Easter Bike 2015 (2-6 April 2015)
Post date: Apr 15, 2015 2:48:28 AM
This year's Easter Bike was held at Alexandra in Central Victoria. Alexandra has many attractions, not the least of which are 3 nice pubs and a number of other eating establishments. The real reason we went to Alexandra though was so that we could cycle on the Great Victorian Rail trail, reputed to be the longest rail trail in Australia. The trail goes from Mansfield in the North East, to Seymour in the South west, a total distance of xx KMs. The Rail trail is extremely popular with cyclists coming from all around Australia to ride.
This was certainly the case on this Easter weekend witht he Town of Alexandra being completely full with all accommodation being booked out as groups of cyclists made their way down the trail.
There were 18 of us in our group all up, made up of a number of longer standing members as well as some new ones. Unfortunately Jim Cunneen was a late withdrawal due to Illness.
At the beginning of the weekend we were concerned that the weather might not be too kind to us, but as the weekend went on the weather just kept on getting better with sunny skies and gentle winds on every day.
Here are some highlights:
Day 1 (Friday 3 April): Having travelled on Thursday night, all our group was up early and looking for breakfast. Some of our group in the Shamrock hotel had to deal with rowdy arguments over $20 outside their window overnight so not everyone had as much sleep. At breakfast we decided we would ride to the Cheviot tunnel and then ride back to Yarck for lunch. After riding up the 9 Km hill to the tunnel (not 3 Km as P. Baker tried to tell us) we ended up at Moleswoth for lunch. A beautiful setting and great food. Sandra and Lebecca did ride to Yarck and had the misfortune to fall off their bikes on a bike eating gravel drive way. I believe Lebecca fell on top of Sandra. We had some role reversals on Friday night with Peter B and Macca opting for the kids meals..
Day 2 (Saturday 4 April):Saturday dawned fine and we all went for breakfast and decided that there were enough markets open to keep most of us off our bikes for the day. Sandra and Lebecca did ride but most of the rest of us headed off to Taggerty and Eildon to look at the markets. Peter B, Peter L and David B soon found out that too many markets aren't necessarily that good but we had to stick it out so that the girls could look at every stall on the markets. Saturday afternoon was spent relaxing or lunching. Saturday night was a group dinner with street entertainment later that night...from the 80's night on one side of the street and the disco on the other. Most of the action seemed to be after the hotels closed.
Day 3 (Sunday 5 April):Sunny weather again. After looking at another market (this time in Alexandra), we got on the bikes and rode back on the rail trail, this time heading to Yarck. Along the way we had the opportunity to experience the bike eating driveway, although Budge and Stefan did their best to clear a safer path through the gravel. Budge had words with he owner. After lunch we rode back to Alexandra to have a rest, only to be wakened by a man riding a bull down the street. a sight to behold. On Sunday night we had one of the longest dinners in history at the Commercial Hotel.
Day 4 (Monday 6 April):
We all went on our ways after breakfast, satisfied that we did what we normally do when we ride:- ride moderately and eat to excess.
More photos from the weekend can be found here. I think there are more to come from Liz.
David B