Apparently daylight saving started last night but as we have no clocks except on our phones we did not notice much difference today. The sun still came up and we still saw it go down. The times may have been different but to us at the moment time does not mean to much really.

Another slow start today, who needs to be in a rush when you are on holidays. A lot of people were packing up and or leaving Barwon Heads Caravan Park today as Victorian schools go back tomorrow after their school holidays. We eventually packed the camper and headed up the highway (and freeway) towards Lara and the You Yangs. About 3/4 hour later I was getting the bikes off the rack and a quick straighten of the handle bars and some bike kit on and we were off.

Sharon was quite concerned I would be disappointed with the You Yangs after Forrest but because it is so different you can’t compare the two. We had a ball in the morning just doing all the green standard tracks around the bottom end of the park. They were all very flowing hard packed tracks with plenty of sharp corners and loose gravel in places to keep you alert and lots of close in trees. After bashing around for 1.5 hours we headed back to the camper for some cold drinks out of the Waeco and some wraps and cake to top up the burnt calories.

Sharon ‘rocking it’

After lunch we rode some of the same tracks to get to the link track between the two ends of the park. The kurrajong tracks we road this morning and the link track took us over to Stockyards. You can drive over there but the link track is an awesome bit of fun especialy on the way back. This track had a black diamond standard section that was full of granite rock gardens and some quite tricky up and downhill rocky sections. Sharon bypassed some of this and it was a good choice as I had to push on one really technical rocky section after stalling.

Going up – very steep and tricky

Going down – a bit easier but still STEEP

Over the other side we found some downhill mountain bike group being ferried up and down going down the super gnarly downhill runs. Full face helmets and all the kit before you can tackle this – oh and being able to turn off your fear control! The downhill track they were using is called Bandages and Glory, classic name for a downhill course! We road a couple of the blue standard trails over at the Stockyards and suddenly time was getting very late as we had to ride back over to the other side of the park again to the car.

Nice BBQ area at Stockyards end

Great signage everywhere

This last part of the day was the highlight for me running down the link trail over all those rock gardens and the endless berms to end up back at a section we road about 4 times. They had made some jumps and berms end to end that you could take at speed and in the middle of it all you had to squeeze between two trees at speed. Sharon and I could not get enough of this section. All good things must come to an end and we got back to the car and packed up not long before the park closed. There was a distinct lack of people around late on a Sunday afternoon as we packed up.

We were surprised with so many cars and bikes around we did not see more people on the trails. We passed a few riders here and there and a few family groups but 60km of trails really spreads them out. A lot of the harder tracks at the Stockyards I did not get time to try so plenty left for next time. Like Forrest there is something here for everyone from super gnarly downhill double black diamond standard to family friendly green standard.