The Strzelecki Range, is a low mountain range between the Latrobe Valley and Bass Strait. This feature is named after a Polish explorer Pawel (Paul) Strzelecki who led an expedition through here in the 1840's.
Strzelecki (Wikipedia)
At the time he was trying to get to Western Port Bay and only barely avoided starvation in the rugged terrain and vegetation of this region. Today, only 19% of the original vegetation remains, the rest having fallen victim to logging followed by farming. Fortunately there are a few bits of the area which are protected, namely Tarra-Bulga National Park, the Morwell National Park and the Mount Worth State Park.
Anyway, enough geography and history - my first stop was the InLine4 cafe in Mirboo Nth, a little town nestled beautifully in the Strzeleckis. As mentioned in a couple previous blogs, this cafe is rapidly becoming a Mecca for motorcyclists, and even though it was quite a fine day, I really enjoyed my large bowl of Goulash Soup before continuing on with my trip. It was fantastic riding through the green rolling hills before joining the South Gippsland Highway at Meeniyan. From here the ride continued past the wind farm at Toora, through Yarram and back home through Gormandale.
Reached Traralgon just after 4 pm and the temperature was dropping quickly, so it was time to fuel up and go home. Short but sweet!
Total Distance 214 km.
Hey Theo
ReplyDeleteThanks for the history lesson as I have been thinking lately who the hell is this strzeleckis person. There are certainly a lot of thing named after him, like hwy mountain ranges etc
Great riding on those road you mention lucky you.
You're right. When you live here you see his name everywhere yet I doubt 1 person in 100 would know why. If you can imagine how rugged the region was before the forests were cleared it makes you appreciate the magnitude of the task of crossing Gippsland, and mapping/surveying it, while running out of food.
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