Day 4- Maiden Gully, Myers Flat & Huntley 60 kms

Today was a little cooler than the previous 2 days with high overhead clouds but the temperature got up to around 22 degrees!

We started a little earlier as it was a slightly longer ride with coffee at the normal coffee shop at 8.00 am. The coffee shop is quite busy but needs more outside furniture as there are only about 6 seats! It is also a bit of a hub for mums dropping off school kids at the local school Girton Grammar and is handy for school uniforms being next to Rob Stewart uniform shop.

After coffee it was off to Maiden Gully along a route we had done in reverse yesterday and then on to the Great Stupa. This is a huge Buddhist church almost in the middle of nowhere. It is a magnificent church which is the largest of its type in the western world. The theory was for us to have morning tea at the Stupa…. Unfortunately the cafe was closed!

We had a tour of the temple which was interesting and admired what it had to offer. It is still a bit of a “ work in progress” as many of the statues etc in the temple need to be completed. It was interesting to see the number of tourists visiting the site and listening to the tour guides.

So…. Without morning tea we soldiered on to our lunch stop at Huntley. The coffee stop at the Stupa was after about 20 kms and the lunch stop was at the 48 km mark…. So we were told!

The route took us on many backroads through a place called Whipstick! The roads here were a mixture of gravel and rough fire tracks. We managed to travel through this despite some challenging navigation. Ellio was very good here with most of us wanting to get to lunch sooner as we were quite hungry!

Arriving at Huntley we ate at the local bakery with delicious food. I had a homemade pasty and doughnut, the others had pies. All great food for the journey ahead to Bendigo.

The trip into Bendigo was on a bike path part of which we had travelled on earlier in the rides. We managed to miss the part where there were cobblestones and the need to climb fences fortunately.

Nearing the motel, Ellio and I visited the Bendigo Cathedral which is a very impressive structure. The volunteers at the cathedral were very friendly and helpful and pointed out features including the structure of the roof, stonework, organ and some of the past bishops of the cathedral.

I arrived back at the motel at 3.00 pm and after showering and cleaning the bike it was pleasant just to watch the sun set at the end of the day.

Ellio and Jeff are cooking up a storm for dinner as a bbq… I will report on the final dinner in the next blog.

Today’s pictures are as follows:

The grand stupa!

Me outside the grand stupa

The ceiling and main shrine inside the temple

One of the shrines

An emu in a paddock …. I think this is an emu farm

The boy’s checking navigation near Whipstick

Inside the Bendigo cathedral

Todays ride