"I need to go on a ride" - Me to Roger a couple of weeks ago.
Good timing being everything, Mrs Macca & Small Noisy Child went to Brisbane this week without me, so I figured heading off Friday night and coming back Saturday night sounded like a good plan.
The only bad part of the good plan was the lack of a plan. I decided I'd head west(ish) and do a loop around the goldfields area, as I haven't really spent much time in the area - I've only ever really transited through the area.
We decided to leave on the Friday night and get to Mt Franklin hopefully just before dark. Well, Roger got stuck at work, and I got stuck in the traffic, so we both ended up getting there after dark. There were a helluva lotta people camping at Mt Franklin, and the DSE signs were insistent I only have a fire in one of their steel fire rings, so I did a lap to look for friendly's, and ended up with a bunch of gray nomads.
(On a side note, they were all friends with Scott Britnell's Mum! (clicky))
Packing up at Mt Franklin:
Went out to Newstead for breakfast (when we found the town
), and took off through the Muckleford reserve towards Maldon:
I wanted to go up Mount Tarrengower to the lookout, but in my excited-ness, I was a bit premature and turned off a road before I should have. The signs at the end of the bitumen that said "No Through Road" should have been a hint. We persevered, and ended up bouncing up a goat track. I watched Roger and his GSA disappear off the side of the track, but no way was I going to stop to help. On the next flat(ish) bit, we had a closer look at the map and went back down the hill to go out to the correct turnoff.
Good thing we went that way - we came across a "Road Closed" sign. Turns out that the Mount Tarrengower Hill Climb is on this weekend.
Took some pics, and had a chat to a few people:
Continued on to Dunolly. I've never been in the town before, even though we run a 4x4 event on the outskirts of town. Had a wander around (and more coffee).
Also came across one of these:
We'd learnt the night before from one of the Gray Nomads that a bloke called George Bills (Clicky) donated a heap of these watering troughs to towns across Australia on the condition that the local council/shire installed them so that horses could get a drink while in town.
Anyhoo, continuing on, we went down to the very busy town of Avoca (the Avoca Cup was on today). Stopped for a bit beside the river. Awefully big trees:
Roger looked up and said "Hey, a rainbow around the sun":
Kept on motoring towards Beaufort, but I had to stop at Chute on the way and get a pic of something else I learnt:
Stopped for a pub lunch at Beaufort - maybe the steak wasn't such a shit hot idea. I was ready for a nap.
The idea from here was to head a bit further south, and then head over east towards Buninyong to catch up with a mate. Well, obviously the powers that be had different ideas, because we got turned around just before Snake Gully due to a bushfire.. Backed up the track a bit, then down a side road heading towards Skipton:
From Skipton we took the highway towards Geelong:
Cut through Rokewood and Mt Mercer:
..and turned up at the mates place at Buninyong. Murphy strikes again - no one's home.. Mate is down at Melbourne, and Mrs Mate is at the Avoca races. Oh well. Time to start heading home again.
Normally I'd shoot out through Gordon, and back onto the Western Hwy, and slab it home, but Roger showed me a "back" way that comes out at Rockbank (ish) which is much more interesting than the highway.
~500km from Ballan (first fillup) back around to home again.
"So, Finke ya reckon Roger?"
Good timing being everything, Mrs Macca & Small Noisy Child went to Brisbane this week without me, so I figured heading off Friday night and coming back Saturday night sounded like a good plan.
The only bad part of the good plan was the lack of a plan. I decided I'd head west(ish) and do a loop around the goldfields area, as I haven't really spent much time in the area - I've only ever really transited through the area.
We decided to leave on the Friday night and get to Mt Franklin hopefully just before dark. Well, Roger got stuck at work, and I got stuck in the traffic, so we both ended up getting there after dark. There were a helluva lotta people camping at Mt Franklin, and the DSE signs were insistent I only have a fire in one of their steel fire rings, so I did a lap to look for friendly's, and ended up with a bunch of gray nomads.
(On a side note, they were all friends with Scott Britnell's Mum! (clicky))Packing up at Mt Franklin:
Went out to Newstead for breakfast (when we found the town
), and took off through the Muckleford reserve towards Maldon:
I wanted to go up Mount Tarrengower to the lookout, but in my excited-ness, I was a bit premature and turned off a road before I should have.
The signs at the end of the bitumen that said "No Through Road" should have been a hint. We persevered, and ended up bouncing up a goat track. I watched Roger and his GSA disappear off the side of the track, but no way was I going to stop to help. On the next flat(ish) bit, we had a closer look at the map and went back down the hill to go out to the correct turnoff.Good thing we went that way - we came across a "Road Closed" sign. Turns out that the Mount Tarrengower Hill Climb is on this weekend.
Took some pics, and had a chat to a few people:
Continued on to Dunolly. I've never been in the town before, even though we run a 4x4 event on the outskirts of town. Had a wander around (and more coffee).
Also came across one of these:
We'd learnt the night before from one of the Gray Nomads that a bloke called George Bills (Clicky) donated a heap of these watering troughs to towns across Australia on the condition that the local council/shire installed them so that horses could get a drink while in town.
Anyhoo, continuing on, we went down to the very busy town of Avoca (the Avoca Cup was on today). Stopped for a bit beside the river. Awefully big trees:
Roger looked up and said "Hey, a rainbow around the sun":
Kept on motoring towards Beaufort, but I had to stop at Chute on the way and get a pic of something else I learnt:
Stopped for a pub lunch at Beaufort - maybe the steak wasn't such a shit hot idea. I was ready for a nap.
The idea from here was to head a bit further south, and then head over east towards Buninyong to catch up with a mate. Well, obviously the powers that be had different ideas, because we got turned around just before Snake Gully due to a bushfire..
Backed up the track a bit, then down a side road heading towards Skipton:
From Skipton we took the highway towards Geelong:
Cut through Rokewood and Mt Mercer:
..and turned up at the mates place at Buninyong. Murphy strikes again - no one's home..
Mate is down at Melbourne, and Mrs Mate is at the Avoca races. Oh well. Time to start heading home again.Normally I'd shoot out through Gordon, and back onto the Western Hwy, and slab it home, but Roger showed me a "back" way that comes out at Rockbank (ish) which is much more interesting than the highway.
~500km from Ballan (first fillup) back around to home again.
"So, Finke ya reckon Roger?"
