At The Crack Of Dawn...Balloons Rising In The Yarra Valley

omi

Getting the hang of it
Wunderbar !!!!!phantastic,beautiful,next time i,m with you.
Nature has soooo much to give--we just have to take it. omi

:cdle
 

ozav8r

Tour Pro
Stunning shots mate - you are clearly a genuine sunrise / sunset freak! :photo::photo:Augers well for some upcoming African Savannah buffalo-herd dust colouring the western horizon orange, through the dew glimmering at the rim of a lime squeezed at the top of our G&T's! :soOhh yeah, that's gonna be a good one!!:endu ( he said while crawling back into bed to climb atop that morphine-cloud;-)) Gotta enjoy it while it lasts (and remains government sponsored):sick::bs:so
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
awesome pics!!!
spewing i missed this, i was keen to come along but wasn't paying enough attention here.
damn...

We'll be back next year!!


Stunning shots mate - Augers well for some upcoming African Savannah ...

(sucking in air...) Can't WAIT for that one!! Been dreaming of African Skies ever since I was a little tacker and those slide-shows of Ant+Uncle living in ZA, showing off their new homeland to the rellies during their Euro-visits.
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
There's the occasional "whooooffff+hisss" far across the valley when the burners fire up to keep the silent procession slowly parading across...
doesn't seem to faze the birds though, the early-morning trilling-choir is at full strength.



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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
It's just impossible to stop....both cameras are smoking away, grabbing the shots as fast as the processors can dump 'em onto the memory cards.

A few more before packing up and trying to chase the gaggle of coloured blobs towards their landing sites...

One across to the other side....


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Back straight into the sun...


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The Straggler...


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....and we're off our high perch, trying to guess where the soft winds are going to blow those orbs....while mentally overlaying the grid of roads and tracks of the valley floor to get as close as possible.


Got close about halfway down the Old Healesville Rd.



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A left-behind by the early morning fog



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Juuuust in time, near the Yarra Valley Dairy .....first one down!



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More tear-arsing through the backblocks....caught them again near St. Hubertus vineyard.


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And since we're nearly on Healesville's doorstep, lets check out one of the newest Yarra Valley attractions...and no DinkyToy at that!!
Welcome to PissPot HQ!!
Sadly still closed around 8am, bumma! :bs
Check 'em out!!


:wot::wot:




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Big Bertha, the main copper head



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Paul n Dixie

Part of the furniture
I.ll NEVER get any work done at this rate...
Those pictures are :glu
I can just imagine the crew :endu after the balloons, the chase an adventure in itself :D

Great post and report :clap:

WOW!
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
A quick hop across the deserted Black Spur, a short circle around Camp Marysville and the Horizons Unlimited crowd (looked well attended with a guesstimated 100-120?? maybe?? and lots of tents out the front.
A few waves...then back through Marysville and Steavenson's Falls.

After the late discoveries of Tommys Bend Track and Paradise Plains it was time to check out the last of the approaches to the Mt. Strickland ridge....sweet!!


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Even comes with its own waterfall...trickle, really. Pfeiffer Falls!



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At some point, Yellow Dog Rd. turns into a bare-earth track (which also seems to cut through to Tommys Bend, but I'll leave that for a Husky-run...and even that might turn out too big for it.:eek:)
Just disregard the turn-off and follow the formed gravel road to the ridge.

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A quick dogleg and some carefree bends-carving towards the Lake Mountain resort. Has anyone ever bothered to tell those guys to go and shove their "resort-entry-fees" where the sun don't shine?
Elbow-deep, too!!
55bux for car-parking, JEEZAZ!!
(winter only.... otherwise this yarn would end right here :doh:)


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Since there's still some hot coffee in the thermos, it's time for the 3. breakfast at the totally deserted top carpark at Snowy Hill...


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...together with some more stumping views across the mountains and valleys to the south-west.



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Straight over the crown of the helmet....
C'mon....go close and strain a bit!!
Yep, that's Melbourne's CBD skyscrapers through about 90km of morning fog.
:eek::eek:



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What a cracker of a morning it's been, WOOWW!! :glu:glu



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A slow tootle down the empty Reefton, 3 bikes coming the other way... and a string of 3-series BMWs cutting corners near the bottom...remembering the turn-off to the stand of Californian Redwoods in East Warby too late...a lazy loop up Mt. Donna Buang and down the partially greasy dirt to Pantons Gap.....just to discover that the local strawberry season has started a fortnight ago. Hell, we didn't even know.

The day was still young, after all!


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BACK NEXT YEAR!!!
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
I can just imagine the crew :endu after the balloons, the chase an adventure in itself :D


It's amazing how many dead-ends/locked gates/ private drives etc etc one bolts into when looking into the sky and trying to pin down the landing-zone
:doh::bs

Back to work!
 

robbieb

Tassie Daddy
Looks like your camera is suffering a little from what mine is, a few specks of dust on the CCD, and in the lens. Going to try and rectify that with a small screwdriver and some Youtube videos...

At some point, Yellow Dog Rd. turns into a bare-earth track (which also seems to cut through to Tommys Bend, but I'll leave that for a Husky-run...and even that might turn out too big for it.:eek:)

Any harder than Goldie Spur?

:bees:
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Looks like your camera is suffering a little from what mine is, a few specks of dust on the CCD, and in the lens. Going to try and rectify that with a small screwdriver and some Youtube videos...



Any harder than Goldie Spur?

:bees:

Yeah, looked at those blobs/ specks, too...

As for that top part of Yellow Dog...no idea.
Walked a few steps into that reddish-brown muck, sticks, rocks, all muddy-soft and wet underneath, chewed up by heavy machinery....didn't check it from the ridge, where it looked rather overgrown with young saplings...that area has been logged time and again... before the fires went through.
 
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