To cater for the interests of its members outside of Melbourne, the Mazda MX-5 Club of Victoria has two regional groups: the Ballarat & Western District Chapter and the North-eastern Victoria Chapter. Today we joined the Ballarat & Western District Chapter on their run to Timboon and Port Campbell.
With the meeting time of 9.15 am outside Sebastopol Secondary College, an early start was required. So under overcast skies that were threatening drizzle, we left home at 7.15 and headed off with the top up to the Ring Road. The traffic was quite light at that time of the morning so we had no trouble picking our way through all the road works that now stretch from Sydney Road to the Western Highway interchange. If the Ring Road was quiet, the Western Highway was even quieter. We arrived on the outskirts of Ballarat with plenty of time and that let us top up with petrol (Ballarat prices hadn't jumped up when they did in Melbourne), some supplies from Baker's Delight and a warming hot chocolate from that place I love to hate, McDonalds.
Eventually all the starters drifted in making a nice little line-up of 8 MX-5's outside the school. It was a typically brisk Ballarat morning so when we set off, only one brave soul have put their top down (surprisingly, it wasn't us). We headed west along the Glenelg Highway to Scarsdale where we turned south. Onwards through Cape Clear, across the Woady Yaloak River at Pitfield and then onto the Lismore road to our first destination, the Wallinduc CFA shed to meet up with 2 more MX-5's. Although it was still very overcast, it had warmed up enough for most of us to put their tops down. Of course those with their removable hard-tops on their NB model MX-5's couldn't unless they were prepared to leave them behind because their hard-tops don't fold away like they do on the NC model that we have.
The line-up of MX-5's at Wallinduc CFA
(ours is in the back row beside the shed)
After some morning tea, the convoy of 10 took off heading south on the Berrybank road. We crossed over the Hamilton Highway and the Adelaide rail line at Berrybank and continued south to Foxhow where we then turned south-west towards Camperdown. After passing between Lake Gnarpurt on our right and Lake Corangamite on our left, we turned left onto the Leslie Manor Road and then right onto the Pomborneit-Foxhow Road to head down between the dry-stone paddock walls to the Princes Highway at Pomborneit. Here was our meeting point for the 4 cars that had come straight out from Geelong. We could have gone straight there instead of going to Ballarat but by starting at Ballarat we got to drive through areas where we haven't been before.
Now a convoy of 14, we headed west along the Princes Highway to Weerite where we turned off to take a drive around Lake Purrumbete. We returned to the highway and headed towards Camperdown. On the edge of town, we took the road to the Mt Leura Lookout. Perched on the top of an extinct volcano, the views are fantastic and are well worth the short detour. Fourteen MX-5's filling the car park looked pretty good too...
Fourteen MX-5's fill the Mt Leura Lookout car park
After a brief look around, we vacated the car park and wound our way down the hill. Cutting though the back streets of Camperdown, we made our way to the Cobden road and turned south and on to Lake Bullen Merri nearby for a toilet stop. We arrived to find a triathlon in its finishing stage and quite a few of us took the opportunity to buy a sausage or a hamburger from the Lions Club stall. We didn't get to see Camperdown so the town will have to wait for another day.
After that brief stop, it was back to the Cobden road to continue south. We skirted the edge of Cobden, leaving town by the Port Campbell road. At Scotts Creek we turned onto the Timboon road to head into there for lunch. We stopped at a park on the site of the closed railway branch line from Camperdown. It is one of the few now-closed lines that I could have travelled on but didn't because I didn't take the opportunity when I had it. No point worrying about that now but it does prove that you shouldn't let opportunities pass you by because there may not be "a next time".
Except for the mozzies, the company at lunch was very pleasant. As we were now running nearly an hour late, we didn't stay long in Timboon and headed off to Port Campbell for an ice-cream stop. My choice was Lime & Coconut - an interesting and very different flavour. We had time for a quick look around the town before heading east along the Great Ocean Road. We didn't stop for the remaining 8 or 9 Twelve Apostles, partly because we didn't have time but also you wouldn't really want to because of the crowds. Definitely a place for a mid-week visit.
The roads from Camperdown onwards had been really great MX-5 roads and now they were getting even better. We were fortunate with the traffic on the Great Ocean Road and most of us got a good run with no one holding us up. At Lavers Hill, the Great Ocean Road turns right but we kept going straight ahead to Beech Forest. After passing through Beech Forest, we plunged into the forest on an incredible piece of road. With a flora and fauna reserve on one side of us and state forest on the other, we twisted our way through the tall timbers and tree ferns. Described in the run notes as "all corners and no straight parts for approx. 12 km", this is a perfect piece of MX-5 road. The 20 km/h speed limit over the first half was a bit of a joke (probably there because of the timber trucks that we didn't see) but the 40km/h speed limit for the rest of it wasn't too far from the mark (well, maybe it was a bit slow for MX-5's). A truly spectacular piece of road and definitely worth the journey.
All good things come to an end and, in this case, the end was the Forrest - Apollo Bay road. Here we turned left and headed into Forrest for an afternoon tea stop. It was getting late so we said farewell and left in a convoy of 2 with one of the Geelong cars. We made our way through Barwon Downs and onto Cape Otway Road. We cut up to join the Princes Highway at Winchelsea where it became a straight forward run home. With Geelong now bypassed and the Ring Road to get us around Melbourne, visiting the south west of Victoria is easily done.
All up, the day was 11 hours and 635 km long. A big day out and great one. The Ballarat & Western District Chapter of the MX-5 Club are a great group of people and we looking forward to going with them again one day.
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