With it's vast expanses of rolling green hills, peaceful views and collection of small country towns there is little doubt that South Gippsland is one of the most picturesque regions in the whole of Australia. The only potential problem with a trip though Gippsland in late Autumn is that it can also be one of the wettest places in the country. A few days before our scheduled ride I picked up a news report that the region had just received up to 80 mm of rain in a single day.
This ride had already been orginally planned for Australia Day but, when the temperature soured to 40C, we made the decision to postpone it until a more pleasant time of the year. I spent some time studying the forecasts for the coming few days and in plotting the projected path of a large "HIGH" over South Australia. Based on that evidence (and on the fact that I didn't really have a PLAN B in place) I made the decision to go ahead and proceed with the ride.
It was a great relief to awake on Saturday morning to find a clear sky overhead, however I soon discovered that the outside temperature was close to zero. Hooters had arranged to give me a lift down to Meeniyan and arrived promptly at 7.45 am to attach the bikes to his car. We were soon underway and looking forward to the ride ahead. I hadn't been in his car long before our silence was interupted by a piercing series of alarms coming from his dashboard. When I asked him what the noise was, he replied that it was his "SPEED ALERT". "It goes off every time I accidentally go over 80 kph", he explained. I soon realised that the drive down to Meeniyan was going to be even longer than I had at first anticipated. A few minutes later the silence was again interupted - this time by the sound of one of Hooters' old barbershop quartet tapes playing on his stereo. I tried to sleep, but somehow sleep eluded me.
Fortunately we arrived at Meeniyan, with the weather still fine and with about 15 minutes to spare. We were soon met by Trish, Little John, Dr Phil, Bolter Doswell, Lex, 2 Bob and Big Al. Since we had a little time to spare we decided to head off and get some caffeine into our bloodstream before the ride. There was still no sign of Peter or Michael who both had indicated their intention to ride with us. In spite of some confusion over the difference between a "cup" and a "mug", the cappucinos were still very welcome.
When Peter and Michael still had not arrived by 10.20 am, we decided to head off without them. Although there had obviously been a lot of recent rain, it was great to see that the condition of the trail was excellent. The fine grained surface material really does provide for a good fast ride and does not hold the water. We were soon off to a good start, although I was glad that I was wearing two jerseys and my wind jacket. At least there was no wind or rain, and the sun even occasionally peeped out from betwen the clouds.
The first section to Fish Creek consists of a series of gentle undulations, but the wide track allows for two or three riders to easily ride side by side and is therefore very suitable for social riding. The peloton stayed together and was content to keep a moderate pace and just enjoy the surroundings. By the time we reached Fish Creek (about 20 km from Meeniyan) the skies had cleared somewhat and gave us a chance to peel off some of the extra layers of clothing.
We tried to ring Peter on his mobile but discovered that mobile phone coverage at Fish Creek is somewhat weaker than it was in the middle of Tiger Leaping Gorge in the Chinese Himalaya. Some of our more astute riders started to study the trail to see if there was evidence of recent tyre tracks, possibly indicating that Peter and Michael were actually in front of us. One even suggested that a broken twig on a nearby tree might have been a clever signal to show us that they had already been this way. For some reason this sent my thoughts back to those old episodes of Dad's Army - the sad thing is that I am really starting to relate to Captain Manwaring.
After a pleasant rest in the sunshine it was tim eto get back on the bikes again for the next challenge. When we first tackled this ride (Australia Day 2005) the president of the Rail Trail Committee warned us about the "strenuous climb over the Hoddle Range". In fact, this is not much of a challenge at all (at least not for elite athletes like the Ghost Riders). There is a steady but very gentle gradient for about 6 km or so before you reach a opening which offers panoramic views down to Corner Inlet and Wilson's Promontory. It was here that we stpped for a few pictures before resuming the downhill section all the way to Foster.
AS we rode into the main street it was little disappointing thatthey didn't have a brass band playing for us (like they did in 2005), but at least they had provided a fine day instead. It was time to pull up at the local pub and head into the bistro for lunch. The food was excellent, but I suspected that the prices were substantially higher than they were 18 months ago. It was only as we were placing our orders that we were finally met by Peter and Michael. They had decided to ride the entire length of the trail and start at Leongatha, instead of Meeniyan. A commendable effort, but it would have been better if they had remembered to tell someone of their intentions beforehand.
On another note, it was good to see that Michael was proudly wearing his brand new Ghost Rider jersey. 2 Bob could only look on in envy. He had been waiting for his for the past 6 months and was hoping that this would have been his first ride in the coveted yellow lycra. Alas it was not meant to be.
Stacey was also waiting at Foster to have lunch with Mal, before they both headed off for an afternoon together. Thus we had gained two riders and also lost one - resulting in a return peloton of ten. With full stomachs we finally headed back to the Trail (this time taking the short cut) and set off back up the "Mighty" Hoddle Range. Soon we were over the crest and looking forward to the fast descent back to Fish Creek.
The pace started to heat up as we drew nearer to our waiting cars and the final 10 km ended up in a full blown sprint to the finish. Initially 2 Bob, Big Al and myself were some distance ahead of the pack, but Lex managed to work hard and breach the gap. The only problem was that, by the time he had crossed the gap, he did not have a lot of wind left. I managed to save enough in reserve to stage a final sprint near the finish and therefore take the honours. Big Al again demonstrated the huge improvement he has made over the past few months, by easily completing the ride and finishing well ahead of the main group.
The only problem with this fast finish was that I still had to wait another 30 mins for Hooters to finally arrive so that I could get a lift home. While Peter and Michael completed their ride back to Leongatha the rest of us drove back to Macdonalds for a final drink before the long drive back to Melbourne. It had been a most enjoyable ride.
It was not until we started the return drive that I discovered that Hooters drops his speed alert to only 70 kph after nightfall, giving us an extra 30 mins of the "The Happy Holloways" music to listen to. It seemed much longer than that.