Gisborne to Woodend and Hanging Rock
Sunday, 25 September 2005
Robert and Jana (blue tandem), Alan (orange trike), Dianne (mountain bike) and Eric (fwd low racer) and George (yellow Swift) assembled soon after 11.00 on the morning of Sunday 25 September to attempt a ride which George had surveyed in the Toy Car, but none of us had ridden.
We started at Gisborne Railway Station, which is strictly neither at Gisborne (it's at New Gisborne) nor a railway station (buses only). After a pleasant couple of miles west along Ferrier Road, we picked up the old Calder Highway running north-west to Woodend, which has become a four-lane back road since the Calder Freeway was opened past Woodend. The road is now called the Black Forest Drive. It has a good surface and moderate gradients, pretty views and plenty of forest cover. The area is much more built up than it used to be, but it is still mainly forest, and the rest rural, rather than suburban.
There are a series of uphill stretches, none of them steep, as the road climbs to cross the Divide before dipping down into Woodend. Traffic was moderate, much of it evidently local, and a few other cyclists. The day was sunny and cool, but we were well warmed by the time we stopped in Woodend.
We had lunch in a park and exchanged designs for bikes. I ask Robert why he cultivates nightmarishly complex components: if you want friction, you can use the handbrake. Robert asks why I suggest such intricate chassis designs, when you can just use a lump of pipe. Alan explained that he had tested the steering and brakes of the orange trike at some electrifying speed on a hill in Ferntree Gully.
From Woodend, we took a level and pretty road east toward Hesket and Romsey. We went a few miles over the Calder Freeway and across country through forest to Hanging Rock, where most of us had afternoon tea. Instead of coming to Hanging Rock, Dianne made an early start back to New Gisborne, along the freeway. Suitably refreshed, the rest of us followed, riding 10 miles south along the freeway shoulder. Bad move. The gradients are surprisingly modest, but there is far too much traffic on the road, it is much too close, there is too much glass and too many bumps on the shoulder and no time to take in the scenery (which isn't much, anyway). No punctures, for a wonder, but a truck removed the end of Alan's orange flag. It's like the Geelong Road, only narrower and rougher. Next time, take Boundary Road instead, or cut the misery short by taking the Black Forest Drive exit, half way down.
Once we found the Ferrier Road on-ramp (there's no exit), we returned to New Gisborne in something like good order at about 5.00. Total distance, 30 miles (that's about 50 Froggy furlongs).
The Black Forest Drive is well worth it, if a little hilly. Alternatives for next time include going due north from New Gisborne to Macedon, or going around the east side of the Macedon Ranges, through Kerrie and Cherokee and either the Tunnel Creek Road or the Kerrie Valley Road down to Hesket, and back to Hanging Rock and Woodend. Very beautiful, quiet forest roads, no towns, just clearings in the forest, but steep.