Ok the 3 musketeers loaded up the car till there was barely any room left for the humans and pointed the car in the direction of The Otways for a 3 day riding road trip. After overcoming some traffic issues (overturned truck on the Eastern Fwy at rush hour) we made the rather long boring drive to Geelong to grab some needed supplies and fuel. Note to thy self.... never move to Geelong!
After a brief bit of lunch we pushed on and arrived at the Forrest caravan park. After locating the local lady that ran the place we put together the camp for the next couple of days riding. It is a simple caravan park with a set of toilets and showers and not much else apart from the pub across the road.
We kited up and hit the trails out at the Yaughter Rd trail head. First cab of the rank was Marriner's Run which has folklore status with those that have raced the Kona. The reason is tight bermed trails that brings a smile to the dial, as you descend down the gully swooping from side to side. After around 2 hrs of riding and mucking around in the trails we headed back to have a shower and hit the pub.
Nice cold jugs of beer and crazy locals added to the atmosphere of watching the sun go down over the farm land surrounding the pub. After a few beers we grabbed a few takeaways and headed home for dinner and to shoot the shit as Mister Sister had flown down for the trip from Brisbane, and we had not seen him since November.
Gav with some local wild life - Blue Tongue Lizard
Day 2 saw us head out to Lake Elizabeth and aim to ride Red Carpet which is the timed descent for the Otways race. After a bit of climbing and a trip down to the carpark for lake Elizabeth we came across the local Ranger. This stopped us from riding out to the lake as the walking track is for walkers only and the last thing we needed was a issue with the ranger. So we climbed back up to the start of Red Carpet and dived into the 20 minute descent back down to the dam. Nice tight single track greeted us with a couple of road crossings and a great cool ride through rainforrest and open woodland.
The crew at the base of Red Carpet taking time out in the shade
Post the descent we headed into the Forrest trail head and cruised the trail system which has some great single track with berm, jumps and log rides. It was a great morning, but hot. We called it a day and then headed down to Apollo Bay for a late lunch and supplies for a barbie dinner.
The last morning we were greeted with a cool crisp morning. We demolished breakfast and headed back to the Yaughter trails. We rode a loop using Marriner's Run and whilst out there the wind came up into gusty dust dumping storm. After 2 hours of mucking around riding sweet trails we headed back to camp to find my pop up marque demolished by the wind. Slightly disappointed by this we packed up camp and had showers and decided to go home via Torquay for a bit to eat. Driving was a night mare with the wind blowing the car all over the place with the bikes on the roof requiring extra tie downs.
Mister Sister was flying out of Avalon Airport back to Brisbane, but received a call saying his flight had been cancelled and would not be another until 10 pm.
We dropped Mister Sister at the airport and discovered that his nice Giro helmet and helmet pod was no where to be found in the car..... I think it might have been put on the roof and it is now a home for a small group of road side critters!
In all it was a awesome 3 days of trail riding. The trails are sweet, tight, well built and the area is primed for riding. This is proven by the fact that the Kona 24hr and the Otway Odyssey both run through here each year, not to mention a round of the state cross country series.
I will post some video when Gav gets done putting it together!
Some of us are big kids....
The pub!
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