Uh oh!
Starts looking for somewhere to hide...
Things couldn’t have started much better...perfect weather, a small band of 4 and a whole 3 days ahead of us.
True to what was written here, it was off to lots of zigging and zagging between the higher hills on the left and the dreaded Princess Hwy on the right, not touching either one but finding ways in between to keep us pointing eastward.
Bunyip State Park, Labertouche, the small and windy stuff in the general direction of Tyers...
I’d always wondered if the road to Moondarra Dam would actually go through...
...and it does. The tar on the western side not only
offers outstanding views across the Latrobe Valley, but ends in a fantastic BBQ area above the dam wall, which is well looked after, clean and sprouts some majestic tall gums.
And not a single soul in sight...
The other side’s a goat-track... but eventually finishes up on the Walhalla-Tyers Rd. I wouldn't trust myself to find the track from that side.
All signage has disappeared from the western end of Cowwarr-Walhalla Rd. and the slip-in is a little hard to find. It’s easy enough to get lost in the plantations up there, tracks everywhere.
And POTHOLES!!
Potholes the size to hide a VeeDub Beetle in....and thousands of ‘em.
Have a lucky streak and dodge a dozen of them in a row...think you’re winning?
CRASH goes the frontend, the eyes shut, you knew it HAD to happen, hands in a vice-grip around the bars and there’s 200+kg of Strom slamming up the clacker at a rapid rate of knots as the rear hits the edge of the “crater” like a cannonball, boots threatening to come off the pegs, knees still trying to steer and re-balance and cope with a bike out of control.
Fun galore at 30kmh...
The mental eye expects the fork-caps to pop and forkoil to shoot out of the stanchions, the whole frontend turning into a soda-fountain.
Above the Heyfield Plains
More backroads, alternating between tar and marbley gravel, get us around the bottom end of Lake Glenmaggie, still avoiding all main roads and every township along the way. Steve has to turn back after the break in Briagolong, thankfully the shop’s open, so fuel isn’t a problem.
Following Peter’s (Doonap’s) recent footsteps, it’s for the backways to the Dargo Road, then skimming east above the Mitchell River Flats, finishing up on a main road (GAR/ B500) for the first time today, but thankfully already on the eastern side of Bairnsdale.... bypassing the whole Xmas-Crazies crap of the main drag enroute to Bruthen.
The Bullant Brewery being the final destination.
Then this...
Turning into this...
winding up to that...
Doors slam shut, shutters come down, kids and animals are dragged off the street...
the rampaging hordes of Austourers put their stamp on Bruthen...
...until the moon watches the final act.
By the way...who the hell took those pics and who’s camera did I come home with?
Disclaimer: No animals were hurt taking those shots.
tbc