Snakeears rides...

. . some great shots !

Beautiful photos. Thanks for posting.

Great RR and fantastic photo's

Off to Marysville today, stopped to get gas at Warburton it was busy, heaps of bike out its the first nice day after a week of rain, had to wait for these guys to fill up before i could get near the pump.







The Acheron Way, The tar ends after a few kms




Huge trees round here









It looks warm but its 8°C, cold hands














The Acheron River




















Starting to climb up towards Mt Strictland





This area was burnt out as well on Black Saturday 2009





















its midday and still foggy round Melbourne




















Looking north toward the Cathedral Range









Keppel Lookout









Marysville

On Black Saturday 7 February 2009 fires started at 2:55 pm, while Victoria Police twice told the Royal Commission that it commenced at "about 2.30 pm". It burned southeast across the Black Range, parallel to the Kilmore fire, towards Narbethong. reported flame heights of at least 100 metres as the fire traversed the Black Range. At Narbethong, it destroyed 95 per cent of the town's houses.<sup id="cite_ref-47" class="reference">[</sup>When the southerly change struck, it swept towards the town of Marysville.
Late in the afternoon of 7 February, residents had anticipated that the fire front would bypass Marysville.<sup id="cite_ref-abc_wiped_out_48-1" class="reference"></sup> At about 5:00 pm, power was lost to the town. Around 5:30 pm, the wind died away, however, minutes later it returned from a different direction, bringing the fire up the valley with it.<sup id="cite_ref-australian_razed_township_49-0" class="reference"></sup>
Afterwards, a police sergeant said that the main street in Marysville had been destroyed: "The motel at one end of it partially exists. The bakery has survived. Don't ask me how. Everything else is just nuked."<sup id="cite_ref-age_sickening_wait_50-0" class="reference"></sup> Reports on 11 February estimated that around 100 of the town's population of approximately 500 had believed to have perished, and that only "a dozen" buildings were left. Premier Brumby described the situation: "There's no activity, there's no people, there's no buildings, there's no birds, there's no animals, everything's just gone. So the fatality rate will be very high."<sup id="cite_ref-marysville-one-in-five_51-0" class="reference"></sup>
Eventually 34 fatalities were confirmed in the Marysville area, with all but 14 of over 400 buildings destroyed.



















It taking a while but its getting rebuilt. Its was always a popular bike stop on a big loop that takes in 2 brilliant sections of twistys, the Blacks Spur and Refton Spur.








A little trail off the Lady Talbot Drive





The Taggery river



















This is a fire break on the east side of the town, pity the fire came from the west




Back home again via the Acheron Way, I am sticking with the 606's they worked great today, approx 200km on tar gravel, mud














A great ride

I always look forward to your reports.

Fantastic pics, as always.

Cheers,

JM.

Cheers Mate, nice to know someone's watching, might see you out there one day

A quick plan is hatched to slab it out to a section of powerlines out to the east of Melbourne for a bit of an explore.



5 mins in Enigma finds he cant change gears, we work out that a new case saver he put on is in the way so out comes the tyre lever for a bit of bending action





Air down for dirt, round 18psi, should have gone lower as I will soon find out the hard way








we get to the track that follows the powerlines





I was here in summer, it was 35°C and dry as a chip, its about 10° now




looks dry on the sunny side









that was easy, nice little single track






the southern side of the hill was a different story




for some strange reason my bike decided to have a nap half way down, been doing this a lot lately





I can describe this little bit like trying to ride over a VW covered in shit, from this point its no stop










Phew





There's a wheel in there somewhere, hard compound road legal tyre ...FAIL



These guys showed up and had a crack, the patrol made it ...just, we where waiting for the explosion, it hovered there for what felt like an eternity before it found a tiny sliver of grip and pulled out





The disco wasn't so lucky





great view, I wanted to get to the top of that hill, but our government put randomly space fences across sections, to protect us from having to much enjoyment










Went back the other way .....yep fenced















mmmm fence



yay an open bit


but not for long




So feeling a bit frustrated we hit the slab back home




Coldstream airport, you can come here and throw yourself out of a perfectly functional aircraft




not a bad little ride, but for some reason it left me a little frustrated with some restrictions that are placed on riders around here, apparently it is illegal to ride singletrack in the state Victoria and I have heard of areas getting closed off permanently ...but enough of my bitching.

was a good little adventure... i can see my tractor being a 3 use vehicle... trail, adventure and motard!
also got some good wheelie practice in everywhere i could, and a few photos.

not much to add, but here goes nothing!

which way now?


snakeears, on here


two made it, the third got stuck!


result of the yama-haha having a little nap


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cheers

Nice power line tracks! always a favourite

PS its a Range Rover not a Disco

lol you're right, I should have known, my brother in law had a disco and my old boss had a rangie
laughing to hard to take notice

Been a while since I posted here, In May I snapped my PCL in my knee after a fall on a tricky climb so it has curtailed my dirt riding a bit so in the mean time while I got my knee back in shape I bought a road bike, picked up 2000 Kawasaki ZZR600.

So over New Years Eve I did a trip I have been wanting to do for a long time, a 1000K loop through the Victorian high country started with Ash (SV650) and Kev (VStrom)


Morning start out of Melbourne one of the guys forgets his new rego sticker so back he goes




Stopped in Eildon for a coffee a local came up and started a chat, turns out he is just out of jail



next stage was to Jameson - Mansfield - Whitfield - a beautiful twisty road with a side trip down a dirt road to Powers lookout






Road bikes handle better on dirt than I thought
s



We met up with Kevs brother Rolf(GS1100) near Rosewhite









Stopped for the night at the Snowline inn in Harrietville they let you park your bikes right at the door








Next morning was pristine, some say the Hotham rd is the best bike ride in the state I agree, stayed up on the summit for an hour before dropping into the next valley for breakfast in Omeo




























after Omeo it a long twisty ride following the river into Gippsland then turn east to head back to Melbourne through Nojee



The Omeo valley is magic

Good to have you back.

Wondered what had happened to keep you away..

Great pics, as usual.

Cheers,

JM.

Hope you get back on the dirt really soon and that your knee heals up nicely. Would love to visit your country some day.

Circumstances forced me to get off my arse and hit the dirt after a long time off, my knee has come good and the ZZR600 got ran into so its off the road for the moment. I was on a road ride, waiting on the side of the road for the group to catch up and a learner rider misjudged and slammed me from behind, the bike ended up on the deck, $3K damage, luckly i'm insured.
So its back to old faithful.


This week I revisting an old trail I did a couple of years back




Unfortunately the locals don't like bikes, most of it is closed off, sign off the times round here.

did find some open tracks that got me north to Toolangi and a beautiful area called Murrindindi





Murrindindi Magic







Local farm using immigrant workers, I bet if I came in waving a badge and asking for visa's they would run to the hills


pushed through to Mt St Lennard, huge stands of Mountain Ash


Always reminded of the fire threat around here





Nice to be on dirt again with the added bonus of my knee holding up to a bit of punishment