Day 8. Omeo to Dinner Plain (950m ascent : 1460m up and 515m down)

What's a good day's ride without a good dose of anticipation? We had been discussing today and tomorrow for a few days because of the relatively demanding climb to Hotham, the predictions of snow, enhanced by texts from home: "more weather coming", and by the very inconvenient daily road closures for our final descent ( closed from 8:30 to 4:30 for repairs after severe landslides due to heavy rain.

These variables were important. If there is significant snow on Monday morning then the descent, already called "dangerous for cyclists" because of residual landslide and earthwork debris on the road, would become icy and with our loads, somewhat suicidal.

So the various plans were..

1. All of us stay at Dinner Plain and rush in the morning to beat the road closure at 8:30. Very early chilly start and hope for reasonable conditions (it's 20km to the gate)
2. All continue down today. The road stays open all day on weekends, but that makes today huge.
3. Me continue down and bring the Subaru (with bike bar) back up while M and B feather our Currawong nest.

We would make the decision at DP, but we had to get there first! That meant going up....a lot.

We took on fuel at Twinkles. Trevor gave a wry smile as I handed him half a tomato left over from preparing lunches, asking him to add it to my cooked breakfast. Fortunately his cafe was licensed for BYOT and he obliged. Breakfast was great. Mary procured some gloves from a ski hire place and I followed suit. At 9:15 we were off.

Belinda set off on Isabella and disappeared upwards into the fog. It would be nearly an hour until we caught her. 

As we lifted, so did the fog. Au contraire to the last mountain crossing, as we climbed we shed rather than donned clothing. It was getting warmer and soon we started seeing blue sky. Upwards and upwards, we stopped at Mountain Maid where two talkative grey nomads blasted us with stories and questions. An abandoned Audi had shed all its oil when the driver, probably distracted by the view, had run over two huge rocks about 200kg each! The engine was still warm.. How upset they must have been!

On and on we climbed. The gradient seemed like 10 to 12% for a lot of this initial part. Then we were sundulating (that's going up and down in sunshine). The whizzy bits were fresh to cold and the ups were Ok. There were some very pretty bits of country as lower hills became upper pastures (Cobungra Station was lovely, and the cattle stampede I started was entertaining). Raucous ravens and cockatoos filled the hills with their cries - harsh sounds compared with their lower cousins, the magpies and currawongs warbling in the fog earlier. 

Soon we were in Alpine National Park. We were following in the footsteps of a previous blogger who had described the landmarks.. The white markings becoming yellow, Hotham Airport and finally, after 6 hours, Dinner Plain.

The first sight was the new cafe "Mountain Kitchen" and it's a treasure! The sticky date pudding with cream was to die for, and the coffee was great. Bellies full, we made our way to Currawong Ski Club and proceeded to tackle the coded entry lock with instructions from Lauren, the caretaker. This was nearly as complicated as the DaVinci code and we failed, having to ring again for assistance. Once inside I recognised the spa, which I had admired during previous stays at Sing's house. L arrived and lit a fire for us and started the spa. 

We showered and collapsed, not surfacing until dinner time (High Plains Hotel: fantastic meal) and too tired to spa, retired. We had decided to race the gatekeeper at the top. To be there by 8:30 we needed to leave by 6:30. That's too early in my book!