A Drive on the Wild Side

20 Roads for 20 Years - Drive No. 7

The weather forecast for ANZAC Day was for a fine sunny day. With winter getting nearer, this meant it may be the last opportunity for a run in the MX-5 with the roof down. So where to go? Another run from the Mazda MX-5 Club book beckoned. This time we chose Warburton to Healesville via Reefton Spur and Black Spur.

Despite the encouraging forecast, we set off in slightly foggy conditions. We made our way out through Warrandyte and Wonga Park to Coldstream where we picked up Kilara Road through to the Warburton Highway at Seville East. I discovered this road earlier in April when I was a Checkpoint Coordinator for the Oxfam Trailwalker. As we approached Warburton the fog was clearing and the sun was breaking through so it was looking like the forecast was going to be right after all.

The original plan had been to have some morning tea in Warburton and have a look around the shops (if they were open). We hadn't planned for the ANZAC Ceremony to be still under way which, we presume, was the reason why we were detoured around the back streets of town. So instead, we went for another run up Donna Buang. On the Club run last month, we didn't manage a spirited run up the mountain and this time we did no better - really a bit too much to expect otherwise really on an Easter / ANZAC Day weekend. Anyway, the drive to the top was worthwhile. The air was still clear and the views were fantastic with the Yarra Valley still filled with the low cloud we had driven out under.

Looking down the Yarra Valley towards the Dandenongs

Making our way back down off Donna Buang, we stopped off for a temperate rain forest walk at Cement Creek before arriving in Warburton to start the run from the book. We headed on further east towards Upper Yarra Dam to Reefton where we turned off and started climbing the Spur. It was a twisty, winding climb up into the mountains just suited to roaring along in an MX-5 with the roof down. We had left everyone else behind so we had the road to ourselves making it a very pleasant drive. The only downside is that the "fun police" had recently come along and put an 80 km/h speed limit over the whole length of the road. OK, so you can't do 80 along a lot of the road but why can't we be left to work it out for ourselves...

 Today it is left to Marysville

The climb up the Spur ends when you join the Marysville to Woods Point road. It has been a long time since I have been to Woods Point but that will have to wait for another day. For now it was a left turn and off towards Marysville for a late lunch - made even later by a detour to Lake Mountain on the way. Marysville is slowly recovering from the fires but it still has a long way to go. Quite a few new buildings and lots of still vacant land. At least it was busy with lots of visitors so the local businesses will have a chance of surviving.

After lunch it was off to the Maroondah Highway for the climb over the Black Spur. Being the end of a holiday weekend, then traffic was quite heavy so it was a nose-to-tail procession up and over the top. At least we did it in a little style by being in an impromptu mini-convoy of two MX-5's. Getting through Healesville can be bad at times and today we were stop-start for at least 2 km before we got to the first traffic lights (and the ice-cream shop). From Healesville we were able to leave the worst of the traffic behind by heading home through Yarra Glen and Kangaroo Ground. 

Another great day out and another great drive from the MX-5 book. Only another 16 or so to go...

Another Day in Paradise

20 Roads for 20 Years - Drive No. 16

To celebrate its 20th Anniversary, the Mazda MX-5 Club of Victoria published 20 Roads for 20 Years, a book that describes twenty of the best MX-5 drives in Victoria and Tasmania. With two of the drives describing how to do "quick laps" around Winton and Phillip Island race tracks and another two in Tasmania, I think it is fair to say that in time we should complete 16 of the drives and perhaps 18 with a little planning.

With a forecast of a fine day and nothing particularly urgent to do for clients, it was a good opportunity to try one of the drives from the book. We selected number 16, a run around the the heartland of the Mornington Peninsula. The staring point in the book is Frankston so we started with a drive (top down of course) through Reseach and Warrandyte to Ringwood where we joined Eastlink through to the other end. From Frankston we headed out along the Nepean Highway, up Olivers Hill and into Mornington for some "retail therapy" for the navigator - another pair of shoes - and morning tea.

We set off from Mornington along the coast on the Esplanade to Mount Martha and Safety Beach. As you arrive at Safety Beach, you have the unique experience of driving under Port Phillip Bay (to be more precise, under the canal entrance to the Matha Cove Marina project). Presumably, the road was put under the canal so there would be no height limits on boats using the marina.

At the south end of Safety Beach, most people would turn right and head for Dromana. Our route was different and took us left as we headed for the hills and the heartland of the Peninsula. We didn't get all that far however before we came to our first departure from our intended route for the day. Dunns Creek Road, described as a "wind in the hair experience", was closed and we had to detour through Red Hill. We got ourselves back on track, or so we thought, as we soon found ourselves on a dirt road. This is most uncharacteristic for anything the MX-5 club does. In my defense, the drives in the book are not "run notes" and sometimes it is difficult to work out the intended route between two landmarks.

After driving in a couple of rather large circles along some rather pleasant MX-5 roads, we managed to work where the book had intended us to go and decided that, in the end, we had covered most of the route as it was intended to be be. We then left Red Hill and Main Ridge behind and drove down to Flinders for lunch. We stopped at the Flinders Bakehouse Cafe for a pie with salad and chips. The salad was nice but my pie was dried out because it has been kept in the warmer for too long. Yes, it was late when we stopped for lunch but that is no excuse for serving up poor quality food. Definitely be eating somewhere else the next time we are in Flinders.

