Back Of Mt Donna Buang, Tuesday, 13/03/2012

Two weeks ago I finally did a ride I've wanted to do for awhile - climb Mt Donna Buang from Yarra Junction via Warburton and descend on the gravel road towards Healesville, connect to the Don Valley Rd, and loop back to Yarra Junction on the Warburton rail Trail.




It's not a long ride, only about 50kms, but Donna Buang is a Category 2 climb and the descent is rarely ridden by road bike riders. We picked a great day for it and, apart from a puncture just past Cement Ck on the way up, had a terrific ride. I forgot to take my camera (again...) but Justin has a new android phone and took some pics which he just emailed me.

Here is the view south from the ascent looking back over the Yarra valley and Warburton.












Once you pass the turn off to the summit the road drops towards Healesville.

The first few kms are sealed.

The seal soon gives way to several kms of scratchy (in parts) unsealed narrow gravel road. It's not as wide as the Acheron Way but, this time, was fairly smooth after some rain and with less regular traffic there were fewer potholes to dodge.

Descending the unsealed section towards Don Rd...

We only saw one or two vehicles between Donna Buang and Don Valley.