Another loop!

3 Jan 2011; Back on the road
We are back on the road! We left Greg and Chrissy's yesterday afternoon and went as far as a local caravan park. We have spent the past week or so with Trox' Uncle Simon and his wife Lee who are visiting Melbourne on their way to New Zealand. We did some fun stuff like visiting the Dandenongs and going to a pretty cool botanical garden which is also an outdoor art gallery - William Ricketts Garden. In addition Trox, Simon, and Lee made a few road rides. On one of them they came across a woman feeding the lorikeets and Lee was fascinated.

getting close to nature

rainbow lorikeets

resting along the way

Trox wanted to ride Lysterfield Park and so we scoped it out last night and today we spent the day there. Trox rode and I walked. There is a big lake with a nice sandy beach. It was crowded today - it is a national holiday - with families enjoying the nice weather. We will stay another night in the same caravan park and then decide what to do. We've found a few other places that are supposed to have great single track riding - one of which is in the high country and therefore should be cooler than the low lands so we may head that way. It is near Nug Nug where we spent the 23rd of December.

6 Jan 2011
We are now out of Melbourne. This time for probably 6 weekish. The 4th Simon and Greg met us at Lysterfield and the three of them rode some of the tracks Trox rode on the 3rd.

up that hill?

Simon

Greg

That evening we returned to Greg and Chrissy's for a small dinner party. Janet (JAM's nanny) was there as well as the neighbors Sula and Chris. The 5th was Chrissy's birthday and the five Manonians headed out for a family outing and the Units headed out of town. Our destination was Marysville. This little town was over run by THE fire in February of 2009 and they suffered many fatalities when the wind direction changed unexpectedly. From the looks of it the whole town with very few exceptions was lost. On a scale of fires my guess is the fire in Los Alamos would be closer to a bonfire than it would be to this one. The town has started the slow process of rebuilding and the forests here are amazing. The Eucalyptus are very well adapted to fire and so are the tree ferns. We are told within weeks of a fire that has rendered everything black many of the gums start to come back. Now two years later many of them look like burnt sticks with a heavy vine growing on them.

Campsite view

close up of "vine"

The "vine" is actually small branches of the tree as it regenerates itself. Many of the trees in this area are what are known as Mountain Ash (still a Eucalyptus) and unfortunately they are killed by the fire but will come back soon from seed which opened during the fire. The tree ferns are also green again. The dead ash is being logged in much of the burn area.

We spent the night above Marysville along the Taggerty River and today drove up the road following the river until it turned to 4-wheel. We got in four really nice walks and saw two large water falls and lots of cascades. One of the walks took us into The Beeches Rainforest where we saw evidence of the recent floods. Trox found a nice pool at the base of a small water fall for a swim - his second of the day! Further up that road we spotted a really cool yellow bird.

Phantom Falls

Phantom Falls

Crossing the Taggerty

swimming

Bunyip waiting at the end of the trail

Keppel Falls from Overlook

Keppel Falls from bridge across middle

Yellow bird - Golden Whistler

The recovering Eucalyptus - covered with the little branches from top to bottom remind me of Chia Pets. We found out at Steavenson Falls that if they don't successfully recreate their canopy they won't survive long term.

Chia Pet

Chia Forest

Steavenson Falls

The Units at Steavenson Falls

8 Jan 2011
Night before last we stayed in a pretty little park in Buxton. Trox found some nice single tracks to ride so got a nice ride in first thing yesterday morning. We headed back into Marysville where we picked up some maps and then headed for Lake Mountain Alpine Resort. It is a cross-country ski area that unfortunately was also in the path of the fire storm of February 2009. They have started the process of rebuilding and have built some single track bike trails. Trox got a couple of rides. The first one he came back with the bike covered with spider webs and a few spiders. He had broken through a bunch of webs in the tall grass along the trail. Fortunately the spiders are harmless but yucky.

We asked inside the cafe if we could spend the night and got permission. So, we spent last night on top of the mountain by ourselves. The wind woke us up about 3 so we got up to gather things in and to see the stars. The moon is new and had set about 8 so the sky was dark except for stars.

Setting moon

The milky way was amazing and stretched from horizon to horizon. This morning a gaggle of people arrived disturbing our private parking lot so we packed up and left. We moved down to the day use area at the bottom of the mountain and are currently having a nice breakfast.

Later
I guess we are back in good form, "where does this road go?". We turned up a paved road towards a historical area where we found a walk to some falls and a town site that used to be a sawmill town. From there we turned down (up?) a dirt road that leads to Eildon - a mere 60 kilometers away. That was maybe 4 hours ago and I think Eildon is now about 25 kilometers. We found a really nice bush campsite at the intersection of our road - Eildon-Warburton Road - and Snob Link Track. Trox is off on a ride and I'm luxuriating in relative cool.

Cora Lynn Falls

Cora Lynn Falls

9 January 2011
Trox saw some Lyre Birds!!!! He said one of them actually spread his lyre - and NO CAMERA! It had really cooled off by the time we went to bed and there was a light rain throughout the night. Not enough to turn the roads muddy but enough to knock down the dust. This morning just outside Bunyip we were visited by a beautiful Australian King Parrot - he was beautiful! He is bright scarlet and dark green and HUGE! He visited us for about 5 minutes and preened while we shot pictures.

Australian King Parrot

We headed further down the road and finally reached pavement. The forest where we stayed and all along most of this road is thick with lots of gums (Eucalyptus) and heavy undergrowth. It could trigger a case of claustrophobia. We have stopped for breakfast and will continue onto Jamieson

10 January 2011
Well typical of the Units - we never made it to Jamieson. Instead of turning right (towards Jamieson) at "that" rode we turned left. We ended up on top of another mountain at the Mt. Buller Mountain Resort. This is a downhill ski area and quite built up with many condos and what looks to be a thriving ski resort. Interestingly enough the condos and village are almost at the top and people ski down from the village then ride the lifts back up. We spent the night in one of the secondary parking lots with a wonderful view over the mountains. There are lots of trails here for primarily downhill bike riding but Trox is off riding up them!

On the ride here we came across a few signs that I just had to add to the blog.

this one reminded me of Texas

Gwen and Rick will appreciate this one!
So will the Sandbergs!

just short of the summit

getting ready to ride to the summit

At the top of the summit Trox found a sign at the top of a double diamond run. Would make me think twice about running it but I'm sure most people that ski it don't even bother reading it. He also had a wonderful view from the top.

double diamond run

view from summit

view from rear window

Bunyip tucked into corner of lot out of the wind

Hmmmm today is 1.11.11
We spent last night in the same parking lot - just a different spot. Yesterday Trox got two great rides. His first one was from our parking lot and was first thing in the morning. We then moved Bunyip to the village and he took off on another ride which was about 4 hours while I explored and walked the village. He came back pretty bused and just in time as it had started to rain. We returned to our parking lot and by then the rain was coming down in earnest. We watched the clouds building below us in between squals and as they built they swallowed us. It rained most of the night and was raining when we got up. We drove down the mountain to a city park in Mirimbah for breakfast and then on to Mansfield where we are now in the library.

For those who have asked we are NOT in the flood area that you are hearing about on the news. That area is north and east of us and yes, it is horrid. There are also major fires near Perth and that is way west and north of us - we aren't there either. We are seeing lots of raining and evidence of flooding but so far we have not been involved in any of the natural disasters.