I was up early for my morning MTB ride but the hills were very dark with the sun behind them and I did not get going till just before 7AM. The plan was for me to go for another ride and be back and showered before we had to check out at 10AM. The guys we met yesterday told me about a good training ride to the top of Big Hill where you could see Falls Creek and everything else around with 360 degree views.

I headed up the Surveyors Track we road yesterday and onto Bill Hill fire road. They told me if I rode all the way to the Telecom towers at the top I would get 1000M of elevation into my legs, how could I resist that. The start was OK varying between 5-8% grade but as I got further up if became more loose rocks and a bit slippery and in places, quite a bit steeper and badly corrugated corners. I came to a junction and not knowing what way to go I picked the wrong one of course! My logic was that the towers would be behind a locked gate. Unfortunately for me they were behind the ‘other’ locked gate I had not gotten to and after a 5KM detour I was back on track grinding up hill again. The road I chose looked like it went around the back of the hill and up but it didn’t. The total climb was a 100M or so higher than the Ben Lomond Ascent I did earlier this year.

Mt Beauty and Towonga

Falls Creek

The view at the top was pretty good looking down into the valley of Mt Beauty and onwards to Towanga Gap and out the other side up to Falls Creek. I took a few pictures and then headed off on a rather scary decent in places for about 30 minutes, good thing I had new brake pads in. The right hand corners seemed to be built up with loose rocks and I had a few moments on the way down. The time was also getting away as that 5km detour had eaten into my allowable time.

Apparently Sharon was ringing me but I didn’t hear or feel it vibrating in my back pocket and rolled into the caravan park with 20 minutes to load the bikes, shower and shut the camper. Sharon had already packed as much as she could. No sweat I said as I hurridly did everything to Sharons scowling brow….

We packed, fueled the truck and headed off to Bright by 10:20 to have a look at the finish of the Bright 24HR MTB race. Those solo guys must have had a hard time with 30 degrees both days, I was wilting in the sun just watching them finish. The solo winner did 26 odd laps of the 16.5KM course with the next placed at 18 (results here).

Bright 24HR event

Bright 24HR transition area

We moved on from Bright to Myrtleford for lunch as Sharon had a special shop she wanted to visit. Red Ramai was like nothing I had ever been in before. The restaurant had these fans and mist makers blowing refreshing mist throughout the eating area, very cool on a 30 degree day. We had this wicked pulled pork on flat bread for lunch, yum yum. The back of this place was room after room of furniture, crockery, Indian, Japanese and so much other stuff it is hard to describe really. Some really nice stuff but priced at the upper end of the market.

Red Ramia

Just pick a spot anywhere he said

After much discussion we decided to move on to Beechworth that has a MTB park of course and some other trails to keep us occupied till we need another plan. We went to the first caravan park on the lake but it did not have a very good feel about it so we headed out of town slightly to the Beechworth Caravan Park . Much better feel and the guy was very friendly and helpful. We are the only people in the unpowered area. Some interesting walks leave from out the front of our camper to all the old gold mining tunnels and diggins nearby. The park site was part of the old gold mining settlement.