Mountain Madness 2012: Day 5 - Wednesday 4th January

Corryong to Melbourne (for some)

Corryong

Elevation: 313m (1079’)

Weather: Mean max/min temps – 21.2/7.4; Rainfall 774mm

Population: 1228

Origin: The township was originally known as Gravel Plains but was changed to Corryong – a corrupted version of the Aboriginal word ‘cooyong’ which is the name of the bandicoot.

History: The area was visited by Paul de Strzelecki in 1840 on his way to Gippsland. The town was established as a support community for the emerging cattle industry in the high country, and nearby Walwa is the home of Australia’s first breed of cattle, the Murray Grey.

Notable people from Corryong: Lee Kernighan, (country musician), Corrine Grant (actor and comedian) and Jack Riley (allegedly the inspiration behind Banjo Paterson’s The Man from Snowy River)

All good things come to an end . . .

Three of us had already nominated our plan to leave MM today and make our way back to Melbourne. The ‘rolling time’ was scheduled for 8:00am and it actually worked for a change! So we said our goodbyes to those who were conscious – no, I mean stumbling around. We all promised each other that we must ride more often than once or twice year (!) then Loyd, Danny and Lorraine and I headed west down the beautiful Murray Valley Highway.

Red sky in morning is a warning!!

Bikes ready to go - what is missing?

Getting down the road . . .

We decided to get some kilometres behind us before stopping for breakfast at another of our ‘usual spots’ in Tallangatta . . . and of course Loyd needed fuel.

Even though it was slightly out of our way, Danny and Lorraine and I decided to accompany Loyd to Bright to pick up his car – so we rode down the Gundowing Road and eventually merged with the Kiewa Valley Highway and then over the Tarwonga Gap Road and into Bright.

I may need a braille one next year!

Rain ahead . . .

We could see some dark and threatening clouds building up pretty much directly over where we estimated Bright to be. However, it held off until we were going up the Tarwonga Gap Road. At first it was an annoying drizzle but it slowly increased to intermittent steady rain.

We fuelled up in Bright but didn’t bother with wet weather gear until we arrived in Myrtleford – which as Dan said would pretty much guarantee that it would stop raining! He was right – and by Whitfield we were all hot and taking the gear off again!

This tree could tell some MM stories!

Home stretch . . .

Once over the hill and into Mansfield Danny and us split up – he went to his caravan at Thornton via Jamieson and we followed the most tedious road to Yea for lunch and fuel. We were home by 4:00pm and everything was cleaned and packed away by 5:30pm. Loyd was home by 1345 . . . mainly at legal speeds.