Day 1 - Late afternoon

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Currently in Mansfield, heading for Bright for the night.

As in most cases, the hardest part of starting a trip from the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne is the first hour that it takes to get out of the suburbs. After a brief stop in Lilydale to set a route into the GPS, it was off up the Maroondah Highway for the cooler air of the Black Spur, and then a leisurely lunch break at the Tudor Lodge in Narbethong where I met up with a couple of other bikers who were out for a day trip in the hills.

Lake Eildon at Bonnie Doon is non-existent - Just a grassy valley with wheel-tracks criss-crossing it from all angles. No sign of water anywhere.

The temperature has been rising all afternoon and I'm hoping that the later afternoon will bring some cooler air to make the last stretch a bit more pleasant.

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