Day One - Milawa Loop 34 k 53 m (Ride total 34 km, 53 m)

We left Peter's this morning at about 9:00 AM, had a coffee (peter) picked up Frank and headed off to Wangaratta which is 250 km's North of Melbourne, we stopped at Euroa for a cup of tea and pie. While I haven't spent a lot of time in Victoria as it happens our drive up to Wangaratta had us travel at time alongside the route we took in 2022 on our Sydney to Melbourne ride. The big difference this time was the paddocks were parched, dry and all feed burnt off. Last time through we were having to take diversions because of all the water and flooding that was around.

This ride will have 11 of us in total, it's been largely organised by Stephen and made to fit around my time over here for Al and Lou's wedding. The bunch of guys all ride together over here and have given themselves the name of "Wheeliebinners" they have an orange bike riding top and I became an honorary member last year after I played South Island Bike Tour Guide when five of the came over to ride our South Island trails. 

Unlike my other rides that haveall had a start and finish point some distance away this week's ride will feature what the Aussies call a "Hub and spoke". i.e. we stay here in the one place at Wnagaratta in a motel and then each day we head out and back o a ride that takes out through different country each day. This is certainly a ride that we would find hard to replcate in NZ, I guess simply because we are not fat enough as a country and as such restricted to how many rides you can design from the one fixed point.

Today's afternoon ride was a short 34 km's out to Milawa where we stopped at Brow Brothers' Vineyard for our coffee break. It;s all very flat here and although it is the 1st of April we were riding in 31 degrees, so it's still quite warm at times in the afternoon but can get cooler in the evenings.

This area is known for its Vineyards and its Art - today's ride took us past the "Blue" tree, I just had to ask "is this a bluegum"? Actually it was as you can see from the pic a dead tree that had been painted blue and it is an Artwork in the memory of all those who have lost their lives to suicide! Like NZ it is a huge social problem here in Australia as well. Sad, 





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