather it was a rather mild 18 degrees, and there were lots of other bikes out today, along with a lot of historic vehicles taking part in a rally held at Falls Creek.

We stopped at Myrtleford for lunch and got talking to one of the rally entrants who owned a car that was one of only two in existence in the world today. We took a few pics of our bike among the cars then headed into Bright and booked into our accommodation for the next two days.

By now the rain had set in so we walked into town and brought two fold up umbrellas, then had a walk through Bright which is a picturesque little place even when it’s raining.

The weather is looking crook for the next two days and we wanted to do a ride the next day over Mt Hotham to Omeo, then back to Bright via Anglers Rest, Falls Creek and Mt Beauty via the Bogong high plains road. So we have hired a car to do the drive and will have a day off the bike for a change.

Following are a few pic's from the last few days. Unfortunately the internet services we are getting are slow, and that makes it hard to keep updating the blog. So we will leave it here for now and update it again when we get back home next week.

We are in Wodonga for teh next two days and will head over to Thredbo for the Snowy ride later this week.

Regards

Barry and Marissa