Trountain Biking

 Since I invented trountainbiking (TTB) several years back, it would be fair to say that the sport hasn't exactly taken off. With any sport only ever as good as the number of participants, I thought it a good time to introduce Balti to this novel recreation.

We enjoyed a leisurely drive up from Melbourne, stopping for lunch at Sam Miranda and a swim in Bright before heading down to one of my favourite fishing spots. It was soon apparent that the fish were hungry, and we would have stayed longer but for a reservation at High Plains Hotel. As we drove back up into the snow gums, a wonderful evening mountain mist came in, so thick at times that I had to drive at walking pace. A nice dinner and a few games of pool before another episode of The Boys in front of the fire with our stinky dog who was spent and completely covered in alpine burrs. 

We had a bit of a sleep in next morning before getting back out on the river. I was pleasantly surprised that whilst pockets of bush have been badly burnt in last year's devastating fires, larger areas in the valley were spared. Many of the older burnt snow gums were still alive and regenerating, others were sprouting from their lignotubers. The V-tree, fist-tree and boob-tree were almost untouched. Balti and I had enough fish by midmorning to call it a day and head back for some more mountain biking. This wasn't pure trountainbiking of course, but my regular collapsible fishing poles were both broken, and TTB with a fly rod would be just asking for trouble. If I returned Balti back to his mother minus an eye, TTB would be outlawed. 

On the way home, we had a heavenly swim at Eurobin.  I cured the trout in salt, sugar and dill a bit longer than normal this time, then smoked them on low heat with fig cuttings for a couple of hours. Totally delicious, with enough left over for some smoked trout pate. 

Fish and Chips

With OS travel and Covid, we hadn't taken the boat out for nearly two years. When we were finally allowed to go boating after the second lockdown last November, the electrics and engine of the Zodiac had obviously taken a severe hit from the salt and weather of Bass Straight and were in need of a serious overhaul. Even the guy in Port Albert had a couple months' backlog of work, but it was finally ready for the Australia Day long weekend. Baz didn't need much encouragement, but in the frantic packing to get out of Melbourne to pick up the boat at Port Albert and then back to launch it at Port Welshpool, we made several rookie errors.

So yes, I didn't log in our campsite to Parks Victoria, yes I left my marine license in the car, and yes we took the wrong gas canister for the portable stove which meant lighting a small fire to cook our noodles. 

However I think that the $1250 worth of fines that we copped the next morning by the overly serious Parks folk in their anti-fun police boat was a little over the top. Expensive 2 minute noodles. Victoria has certainly become even more of a nanny state under covid. And maybe a good time to point out that the greatest threat to Wilson's Prom in my lifetime have been fires lit by the State Government. But I don't think even the DSE (Department of Scorched Earth) had to pay as much as Balti and I did when they burnt half the freaking Prom down. No more donations from me.

Anyway, we still had a great time. Whilst we failed to catch any snapper, we got plenty of flatties, a huge ray, and a shark, all of them thrown back for good measure.

The next day we took mother out with us on Shallow Inlet and she got 5 whiting to our zero. But the day after, Balti and I made amends by finding a sweet spot where we both bagged out with whiting in less than an hour!

Touring with my BB

When it finally looked like we might be coming out of lockdown, I booked a few hotels and restaurants for a long awaited taste of freedom. In fact, with my country accreditation, we'd been lucky enough to escape down the coast a bit through lockdown. But this felt more real. 

It sure was good to get away.  

 

Lockdown Lines

Balti and I had fun riding, skating and making this video prior to Stage 4 restrictions when our radius for activity was curtailed even further. On one of these days with Bazzy on the Gopro, we covered over 50km. Not my usual winter lines, but you can't be choosy in a pandemic.

At least we didn't have to carry beacon, shovel or probe. 

Click the orange "lockdown lines" below to go to the video!

Lockdown Lines 

Opening Weekend July 1 - 10

The first wave of Covid meant the official June opening weekend had been cancelled, and there hadn't really been any snow since the April-May dump anyway. With Covid numbers starting to mount again, it was impossible to know whether we'd have a season or not, and lift tickets had proven elusive despite our Epic passes. With this in mind, I'd headed up to Narbethong a few weeks back to buy a bunch of ex-rental XC ski gear for the whole family off a friend who was willing to part with 5 sets of boots, poles, bindings and skis for $250!

With snow predicted, Balti and I headed up before the girls who were still in school. 

We woke Friday morning to a dusting of fresh snow; not quite enough to ski, but not too much for an awesome MTB tour all the way down Victoria River, Balti on the eMTB and myself on the Yeti. It was a stunning day, and the fresh snow on the recent bush fire affected terrain was surreal. The whole loop was around 50km, with hundreds of kangaroos jumping over, between and all around us as we descended down to Cobungra. On the way up, it started snowing again and the last 10km was pretty hard going.

By the following morning, there was enough snow for a beautiful morning's XC with the dog, and then we all set off from the Loch carpark all the way out to Mt Loch. It was Balti's first go on XC skis, and he was far from impressed. He got so grumpy that we had to push on without him, and when he eventually joint us on the Loch summit for a picnic, he told us that he'd thrown his stupid skis off the mountain. 

Some beautiful views of Bogong and Feathertop though, and then another XC in the evening out to Dead Timber Hill. The following day, we had a lovely XC all around the trails of Christmas Hills, very pretty.

And that evening we became aware that they were releasing extra lift tickets after managing to open up some extra terrain on Hotham. I jumped on the internet and bagged some for the whole team, and we got 3 days of downhill in average conditions. Meanwhile back in Melbourne, the Covid numbers had suddenly exploded again, and we were facing certain lockdowns. On the Thursday they announced they were shutting down the mountain. It wouldn't open again for the rest of the year. So really lucky I guess in the end, and we also had a lovely time socially at DP, with some nice fires, meals, and friends.