Following lunch we did the grand tour of Flinders (it doesn't take long) before heading back out along the Boneo Road. At Cape Schanck we made an unplanned detour to the cape and the lighthouse.

 Looking over Bushrangers Bay back towards Flinders

 Cape Schanck Lighthouse

As it was getting on in the afternoon, we only walked part of the way out to the cape itself before jumping back in the car and picking up the drive again. As we approached Rosebud, we turned onto Browns Road and headed back towards Main Ridge where we picked up Purves Road to the top of Arthurs Seat. The run down to Dromana is tight and twisty and a bit of fun but, to be honest, not all that good as an MX-5 road because it is too tight and slow - maybe it would be better in the uphill direction.

Dromana marked the end of the published drive so we made our way onto the Moorooduc Highway, past Frankston and onto Eastlink, this time going all the way and through the tunnel, and then home. It was a really pleasant day out along some roads you wouldn't normally take so we are looking forward to trying some more drives from the book.

An "American" Lunch

It had been a while since we had all got together for lunch and the School Holidays are an ideal time as we can arrange things for a weekday. With Ann and Darrell coming from Beaufort, Fay from Geelong and Anita and I from Eltham, we usually choose somewhere in the Central West region. Today, our destination was the American Hotel in Creswick.

Normally we would start with a run around the Ring Road to the Western Highway but today, for something different, we drove through Melbourne. There was actually a reason for doing this - I had to drop a data projector off at the Assetic office in Victoria Street. With that little task completed, it was off past the Vic Market and the <insert current sponsor's name here> Stadium, over the Westgate Bridge and on to the Ring Road heading in the other direction towards the Western Highway. Traffic was chaotic with trucks everywhere - it really makes you appreciate living in Eltham.

The weather was overcast with the occasional patch of drizzle so the roof stayed up on the MX-5 for the cruise along the Western Highway to Wallace. Here we dropped off the highway and went cross-country to Creswick and the American Hotel. The hotel was pretty much what you would expect for a country pub on a weekday - not very busy with a reasonable range of meals on offer at reasonable prices. While the food was quite good and the kitchen service efficient, front-of-house was a different story. You couldn't describe it as Service with a Smile. It wasn't that terrible that you would say "never eat there again" but poor enough to say "try somewhere else next time". Mind you, that could be a bit difficult in Creswick as the Yanks are doing better that the Poms - the British Hotel was closed and boarded up.

After our unhurried lunch we took a stroll around town. It didn't take all that long as Creswick is now more a dormitory suburb of Ballarat than it is a historic village. It was now getting on in the afternoon so it was time to start heading home. With the Ring Road likely to be a "car park" by the time we got there, we left on the road to Daylesford on a cross-country route home. Although it was still overcast, the risk of rain seemed to have eased so we set off with the roof down. That lasted until Trentham East where, with threatening clouds and having survived one patch of rain, we decided to stop pushing our luck. It was just a well we did as we drove to some heavy rain five minutes later.

Our cross-country route took us onwards through Woodend and Romsey to Wallan where we joined the Northern Highway. Instead of continuing on to join the Hume Highway, this time we kept going east to Epping Road. A continuation of High Street that comes out through Preston, we headed down Epping Road as far as Wollert. Here we turned onto Bridge Inn Road and drove across through Mernda to Doreen and then turned down through Plenty and home. Less stressful that the Ring Road but still quite busy with all of the urban development that has happened around Mernda and Doreen (and is still going on...)

Oxfam Trailwalker 2011

Teams of four, one hundred kilometres, under forty-eight hours...

No, I didn't walk it ... but I was one of over a thousand volunteers needed to make the event a success. This was my seventh year volunteering for this event and over that time I have seen it grow from around 250 teams to the 750 teams that it is now.

Friday I was Assistant Checkpoint Coordinator for Checkpoint 4 at Olinda for the opening shift. This checkpoint is 45 km from the start and the first team, travelling under the strange name of "Phil lost his insulin pen", came through in about 4 hours and 45 minutes. This was a very quick time and although it looked like a new record was possible, the team eventually finished in 11 hours and 42 minutes. The surprise was Yelttum Maet who started with the second group of teams 90 minutes later. Their elapsed time to Checkpoint 4 was only 4 hours and 15 minutes and they finished first in a new record time of 10 hours and 23 minutes. 

My shift at the checkpoint was rather uneventful. Almost all the volunteers at the were corporate volunteers from the law firm Middletons. They were a good crew who were committed to making the day work (I have seen corporate volunteers in the past that didn't really care). Mel, who was coordinating the Middletons crew, was also the Checkpoint Coordinator. She wasn't really comfortable in the role because she had only been Parking Coordinator before. In the end I really ran the Checkpoint while Mel ran the parking so everything worked out well in the end.

Saturday I was Checkpoint Coordinator for Checkpoint 6 at Worri Yallock for the closing shift. As the weather had been good, the teams had been making good progress so I didn't expect there would be too many teams to deal with. So after a very pleasant drive along a nice MX-5 road (Kilara Road) through Gruyere, I arrived to find that all teams had arrived at Checkpoint 6. On checking we found that we only had three teams at the checkpoint (two were still there even though they had been checked out). They were all on their way by 4:30, more that 5 hours before the checkpoint was due to close, so it was time to start packing up. We were all done by about 7 and after we got the Sweep Team on their way by 8, it was time to go home.

So that is it, Trailwalker is over for another year for me. I really enjoy helping making a great event happen and I will be back again next year ... volunteering of course.