First things first: you're missing out.
Second things second: I'm not!
After a relatively relaxed getup on New Year's Day I decided to spend my day off on what I had been pining for: riding. I had ridden some of these roads on the way to Phillip Island (Hamish crashed here on one of the best of them), and driven in a few days earlier, but such experience only served to whet the appetite. With the morning gone I decided on a shortish loop which hopefully would include enough good riding to keep me going until I could organise a proper day's roadwork.
Headed towards Mt Beauty, at the base of the climb to Falls Creek, I encountered the Tawonga Gap for the first time in fine weather - ah, what fond memories! While relatively short this is one of the area's most beautiful roads (if you can avoid the occasional bumps or gravel and surprise bends) and an excellent warmup. A quick stop at the top provides views of the Mt Beauty at the top of the Kiewa Valley, and of course the mountains beyond that which are my real intent.
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| Lookout: Jill warmed up... I'm not the only one looking forward to the day's ride. From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
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| Mt Bogong to the left is Vic's highest peak - no road access, but I do plan on walking it - Falls Creek is up the mountains to the right, and in the middle Mt Beauty; not actually a mountain... From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
At the base of the run down - steeper and nearly as fun - I happened upon a sign too good to refuse: "Car and Motorbike Racing, turn left". A look at the mountain, a look at the clock, and hell, I'm on holiday: racing it is!
I managed to find the covert entrance to the track a few kms down the road - a track which could not have been put in a better place. The Kiewa (/Tawonga?) Valley offers views across the riverplane from the road, towards the range on the other side, largely untouched by pine plantations (unlike the Ovens Valley where Bright is).
If you haven't yet, and you get an opportunity, I highly recommend stopping at a local dirt track event. The racing isn't as tightly packed (or fast, our loud, or...) as at a roadrace event, but its relaxed charms make up for that. The number of hilariously random stacks is high.
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| The Hairpin: wet and slippery, tight and boggy - predictably made for great viewing whether or not the competitors made it round unscathed. From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
Not as high though as the family involvement, which lends a great atmosphere. There can't have been more than 30-40 competitors for the whole day, but there were hundreds camped on the hill, including families on and off track. Right in the middle of this photo is the smallest racer I've ever seen, a girl well under double-digits in years, who actually fit ergonomically onto a pocket bike:
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| Looking out over the Mt Beauty Car Club track in the Kiewa Valley. They're so small you might not see them, but yes there are kids in this shot! From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
Watching the smallest ones get swamped by a pack of bigger kids on bikes big enough for me to ride, one leg out, without flinching - I think I was more scared than they were. It's a great thing to see. A few shots to send back to you, though, and I was soon on my way. Daylight only lasts so long and I had riding of my own to attend to.
The road up to Falls Creek looks scrumptious on the map, but I don't know that I expected this! Leaving Mt Beauty the anticipation built with every obligatory "obey weather condition signs" - with nothing but sunshine in the sky they had all been switched to a simple 'slow down', which I read as implying they expected us to go fast. A km of warmup esses gave way to the serious mountain work as the road snaked up to the alps. Bend after bend after bend gave way to more corners, hairpins, esses, and everything but straight road. The road between Mt Beauty and Falls Ck stretches for 37km, and not one of those includes a straight any more than a hundred metres long. Pleasure - technical, twisting, picturesque pleasure.
A warning to the potential traveller that the mountain does have its tricks! The blind, tightening hairpins are not oddities, they are the norm. Whilst the traffic has been quite light, even in the peak summer period, the mountain is very popular with cyclists. There are also a few bumps, not large enough to be a serious threat, but invisible enough to be a sharp surprise. The road is, in short, technical and challenging: if you haven't got your head screwed on you could see yourself doing a Hamish, but if you do it will be a ride you won't forget.
The final challenge is of course keeping your mind on the road as you climb through the variations in alpine environment. The forests of dead trees (2003/6 bushfires I presume) have a mystic quality which ensures you can't forget where you are. If you find yourself distracted you're much better stopping for a photo than dodging cyclists with only one eye on the road.
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| From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
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| From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
Falls Ck is a cute little village tucked into the mountainside: unlike Hotham it sits just at the top of the treeline, rather than at the peak. Continuing up to the plateau the road turns to gravel, and all of a sudden flattens out on a beautiful, giant lake (Rocky Valley Reservoir). I pushed on here, but if you continue reading you'll find some photos of the plateau from the next time I visited in a later post.
The gravel at first seems quite tame (wide, flat, well-graded road), but the abundance of large-stone loose crap on the top makes the treck down to the bottom of the mountain on the other side remarkably tedious on two wheels, and means it is difficult to appreciate the scenery.
It is a relief to reach tar at the bottom, and I was greeted by a Mitta-Mitta river tributary quite similar to the Tambo between Omeo and the coast.
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| From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
The beauty of the countryside was matched only by the quality of the road: I had no idea how good this section was going to be! For 35km to Omeo the road twists and turns beside the river, only opening out into faster sweepers as it enters the plains near Omeo. Nearly 150km into the day I had ridden barely a handful of km in a straight line. I had climbed into heaven and descended down the other side only to find myself on roads no less spectacular. This really is a wonderful place to ride.
I finally hit some relatively open road - the climb to the peak of Hotham from the Omeo side is all sweepers rather than twisties, though with open alpine views my only complaint was with the remarkable drop in temperature. Whilst not as enchanting as the area was last time we were here - riding through the snow - the climb is still worth doing.
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| From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
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| Mt Hotham is quite high, much of the road is skirted by these spooky, stunted-looking dead forests. From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
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| It doesn't show up well in the photo, but there's something stunning about the big rock that makes the peak of Hotham. From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
Having made reasonable time I was able to take a few shots of the wonderful area across the top of Hotham, which offers great views of the bald mountain tops and snaking road, with dashes of summer flowers and shorter greenery.
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| From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
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| Mt Hotham from the North: looking back towards Hotham provides some great shots if you're prepared to stop. And yes, I have gotten around to removing all the Christmas garb. From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
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| flowers: A pathway I think may be beyond me... From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
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| Roadway to Heaven: if there is anywhere you would rather be you need counselling. (There's something fun about being able to ride straight off the road to the edge of a cliff!) From Falls Creek - Omeo - Hotham, 1/1/09 |
The run down the mountain from here was once again the source of the same twisted pleasure the region is famous for. So much so that I never took my eyes off the road (except to confirm that the SV pulls 200rpm beyond redline), so no photos for you.
You will just have to ride it yourself!
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@JohnSBaxter
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