Closing in on Melbourne

October 20, 2022

Warburton to Healesville

After a quiet still night camping by the Yarra under a most brilliant night sky we woke to another bright day. It warmed up quickly and was decidedly hot by the afternoon not helped by a mid day wine tasting.

I’m starting to wonder if there are in fact two Victorias. The Victoria I’m riding in has experienced perfect weather for 12 of the past 14 days with one wet day (our rest day) and one showery day. We’ve only had one road we couldn’t take, and ridden through a few puddles, some bigger than others. The other Victoria has had cataclysmic conditions with record flooding, wild storms and devastated communities.

We rode back into Warburton for second breakfast and took the rail trail towards Lilydale before peeling off at Woori Yallock and headed towards Mount Toolebewong State Forest.

It’s a nice quiet road with some gentle undulations that takes us to a locked gate leading onto the track we’re following through the forest.

Luckily I organised Vic Forestry to open the gate for us.

It was a lovely forest path that took us down to a rapidly receding creek that had been in flood a few days ago. It was then quite a climb out that required some pushing before reaching the vineyards of the Yarra Valley.

I also organised to have the road graded and rolled just like they do in Le Tour.

No salad sandwiches by the roadside for lunch today. We’re off to Domenic Portet winery for a bistro lunch and a wine tasting courtesy of ‘The Central Coast Sommelier’. Thanks for that one Gaz.

There’s only 11 ks to our AirBNB but it was hilly and hot and felt a lot longer.

A flat tyre in a mosquito infested gully was not the highlight of the day.

After finally making it to our place outside of Healesville we did a quick load of washing, showered and took a cab into town. Three more hilly kilometres was more palatable in a taxi than on a bike. I badly needed a new pair of socks so I popped into ‘A Country Style’ and 5 minutes later emerged with not only lilac socks but a new shirt as well! We are heading to Melbourne and it is the start of the Spring Carnival after all.

Within five minutes I was stopped in the supermarket by a Healesville influencer and complimented on my shirt!

Tomorrow is our last day riding and the forecast is wet. Then again, I think that might be for the other Victoria.

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 879 km (546 miles)

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