Around Donna with Weisan

[thinpin]

40C (104F in old money) today. No chance of a ride so I thought I'd post a few photos of a loop Weisan and I did a few weeks back. This sparsely populated country has a paucity of sealed roads once outside the main metro areas. Cycling a nice loop route that won't take all day often means taking in dirt roads. This is a beautiful forest loop of around 115Kms and 2000m of climbing. Some of the sealed sections I've posted before, this time we took in around 25kms unsealed road to join the dots.
Its been a really good wet spring so the ferns and trees are going gangbusters at the moment. Some of these stands of mountain ash are amongst the tallest forests in the southern hemisphere. The roads are generally blissfully quite and real joy to cycle through.

Climbing up Black's Spur.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7160/6616276061_2939a58765_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616276061/)
IMG_1419 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616276061/) by fritzy62 (http://www.flickr.com/people/51517024@N05/), on Flickr


Taking a drink on the long winding road to the second climb.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7010/6616268955_f3d53c1367_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616268955/)
IMG_1437 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616268955/) by fritzy62 (http://www.flickr.com/people/51517024@N05/), on Flickr


Few cars in these parts
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7163/6616276837_12c3e9f311_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616276837/)
IMG_1434 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616276837/) by fritzy62 (http://www.flickr.com/people/51517024@N05/), on Flickr


The gravel climb
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7164/6616269819_a21fc41e8b_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616269819/)
IMG_1446 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616269819/) by fritzy62 (http://www.flickr.com/people/51517024@N05/), on Flickr


Roadside spring water, a rare thing these days.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7160/6616482531_878fcd149b_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616482531/)
IMG_1472 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616482531/) by fritzy62 (http://www.flickr.com/people/51517024@N05/), on Flickr


The last telling climb!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7161/6616277549_204f6f7cdd_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616277549/)
IMG_1476 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6616277549/) by fritzy62 (http://www.flickr.com/people/51517024@N05/), on Flickr

[weisan]

thinpin, nice shots, thanks for posting!

It was a blast riding with thinpin. The scenery was superb. I enjoyed particularly the descent down from Donna, maintaining 40mph throughout, and swooping around the corners, it's the closest thing I felt to being a bird. :D

It was painfully slow in the last 1/3 section of the ride as my back began to act up again, I was barely able to turn the pedals and poor thinpin has to ride around me in circles. :p

The only other regret is I left my camera with the family in the car or else we would have a lot more coverage, even some video footage.
Anyway, I look forward to our next riding excursion.
Wei San

[bloody sunday]

looks so beautiful!

[Dekonick]

Looks like perfect terrain for a ride on my Bedford tourer! I think I would keep a good lookout for raptors... :cool:

[Louis]

Weisan, I thought we had you trained for those hills down there... :)

Looks like a neat area to ride.

Louis

[velotel]

Are those ferns along the road? They're huge! All the ferns I've ever seen I had to look down at them. Riding there I'd probably start looking out for some dinosaur running out of the woods. Beautiful road, made for bikes.

[maxn]

that looks awesome! Thanks for posting.

[vqdriver]

That's a beautiful spot.

No kidding about those ferns. I'd probably ride off the road cuz I'd be staring straight at those trees.

[pzung]

Beautiful forests.

[thinpin]

Bushfires ravaged this area a few years back. It left the forest without a canopy. A lot of gum trees regenerate if the fire has not been too hot. But without the canopy the ferns here go nuts. Add to that a really good wet winter and spring the ferns become truly magnificent. Most of these are on the south (cool, wet) side of the range and this area is considered to be temperate rain forest.
Nick Carson's photo of the fires in this area after they had swept through.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7001/6618556257_cbe0251a9b_z.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6618556257/)
800px-09_vic_bushfires_maroondah_yarra_complex_01 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/51517024@N05/6618556257/) by fritzy62 (http://www.flickr.com/people/51517024@N05/), on Flickr

[Jeff N.]

OMG! Awesome shots! Looks like Jurassic Park!

[sokyroadie]

40C (104F in old money) today. No chance of a ride.


WIMP :D


Gorgeous photo's - definitely looks tropical.

Jeff

[jr59]

Really does look sweet.

Glad you posted the pics.

BTW; like here in the swamps, fire is a part of the natural growth of the rain forest. Or swaps in my case.

[William]

Great photos!! Thank you for posting. :cool:

All that green makes me heart for a warm ride.... :crap:






William

[Hawker]

OMG! Awesome shots! Looks like Jurassic Park!

That's exactly what I was thinking. Keep your eyes open when you ride there. :)

[Earl Gray]

Wow! How in the hell did I miss this post.

My boy Weisan get around.

[jghall]

Beautiful scenery. Jealousy on my part.