Friday 21st June 2024
Leaders: David H
Participants: JP & Trish, Ignatius & Angela, Uwe, Bill & Alison, Peter, Phil & Gill, Mark & Felicity
Start time: 09:00
End time: 12:59
Distance Travelled: 134km
The members and visitors met at Gladysdale Bakehouse Yarra Junction at a cold (3ºC) from 8am onwards for a planned departure at 9am. Many of us enjoyed a warm drink and / or a tasty treat before we were called to order for a trip briefing in the “car park”.
With the vehicle order determined we all headed to our cars for a radio check before heading off at 9:06 on the Warburton Highway towards the west and then turning left (south) almost immediately onto Douglas Parade, followed by a left onto Little Yarra Road and then a right into Milners Road.
Continuing on the bitumen for 4km we then turned left onto the Launching Place to Gembrook Road. Again, this was bitumen and pleasant drive through farming country although we drove in drizzle / light rain - which would continue for most of the outing.
After we had travelled about 10km, we left the bitumen and turned left onto Beenak Road and entered Kurth Kiln Regional Park. The road was in good condition although wet, posed no problems driving at about 40km/h.
The trip navigated various roads / tracks through indigenous forests which at this time of year are quite damp and green At times, tree ferns were abundant. We experienced continuous cloud cover, light rain and mist at times.
At about 9:30am we stopped at Beenak Cemetery and had a wander around the gravesites. It would appear that a lot of restoration work has occurred to identify and maintain the cemetery.
We explored the cemetery for about 15minuts and continued on Beenak Road – and were soon alerted by David to look out for the “Old Post Office Tree” on the left for “10 points” (my map to indicated it was on the right?).
I did find an April 2015 Offpeak photograph of a visit to the Beenak Post Office Tree and matched with a image from my dashcam. [I’ll have my 10 points thank you, David!!!]
Turning left onto East Beenak Road (9:53am) we were alerted by David that Beenak Road was going to go through “The Squeeze” at 9:54am (large boulders on either side of the road)
The convoy continued to Powelltown along Bunyip Road and again we received an alert that a fox was running down the road, but it seems that only the Trip Leader had a view of the feral beast. The route took us along Learmonth Creek Road, Turner Road and then back on the bitumen via the Yarra Junction to Noojee Road. We continued on in an westerly direction and entered Powelltown where we stopped for morning tea at the Streamside Reserve on the banks of the Little Yarra River.
After about a 30 minute morning tea break, we continued at about 10:55am towards Yarra Junction via an interesting drive along Tarrango Road and passed many apple and cherry orchards on this part of the journey to rejoin the Warburton Highway.
The convoy entered Warburton at 11:16am and continued through the town to turn left on the C507 / Acheron Way then on to the C505 / Donna Buang Road, towards the summit of Mount Donna Buang. We passed a number of cyclists also ascending – some worryingly had no lights. Light rain was falling and the temperature was about 4ºC.
We arrived at the summit of Mount Donna Buang at about 11:45am. Light rain continued to fall and the temperature was a 3ºC. Visibility was probably about 100m. No snow. The summit car park had a few cars parked, but there was more than enough room for the 8 Offpeak vehicles. We had a look at the information boards, but didn’t stay too long.
Leaving Mount Donna Buang summit carpark with the intention of continuing along the C505 / Mount Donna Buang Road to Healesville was thwarted by the road being closed. This necessitated driving to Healesville “the long way around” – returning to Warburton and wending our way to Healesville. David lead the convoy on some interesting roads until we able to join the Maroondah Highway to proceed to the Healesville RSL.
The route took us via Warburton Highway, Station Road, Railway Road, Settlement Road, Corduroy Road, Warburton Highway, Dons Road, Delry Road and the Healesville to Kooweerup roads before we were able to join the Maroondah Highway just outside Healesville.
The final leg of the journey was a very short drive on Tutter Road when where we entered the RSL carpark at 12:55pm which was also the end of the trip.
Many thanks to David for a great day’s outing.
Text: Mark
Photos: Gill