Hey Kiddies...
I have had the pleasure of another divine MID Week Ride.  This time on the MTB.
This time with 2 good friends Adam and none other than Mr.Dave Scarlett.

The lead up to the Wednesday was not a good one...weather bad, winds gale force, temperatures low enough for snow in the Alps.

Tuesday night, Adam calls, yep, we are still on rain hail or shine.  His words, "we will have an adventure!"
Cool, I can handle an adventure.

So Dave and Adam had an original ETA of 8:30am...but Adam likes to test out public toilet facilities on the way and Dave likes to get his make up spot on in case of a media frenzy, so the ETA dragged out the 9:15am witha Depature time of 10:15am.  These two were worse than a pair of old ladies!

But all good things come to those who wait...or are willing to.  13kms later after climbing Kaangalang Rd, we hit the MT Sabine T-junction and took a left toward Benwerrin.
Fast and flowing with sections of climbing then very rewarding descents snaking along the ridgelines that have been formed above the Great Ocean Rd.  We were pretty sheltered from the weather conditions along this road and there were many trees fallen that were too big for us to move totally blocking the road.

Well yesterdays ride route was so good I think everyone should try it. Unbelievably magic countryside!!!!!!! Get the map out of the Otways and Hinterland and try and trace this through.

Start in Forrest at Jess’s warm hill top home, just on the other side of the range from Apollo Bay. Picture yourself in amongst the damp trees and ferns with no traffic noise and the wonderful smell that only the bush can bring.

Heading mainly uphill for about 14k through Barramunga and Mt Sabine and nearly to the top of Skenes Creek, but turn right before and go down Turtons track which has just been sealed (Phil Anderson had told Jess about this one) …..a tourist route only, no houses or fencing in sight……..its like a ‘penny lane’ in under the tree tops and ferns….unreal fairyland type, out of this world setting. The track/road was scattered with bark and sticks which made it even more authentic and wound itself slightly downhill (no straight sections) to Beech Forest (toilets here and a pub).

We have come out into the open land but are in the clouds now and passing through the area which has the largest rainfall in Victoria, seems like it’s on a ridge: Weeaproninah. It is so green and the cows are fat; the sheep need to be goats. We actually started a little stampede of about 20 cattle along the fence line running beside us for 300 metres or so, as it was so quiet, we ‘jumped’ them into a canter. The clouds are dripping on us. All bike lights are on. We are warm with the right gear on and of course pedalling. Then through Wyelangta and about 20k further to Lavers Hill for a stop to eat at the servo.

I had a great week last week on the bike.

My new favourite training route was discovered!

I leave home from Forrest, ride mostly uphill for 17kms then turn right into Turtons Tk, the best road for riding EVER! and then ride through Beech Forrest onto Lavers Hill, through Glenaire and Cape Otway down to Apollo Bay and back up again.

Genevieve came along to sample this ride on Friday, it rained, we rode in clouds, and we got drenched...which called the day shorter than planned with Norm picking us up part way up the hill climb from Skenes Ck.

110km of pure heaven on a road bike.  I have never felt so happy to be out on my bike regardless of the weather conditions...I was oblivious to any hill climbs and was on top of the world!  Thanks Gen for having exactly the same mind set as me on the day...any normal sane human being would have turned around at Lavers Hill and headed back the way we came.  Thank you to the local who gave us the heads up on the so called "clearer weather about 4kms on"....yeh right!  4kms later we were drenched...no matter!

Saturday I was lucky enough to share a part of this with Steve from GMBC.  We rode almost to Beech Forrest and rode back to Forrest with so much downhill it was scary. About 5km out Steve got me to sit on and we were cruising along around 65kmph and I had to stay about 1mt or more back from his wheel or else I was being sucked past him at a rate of knots.  Steve agreed about this being Gods country and worth the effort.

So we got back to Forrest at 10:45am...just in time for me to change over shoes and bikes to catch up with Michael, Kim and Amy.  We did trails 4,5 & 6 and then repeated number 4 and had a blast.  There was mud everywhere with the tracks being wet and slippery from all the rain.

Afterwards we rode to Red Carpet and checked out the dam area and it was so fun to see Kim, Michael and Amy have such a good time.  Poor Amy's legs were shaking and she couldnt stand up off her seat much more...but smiles all round.

I heard from Michael on Monday night that he could not stop thinking about the ride since.  Gotta love MTB 'ing!