Seven Peaks Challenge: Dinner Plain (with a side of flies)

The final climb I would attempt (for now) of the Seven Peaks Challenge was to be Dinner Plain. The climb is basically the other side of Hotham, from Omeo rather than Harrietville.

Because we were nearing the end of our week's riding holiday, and we'd all done slightly different climbs on different days, there were some logistics involved to ensure we could all get the rides in we needed.

So it felt like a bit of an adventure as we set off in Freeburgh: four riders, two cars, two different climbs and one mountaintop rendezvous.

It almost sounds romantic.

MG, MK and I (with our bikes) were in one car and WS followed. MG got out at Harrietville for his ascent of Hotham. The rest of us continued in the cars to Dinner Plain, where we all transferred to one car and left the other there. MK, WS and I left the car at Omeo where we got on our bikes. MG was to collect this car at the end of his ride and drive back to Dinner Plain for the aforementioned rendezvous.

Whew. That's enough of the logistics. My head hurts thinking about it.

Dinner Plain is the longest climb of the Seven Peaks Challenge, at 43kms. Although there are some steeper bits, there area lot of flats, and also some downhills, so it has the lowest overall gradient of all the seven peaks of just 2.2%.

The hardest part promised to be the first 8ks or so out of Omeo. I didn't get the full effect of this climb as I couldn't resist stopping most of the way up at a lookout for a glimpse of Mt Kosciuszko, and of course a snap to share with you all.

It was just after this that MK caught up to me. We rode most of the way together from here... just us and countless flies. I gobbed one down a hill earlier on in the ride, then a bit later he got a bit of extra protein down the hatch.

I opened my mouth to say "Yuk, that's revolti.."  and another one hurtled straight down the neck. While MK had a chuckle, I told him in amongst coughs and spits there would be no more sympathy if he chowed down on another one!

This was the worst of the flies, but MK told me after the ride that at one point when he was riding along behind me he counted up to 60 flies on my back, at which point he gave up. Nice.

While not that challenging, the Dinner Plain climb kind of just drags on a bit, without much scenery. We passed through pleasant enough farm lands, and I got this other snap along the way.

Closer to the summit, the road got deader and deader and the incline became more consistently upward again. Soon enough, we got to the top. The final Peak attempted and six out of the seven a success.

Our prearranged rendezvous worked perfectly - we all met up at the amazingly fabulous Mountain Kitchen. The pies there are awesome, and there are countless other delicacies as well.