Day 7- Wangaratta Hub & Spoke- Eldorado Loop
Today we transitioned from daylight saving to normal Eastern Standard Time so we put our clocks back by an hour or to put it more plainly we had an extra hour of sleep!
No matter we were still up at 6.00am for an 8.00 am start as we had to have breakfast, shower and pack up ahead of starting the ride…. Thank goodness for the extra time!
Anyway we were all ready to ride at the allotted time and even managed an early morning coffee before 8.00am!
The ride this morning was in good weather again with a cool start at about 12 degrees with cloud cover which cleared somewhat as the morning wore on.
The ride to Eldorado was through flat farming country initially but getting closer to Eldorado it developed into rolling hills.
Just before Eldorado we stopped at the Dredge which is a hudge digger which was used to dredge the lake to look for gold and tin. The machine is on a type of floating barge and digs up material from the bottom of the lake and sifts it for gold and tin. The machine operated from 1936 through to 1954 almost on a 24/7 basis until it became uneconomic.
After this it was off to the cafe in Eldorado for coffee and a break.
The ride after coffee back to Wangaratta was essentially downhill for the fist 10 or so kms flattening out after that.
All up we travelled about 50 kms for the morning in good time to be back at the cars by about 11.45 am.
Lunch was at a local cafe ahead of picking up Phil in the caravan park for the ride home.
The ride home from Wangaratta was about 3.5 hours after dropping off Frank and Phil.
It was rather sad to say goodbye to all the “boys “ after 7 days of magnificent riding in great weather conditions and congratulations needs to go to Steve Seymour for his excellent organisation.
The company of all on the rides made the whole experience a great one full of many wonderful memories.
There is no doubt about it, the Wheeliebinners make a wonderful group of friends and with our sister organisation in NZ now we are something quite special.
Looking forward to the next adventure!
Today’s pictures are as follows:
Today’s route
2 pictures of the Eldorado Dredge
Early morning coffee at the cafe
Final lunch at the same cafe
