After recent storms the Black Spur tourist road is closed for probably a couple of weeks. There are about 200 trees down , some of them quite large. There also what has been described as a F'n big hole in the road, dont know if that is a wash away or some humungous root ball has pulled the road up as a tree has gone over. So far no squashed cars have been found so there is that I guess.

So if you do get off the lockdown leash in Melb, check first if you plan to head out through the tree ferns and ghost gums. Not sure how much of the forest will be left if they have 200ish trees down just along the road line. Its probably going to look different I'm guessing.

 

Just got word from our local State Govt pollie, that the road will be closed for another week. As they remove trees they find more land slips, road damage and other dangerous trees. Only seen pics but it looks like the forest has generally been thinned out. A lot more sky visible.

 

They opened this road the other day and we used it to go down the outer Melbourne burbs. The forest is greatly thinned out with views where there wernt views before. The main difference is the amount of light now reaching the ground. At least 50% of the canopy is gone and the whole environment is much lighter and brighter. In one area a whole hillside of trees and ferns has been flattened , looks like a bit of mini tornado action.

The boys and girls in the clearing crews did a great job clearing up. If you were a first timer you probably wouldnt notice much has happened apart from the aforementioned hillside. Here is a pic of the area , bit hard to get a good pic with limited pullover spots, but you get the idea.

 

For those who care, this road was closed 9AM - 5PM for 10 days recently, this time for resurfacing.

The top half , Fernshaw to the servo at the top, is now very smooth and well marked with a lot of under run protection on the Armco for your bike types.