The Shortcut to Meeniyan
I had planned a slightly longer ride, but storms were threatening from the North East, so I decided to visit my namesake John of Meeniyan, a social visit.
Might as well make it an interesting trips, most of the roads are looking the same these days, time to try a new route. I decided to follow the Jeeralang West Road at Jumbuck Junction and just head in a southerly direction.
The road started out sealed and then turned into an unsealed dirt road, not great but certainly not an obstacle. (Remember the word obstacle for later in the story.) From a long time ago I remembered a fire lookout station, so when the turn came I took it. The road surface deteriorated somewhat but I still pressed on. In the old days there was a single road to the top, now there were more. Which one do I take? Why the road that goes up of course. I nearly missed the final turn off to the summit as the road hasn't seen a lot of use, but that changed too. At the entrance to the road grass was growing on top in places, so I was careful. A little further on, around a corner the grass was replaced by huge furrows in the road where obviously a 4WD had had an enormous amount of fun in the wet traveling to the summit. It was dry now and the furrows where a sight to behold. I kept to the flattest part of the road which varied from a tiny shoulder, to inside the ruts and most places in between. I just had to be careful to not go in a rut that was so deep that the sides of the rut will reach the cylinder heads. When I finally reached the top I was disappointed to find the lookout had been decommissioned and only part of the tower was left standing. Even so it was a great view.
Getting out was another matter. I didn't even bother turning the engine on and just used gravity, my feet and the brakes to get back to the Jeeralang West Road.
On and on until I read Calder Junction and a conundrum: Which way do I go?
The Junction is the conjunction of five roads.
From left to right:
Both the Traralgon Creek Road and the road directly ahead had big signs "For Fire Use Only. These roads are not maintained." The minor road just wasn't an option. This left me with the road to the right. As there were no other signs, that's the road I took. I noticed that the road had signs of use: a pattern of dozer tracks. Is that good or bad, who knows? The further I went the rougher the road became, especially on the corners, where the blue stone rocks were nearly as big as my fist. You could see where the trees had been removed on my right and flat areas created every couple of kilometres. The surface of the road became worse and worse. Just before I gave up and turned around I came into a flat area and it was clear that this had been made at a wet time, lots of clay, no dirt of blue stone. The road continued down. Unbelievably, the road surface became worse! The road now was all caterpillar tread frozen in dry clay, with no dirt or blue stone and extremely uneven. As I turned the next corner and wondering if I really should turn around, I spotted the feature that crystalised my thoughts: A pushed up area of clay completely blocking the road. There was no way I could cross that. How in the hell do I turn around? The answer is slowly and in a sort of ten-point turn. Dejectedly I traced my way back to Calder Junction. What a waste of time. Of all of the roads that needed a sign, that was the road. For all practical purposes it was a no through road. I must chase this up with VicRoads or someone, there must some culpability somewhere.
I opted for the road the went straight ahead and continued blindly ahead. The road was heading down, a good sign. The road had seen high winds at one time and there were a lot of trees that were across the road. Some were chainsawed, some were driven around and some were just left to drive over. My major fear was a big tree that would cause me to backtrack back to Churchill in defeat. Onwards and onwards, down and down. Gee this is hard work, I'm really thirsty, not to mention stiff and sore from all of the effort to keep on track. I could see a creek to my right and that was mightily attractive, but I kept on. I finally reached a point where I had to ford a tiny creek. Great a chance to get a drink. I stopped and scooped up a few handfuls, AHHH!
About a kilometre on I had to ford the main creek. Hmmm, a challenge, only done this once before. Hey, I'm riding a cruiser, I can do this. So after stopping on the bank, I put the gearbox into first gear and off I went. No problems at all. My second fording, I could almost hear the angels singing. Finally farmhouses and an road that looked used. I picked up speed and continued on until I hit a sealed road. Now which way. I didn't immediately pick up on the names on the sign posts and the folly of my trip. A quick look around revealed rising land to the left and more open areas to the right. And hey, isn't that a chimney over there? I thought, optimistically, that I was somewhere on the coast. A few minutes later brought the crushing reality that I was Yinnar South! I was nearly back where I started from.
I was on known turf now, Boolarra, Mirboo North and lunch at Leongatha (Even if it was 2:00 pm). Then on to Meeniyan for a pleasant chat over a cup of lemon laced tea - wonderful. My hosts got a good laugh out of my adventures.
The trip home was via Yarram and the Highland Way back home. Yes the storms were trying, but only a few tears on the way home until the skies opened up later on.
A most memorable day.
If you believe in evolution then I would be the most probable link to become extinct. Clearly I have no basic instinct on which way to go beyond a random approach. I had no idea where I was and had convinced myself I was somewhere else.
This clearly highlights the fact that the roads where insufficiently signposted for me to make an educated decision on which way to travel. Calder Junction would have to be the prime example of this. Even Roger's NavMan would have thrown a fit.
I will pursue this matter.