After some pretty ordinary weather this last week or so, blue skies greeted me when I finally crawled out of bed this morning.
Bugger it, I thought, I'm going for a ride this afternoon!
Hmmm, where to go? Even as I headed off I had no idea where I was going.
In the finish I decided to head towards Drouin...
Half way there I'd decided on my route so decided I'd better stop to make a phone call to Sue, just to let her know in what direction I was headed...just in case of any problems.
Bad move...As I pulled my glove off the lining also pulled out with my hand....WTF!
15 to 20 minutes later I finally conceded that I was never gonna get the lining back in place...
So, with only one wearable glove I chucked a U-ee and returned home...dammit!!!
Luckily I had a replacement pair of gloves so my ride was back on, although, time was getting away so I decided a shortened route to Noojee was the way to go as I didn't want to be caught out in the dark.
First stop was at the old Crossover Railway Cutting for a couple of photos...
Heading out the other side of Neerim Junction there's a road I'd often wondered where it went, Neerim North Rd...
Bugger it, I'll head down that way...
Total waste of probably 10 minutes...it ended up being a dead end which was surprising as it was a well maintained sealed road.
The reason why was obvious though at the end...a damn quarry!
Okay, back on the main road, next stop would be the old Trestle Bridge at Noojee...
My next stop was just up the road at the Noojee Pub...
Not a soul in sight so a couple of photos later it was on to the old Railway Station a few hundred metres up the road.
From there I headed towards Mount Baw Baw...my plan was to turn off on Willow Grove Rd just before Icy Creek.
By now the shadows were getting longer and it was starting to get cooler...
Willow Grove Road was a mess, I'm assuming there must have been strong winds overnight with the amount of debris that was on the road.
Quite a few trees were down too but luckily they had already been chain-sawed and dragged to the side.
Along with all the debris, the road was quite wet so I took it easy until I cleared the forest.
Once out into more open country I made a brief stop for a photo...
Next stop was Blue Rock Lake...
Some may of heard of this lake some 20 odd years back on the news..it was where the police recovered the body of little Jaidyn Leskie.
https://unresolved.me/jaidyn-leskie
By now I was ready for a hot chocolate so I headed for the town of Moe and the local Hungry Jacks.
On arrival I donned a mask and ventured in store.
$2.00 later I was sipping a warming drink, feeling quite self conscious having my mask pulled down enough to drink.
No point hanging around so off I headed again, this time to Trafalgar. From there I headed off the highway towards Thorpdale then on to Mirboo Nth.
By the time I got to Mirboo Nth darkness was closing in...and so was the cold so on went my heated grips.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and I arrived back home just before 6.30pm...
Todays Route...
