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Stage 1 - Bright to Mt Beauty 32km (12-Mar-21)

Happy days, the start of our first tour since 2019 was greeted by a lovely morning, a tad fresh but mostly sunny with blue sky. After a leisurely wake up/breakfast, panniers ready check, water bottles ready check, tool kit ready check, enthusiasm check, we were ready and mounted our bikes (quite difficult with panniers) and we were off.



Riding through Bright as people were going walk abouts, cafes full with people enjoying breakie, we slowly made our way towards Mt Beauty.



The ride can best be described in 3 parts. The first part approx 10km was flat and easy riding on the side of a not so busy road mostly through eucalyptus trees on either side. 



The second part approx. 10km was seriously hard work, all uphill on the same road with the same vegetation. This was a grind, it was head down, bum up, not look ahead and one peddle at a time, which seem to take us forever with no end in sight. This climb took us up to Tawonga Gap Lookout, 895m above seal level; giving us a spectacular view. 





Got chatting with this young man Peter form Bright (it was his weekly, Friday morning bike ride), who had given up living in Melbourne and moved to Bright 7 years ago to enjoy a lifestyle and follow his passion, skiing, cycling and the outdoors. Peter was quite handy with bikes, just as well as he fixed Ursi's issue with front gear change.


The third part approx. 12km was a steep down hiller for thrill seekers which we are not. We braked all the way down and just like the uphill climb this third section seemed never ending. Finally arrived in Mt Beauty, everything intact and checked into our motel, after a shower walked through the little town, which I suspect would be very popular during winter as it’s on the foot hills of Falls Creek, a popular ski area.

All in all, a good start to the tour; a short first stage of 32km which on the flat would be more like 70km. There are times one feels one’s age and I certainly felt it today during the 2nd stage of today’s ride. 

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