ALEXANDRA TO WARBURTON = 81km
CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 3199
WARBURTON CARAVAN PARK = $26 unpowered
It was yet another long day today – the
bodies felt a little weary this morning after a reasonable nights sleep. The legs felt good but the neck and shoulders
were a little stiff from yesterday on the unsealed rail trail. Due to the uneveness of the trail you tend to
really feel it in the neck and shoulders the next day from all the movement of
the bike and trying to keep it under control.
This morning was cool and I am still suffering from Hayfever, according
to Neil, most of last night I was snoring as my nose was blocked! This morning I was no better. We left just on 8am and headed south on the
Maroondah highway. The section from
Alexandra to Taggerty is 18km has no shoulder except for when you go over the
hill at Acheron (@10km) this is a munter of a hill but you are rewarded with a
great view of the valley going towards Lake Eildon
From here it is down hill, along, up a
bit, down a bit, up a bit and then down to Taggerty (which has a Big 4 just as
you get into town – doesn’t take dogs though and it sure looked empty as we
rode pass!After Taggerty there is a shoulder until
Buxton (11km further on) and from there to the turnoff to Warburton there is no
shoulder (approx. 14km). So despite the
lack of shoulder for the bulk of the ride along this highway it was okay – a
bit hairy in places and you definitely wouldn’t want to be riding this road on
the weekends – especially on a Sunday afternoon with people returning to
Melbourne. As you get closer to
Narbethong town itself you can see where the fires have been through on Black
Saturday but now there is a lot more green undergrowth than what there was when
we last past through here 2 years ago.
This is a very scenic highway and would best be suited if there was no
cars or trucks on this road!!! LOL
Relieved to get of this road we turned
left on the Marysville turnoff and then
a quick right to take the road to Warburton.
Last time we rode this road we had previously stayed at Narbethong
caravan park and so we had relatively
fresh legs, but we had previously decided to skip Narbethong and go straight to
the top and we were going to bush camp at the top but decided that there was
forecasted showers late this afternoon and night and since the last 6km of the
up and first 8km of the down hill is gravel we decided that it would be to hard
if the road was wet so we decided to continue down to Warburton adding a
further 16km to our journey.
This quiet road that goes to Warburton
over the Acheron Way follows the Acheron River all the way. It is a logging route but not much trucks use
this and if they do they only probably use the first quarter of this road as
there is a bit of damage to the road and then there is none. It is 21km to the top from the turnoff with
the last 6km (approx) being gravel. The
grade is perfect for the bike. At the
bottom of the hill there was a bit of fire damage from Black Saturday but it is
very green and lush now
Probably the first 2km of this climb is
the steepest and then you just gently climb.
We did stop for a break and a bite to eat as judging by the speeds we
were going we weren’t going to get there for afternoon tea. Now 21km is a long climb despite the gradient.
I suppose you are wondering why we are
sitting on the road – this is a single lane road all the way up and very little
traffic on this road if any (all up we had 2 over take us and 2 pass by on
their way down – so that is 4 cars in total).
I could have sat there all afternoon but
we still had 11km more to climb. Not
long after this break we had to do an emergency stop for our ‘legless’ friend …
We came around the corner and I didn’t
see it ahead until Neil said ‘stop’ so I just stopped and then I saw it and was
about to ask if it is alive and then it moved.
I sort of wasn’t expecting to see one today as it is cool, if anything I
was looking out for them all day yesterday and we saw none!
By now we are starting to get weary and our
speed is down to around 11km per hour and then we hit the gravel with about 6km
to go to the top and our speeds dropped dramatically as it was a lot more
gravelly than what I remembered so it was slow going. It was difficult to ride along as there were
some patches that had heaps of stones and you really had to push through
them. We had to stop a few times for a
dring (difficult to ride and drink at the same time when going so slow!)
After a few kms of the gravel the
wrists, neck, shoulders and back are starting to ache from trying to keep the
heavy bikes under control while going along and through the gravel – the only
reason why I put up with this is because this has got to be the most scenic and
best hill I have come across in cycling Australia!
At last we reach the top – absolutely
exhausted!
As much as we thought the 21km winding climb
up was tough the down hill to Warburton from here is incredibly tough on the
body! You have 8km of gravel (more
gravelly than when you come up) so you are bouncing along and down this is then
met with the road that comes down Mt Donna Buang and from here it is 7.5km of
sheer steepness – I am sure I don’t have anymore brake pads left. The decent form Mt Donna Buang is sealed but
very winding and in the end at the bottom of the hill when you go to release
the brakes completely it is like the wrists and fingers have seized up
completely it was very painful to release the brakes!
Happy to be here at Warburton where the
price for unpowered has gone up to $26 (plus $1 each for a hot shower) we think
it is because it is Dec and the peak rates are now current. We were entertained by a few of the caravan
park locals who gave us a bit of a welcoming party …
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