Mirboo North to Bundoora via Aberfeldy! Are you mad?

a86

Getting the hang of it
Yesterday I decided to sneak around the back of Baw Baw, which doubled the distance and halved the speed, so it ended up as a more epic journey than I expected.

I am so familiar with this beautifully curvaceous section of the Thorpdale road that I have not previously bothered to document it.
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The Moe-Erica road is also a beauty.
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I had lunch in the Erica pub, where there is a chainsaw sculpture of........ a chainsaw! I call this "redneck recursion".
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The road passes across the wall of the Mighty Thomson Reservoir. None of that water has needed to be desalinated!
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After the dam the bitumen narrows, and ends here at the Walhalla road. I was sure that I had travelled this road from Walhalla years ago, and had intended to use it, but had not looked carefully enough on the google maps to find it.
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The other end of the Mighty Thomson Reservoir.
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The dirt road ends up very narrow by the time it reaches Aberfeldy. The town (hamlet?) appears to have declined to a handful of houses a few years ago, but now they are outnumbered by new houses. I saw no horse, so it appears to not even be a one horse town.
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They certainly get some views!
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I was hoping that the inhabitants came in and out via Matlock, so the road would improve. I was deeply disappointed as most of the way to Matlock alternated between nast pointy rocky bits and giant potholes. I met a bloke coming the other way on a KLE Klacka with knobbies and no luggage. He too was not having a fun time of it. I would have done much better with more aggressive tyres, a bashplate and a bad attitude! The GPS wanted to go up the track to the right. I did not allow it to!
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Another example of mountain settlements that disappear without trace.
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At least by now it is good dirt!
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Forest near Marysville, still not regenerating.
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Track and photo locations:

http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/1482883
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Yesterday I decided to sneak around the back of Baw Baw, which doubled the distance and halved the speed, so it ended up as a more epic journey than I expected.

I am so familiar with this beautifully curvaceous section of the Thorpdale road that I have not previously bothered to document it.
P1000180.jpg


:clap::clap:

FINALLY!!
I ALWAYS wanted to take a shot of that piece of road and either forgot as the "red curtain" came down or forgot the camera that day.

(this shot here shows about half of the length of that stretch....it's a ripper)

Thanks!!



I'm sure you've gone this way before?

B= THE Twisties!
Turn off in Thorpedale and follow the red earth tracks (on top of the asphalt) left by tractors + trucks towards Childers
D-E = 9k's of dirt, easy on something like the Stroms
Dropping down the hill from point E towards Yarragon (sealed) is pure magic !!
Fantastic views :glu across the Latrobe Valley towards BawBaw and the Vic Alps... look east towards Pakenham... the myriad of dams in amongst the farms...it sure is pretty.

 

Williamson

Part of the furniture
I've often thought about getting a pic or two of those twisties, but I've been going too fast and enjoying myself too much to stop and "smell the roses", or whatever.

Mirboo North to Bundoora via Aberfeldy ............ Bundoora? Am I missing something here. The only Bundoora I know is here:
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I ride or drive through here every day or so, and (IMHO) it's nothing to get excited about.
 

a86

Getting the hang of it
Williamson:

I have a house in Beautiful Northern Mirboovia, but I am mostly at the house of my partner in Bundoora, both for reasons of romance and a requirement to attend a salt mine operated by my brutal employer. Therefore I am regularly doing Mirboo North to Bundoora. (and, equally, the opposite)

Glitch:

The last time I tried the Leongatha-Yarragon road it was detoured around those last steep twisties due to a landslip or washaway, hopefully fixed by now. To demonstrate the difficulty of maintaining these roads here is a washaway on the Boolara-Foster road that I encountered a few weeks ago (came up the Turtons Creek road, which was barricaded with "road closed " but it was fine, similarly barricaded was the Boolara-Foster road):


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Fixing the thing is subject to the following:

How do you fix a 50 metre deep near vertical washaway?

Modern roadbuilding standards probably make a repair incredibly expensive.

Modern environmental standards probably say that you cannot get any (more) mud in the creek.

Where do you find someone willing to get a 30 tonne excavator anywhere near that thing?

For how many decades can the council and vicroads argue over who has the problem?

I expect that an increasing number of these roads in the Strzeleckies will just be abandoned, so ride them ASAP.

Also, the 4x4 nutcases had formed a track around that thing, incorporating a giant boghole that was easily skirted on the bike, so take "road closed" barriers up there with a high degree of skepticism!
 
S

Storm Shadow

Guest
thats a bit of a hole, all these nice twisty roads, your too busy carving up rather than photographing.. always intent do, never actually happens
 

nev

Super Térrarist
How do you fix a 50 metre deep near vertical washaway?

Modern roadbuilding standards probably make a repair incredibly expensive.

Modern environmental standards probably say that you cannot get any (more) mud in the creek.

Easy, just do it the Indian way!! No heavy equipment required. Rebuilt it by hand, using rocks no bigger than one or two men can carry.

roadbuild.jpg
 
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