Midweek Ride - 11th May - Beaufort

(This report is from the Ride Leader Phil Harvey, sent via email and reproduced here, along with a couple of photos)
Other pics by Peter "The lens" Barclay and Jules Pearce

We met down at Maccas Waurn ponds for a 9 am departure. Unfortunately some had not read the calendar and noted that it was a nine o’clock start, ( Hmmm I have done that too! )








So we eventually left at 9:15 and headed off into a real pea souper which is certainly better than pouring rain, but only just!
We took a direct route to Meredith where the fog began to clear.


From there we headed up through the forest of wind turbines to Mt Egerton with a couple of U turns along the way HAHA
Then we went up to Creswick for Morning tea where we met the Grampians crew. Peter Barclay (edit - and Jules) took some pics.



























After a chin wag and a cuppa we headed up to Talbot via Clunes and then down to Lexton.

From Lexton we cut across to the Amphitheatre Rd. We had travelled that road 2 weeks prior with Mark.

We stopped at Beaufort for lunch. Some us went to the pub. Bad choice. After waiting ¾ hour with no meal, I let the non epicurean pie eaters know that there would be a delay and understandably they decided to make their own way home.
































After our sumptuous feast arrived, we headed back towards Ballarat and took the road down to Snake Valley.
From there, we cut across through some lovely bushland onto Smythesdale.


We took the road to Cape Clear and from there onto Rokewood where we all parted company and made our way home.
We had a few hiccups along the way, including lots of roadworks which spilt the group and made things a bit challenging. Also a ring in rider who joined us at Creswick, and parted company with us at some stage and Phil, the tail end Charlie tried to chase him down to tell him he had gone the wrong way!


So, in summary;  apart from the ordinary weather at the start, the slow lunch, the roadworks and the lost rider… I had  fun!


 I hope the other members got something out of it too!


Phil Harvey - Ride Leader and Ride Report.


 

Thanks for a great ride and Ride Report Phil! It was really enjoyable exploring those back roads.

For the gang of four or five, led by Gentle, who whizzed past me on the Shelford to Inverleigh connector road while I was doing a tad less than 100kph, I had 360km on the clock for the day so far, the fuel light had been on for 30km and I didn't want to push it before refueling at Inverleigh.