Day 4- Wangaratta Hub & Spoke- Rutherglen Loop
To begin with I should give you all the story of the dinner last night which was prepared by our head chef , Ellio Stocco and his souix chef , Jeff Jones. The venue for the dinner was in the car park at the motel which was set up ideally for all 11 of us for pre-dinner drinks and nibbles and a white table cloth dinner. It is amazing what you can do with a bit of creativity!
The main course was bbq steak, chicken and sausages with salads. The food was great and the ambience of the night was amazing…. Well done Ellio and Jeff!
This morning was another early wake up at 6.00 am to get ready for the drive to Springhurst where we were to leave our cars for the Rutherglen loop.
We started the ride at about 9.30 am and the initial part of the ride was beside the Hume Freeway. Chris , Ellio and I rode on the same roads about 18 months ago but in the reverse direction on the Sydney- Melbourne ride.
There were a couple of hills initially which were a bit of a challenge but Ric won the KOM title on these….well done Ric!
The first stop was at Chilton where we had coffee in the converted Masonic Hall. This was a venue we visited on the Sydney-Melbourne ride and the quality of the service was again excellent!
After coffee we said goodbye to Ric and Phil who were taking the shorter route to Rutherglen and the rest of us took the longer route via Barnawartha. Once again the route to Barnawartha was on roads which were familiar to Chris, Ellio and myself.
After reaching Barnawartha we turned off on the road to Howlong. The first 10 km approximately was on a quiet road but after crossing the Murray Valley Highway the road was a lot busier with many trucks, cars and farm equipment. The road had no shoulder and on several occasions I found myself heading on the the gravel beside the road to avoid semi-trailers! On 2 occasions they passed with less than a metre from my bike….quite scary!
Once we reached the Rutherglen turn off the traffic was very light and we made good progress along the 14 km ride into Rutherglen.
Along the way I received a phone call from Phil who was wondering where we were as they had arrived at the designated lunch cafe and the kitchen was potentially going to close! Luckily we arrived at 1.15 pm just prior to the 1.30 pm time limit…..whew….we didn’t want another missed lunch!
Phil and Ric advised that their ride was “delightful “ with virtually no traffic and a good riding surface. They arrived about an hour ahead of us.
Lunch was good with me having a chicken avocado sandwich and 2 soft drinks.
The weather was quite warm over lunch at about 28 degrees and we enjoyed the good food and a chat about many things! I must admit I enjoy the chats and banter the goes on at coffee and meal breaks.
After lunch the whole crew made their way back on the 14 km ride back to Springhurst. As the road was not busy and there was a small tailwind the speeds were around 30 km/ hr for most of the trip! It was most enjoyable!
Arriving back at the cars we packed the bikes and drove back to Wangaratta… arrived back at the motel at about 4.00 pm. To our surprise Ellio produced drumstick ice creams for us all the enjoy being left overs from the previous night’s dinner…. A perfect way to end the day of 72 kms of riding.
Dinner tonight is being orgyby Abdy at the pub and I will report on this in tomorrows blog
The pictures today are light on as I had a day off the camera… so apologies!
We have today’s route
Last night’s dinner
Coffee at Chilton
