Just a few days before my departure North to join Le Tour, I received information that the Eildon-Jamieson Road was now completely sealed . I have been keeping an eye on this area as it is another alternative for travelling between Melbourne and Sydney.
So, in the interests of serving my fellow Monster riders, I plotted the road into my return trip home (a great sacrifice I know [roll]). The road is a total workout, exercising both the ;D and :o muscles.
After a restful night in Beechworth I headed off down towards Jamieson via the Whitfield-Mansfield road (another excellent ‘bike’ road).
Turned off at Mansfield towards Jamieson. The road is sealed up to this point. The turn off to Eildon is 2kms before Jamieson.
The road to Jamieson(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5095/5409119502_9a2077f910.jpg)
The first :o bit:
The first 20kms is the newly sealed bit. The road surface is speckled giving the impression of loose gravel. Unfortunately a lot of it is. The sphincter workout is when you come into (an unmarked) corner and you hear that dreaded ting-ting of loose stuff or worse, feel the back letting go. I found it curious that the road seemed to narrow at the corners. There is no centre line or edge lines. Also you have a 2-3 foot nasty ditch on one side of the road paired with a bottomless unguarded drop off on the other. There wasn’t much traffic on the road (it was a Monday) but there is no where to run wide here!! There is a distinct lack of speed advisory signs on the corners. I saw two random 40km ones in last 5km of the 60km road. Under better conditions (no gravel) I would guess that the majority of them would be marked between 30-45km.
(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5212/5409121238_b81e7ae0d9.jpg)
(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5260/5408512413_4bdcd54222.jpg) Lake Eildon from the lookout 6kms in.
The next bit:
After what seemed like forever crawling along I finally spotted some blacktop â€" thank god!! I was starting to get a bit frustrated by this stage.
The first 5kms had me looking for somewhere to pull over as I was convinced my front tyre was going down . There was no where to pull off the road and it was just a bad surface not my tyre.
(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5297/5409123528_b4a1f26919.jpg)
The Smile ;D bit:
For the last 35km of this road I couldn’t get the smile off my face. Still nasty ditches and drop offs, no signs on the corners, but there was a centre line, black top, gazillions of corners and NO LOOSE GRAVEL.
(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5256/5408515379_12eb791dee.jpg)
From here you can zip down the Maroondah Hwy to Melbourne (150km) via the Spurs (50km). I kept heading West towards home through Yea where I lunched at Marmalades, heaps of vego meals and the couple there are bike riders so I got lots of tips about roads in the Strathbogie Ranges â€" but that’s another ride.
I will be keeping an eye on Netrider to see how this road goes. I’m expecting it to be like when they sealed the Bogong High Plains road. It took several months before they sealed it properly and got rid of the loose gravel and now it’s a great road.
Looks a bit white knuckled but fun all the same.
I'm sure it will be a great road to ride on a Monster or ......
Great pics too, nice scenery along the way.
Making up for lost time - I spent the first 11 years of my bike riding life riding up and down the boring bland (Brand) Hwy between Geraldton and Perth. When I first moved to Victoria I had no idea how to ride round corners or use the sides of my tyres.
I went thru there on my way to Phillip Isl, great description, its exactly how I remembered it. Yes the first 20ks from Jamieson are interesting, its not only loose gravel but plenty of
(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5258/5397238012_d210cbddae.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/46927829@N06/5397238012/)
PI 2011 019 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/46927829@N06/5397238012/#) by steveca51 (http://www.flickr.com/people/46927829@N06/), on Flickr
(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5251/5397240736_68768bb555.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/46927829@N06/5397240736/)
PI 2011 020 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/46927829@N06/5397240736/#) by steveca51 (http://www.flickr.com/people/46927829@N06/), on Flickr
leaves, bark and branches. But the second half does not disapoint.