Three of us, yes, not a misprint, just three of us from Melbourne met at the Shell servo at Laverton for the trip down to the start at Corio. Eddie led Bill and myself down to the start via Little River and arriving with plenty of time to spare at the start venue this year being the Corio CFA fire station. We had the use of the firefighters spacious recreation room where Lyn Richardson had earlier delivered her hot pumpkin and vegetable soup along with fresh bread rolls. The thick hot soup, served up by Sandra Lauder, was delicious and appreciated by everyone. Thank you ladies… a great way to start a winter run.

To see photos click here or go to Gallery/2008/Weekend Runs/3 Rivers Run

After a briefing by Bob Lee our leader for the day, 20 bikes were off heading north along a nice variety of country roads with our first re-group in the bush reserve at Steiglitz. Wonder where that name came from? From here across to Meredith and from where Bob took us on a bit of a zig zag route over many more minor and less traveled country roads that took us towards Morrison and back over to Elaine then riding on a road alongside the Ballarat to Geelong railway to Lal Lal. Our last morning leg was west to the Yuulong Lavender Estate at Mt Egerton. We were all welcomed individually into the spacious tearoom by one of the owners Edythe. After we all settled down at our tables we were addressed by Rosemary, Edythe’s business partner who told us lunch will be alternative quiche or pie with greens. She then told that as all the greens were grown on the farm, were beautifully fresh so there will be no leaving any of it on the plates! Don’t you just love it? I had a good laugh at Bill Wheedon (a non tomatoe eater) who begged Ed to take his tomatoes rather than leaving them on his plate and possibly be subject to ‘Rosemary’s Wrath’! (A good name for a wild thorn or weed don’t you think?) That’s certainly no slight to our very nice host of course.

After everyone had polished off their plates Rosemary then gave us a talk about the Yuulong Lavender Estate, when they bought the land and how they started growing lavender etc. I was surprised to learn they have some 120 varieties of lavender at Yuulong. It’s also one of the oldest lavender farms in Victoria and the first in the goldfields region. I was quite interested in the many uses for all the different varieties of lavender, particularly in the food industry. I took home some lavender marmalade and it’s delicious. You can visit their website at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

After lunch some of the Ballarat riders left for home and I broke off to visit family in Mt Egerton before heading home myself. Bob was returning to Geelong via Anakie with the rest of the group.

Just a bit of trivia: We hadn’t yet traversed over three different rivers (a tradition of this run). However I did note we crossed the Moorabool at three different spots and that should suffice as this run embraced plenty of good bike riding roads as good as any Three Rivers Run I have attended.  The Corio fire station was an excellent venue for the start as was the Yuulong Estate for lunch. First behind the leader marshalling was flawless and Bob never put a foot wrong as lead rider. Back-up trailer was his son Shane accompanied by his girlfriend Adele and up to lunch time there were no bikes on board. Thanks Bob and Co for yet another well organized Three Rivers Run. 

Reg Hammond

 1 ED SLEIGHTHOLM  TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE T100     2005

2 BILL WHEEDON  HONDA ST1300                           2003

3 REG HAMMOND  HONDA TRANSALP                  2005

4 MALCOLM WILSON  BMW R60/2                           1963

5 CHRISTINE WILSON  BMW R65LS                         1982

6 KEN ADAMS  HONDA VFR800                                2000

7 NOEL WILLS  BMW RIOOS                                      1982

8 TREVOR HUNT  BMW 650CS                                   2004

9 ED LAUDER  BMW R100                                           1980

10 PETER HOWELL  BMW R110S                               2003

11 BRUCE ARMFIELD  KAWASAKI W650                2001

12 ALF BERRY  JAWA 250                                           1955

13 WAYNE BERRY  KAWASAKI Z1000                     2003

14 BOB LEE  HONDA 400 SPORTS                              1976

15 DICK ROSS  HARLEY LOW RIDER 1430               2001

16 TIM & JILL BROWNE  BMW R1200C                     2000

17 LES SNIBSON  SUSUKI V STROM 1000                 2007

18 BURGER DRAKE  VINCENT RAPIDE 1000           1950

19 MAURICE  TURNER YAMAHA T MAX 500          2007

20 HAROLD  GEORGE BMW K75C                             1985

SHANE LEE AND ADELLE GREGORY  BACK-UP-TRAILER

LYN RICHARDSON AND SANDRA LAUDER      MORNING SOUP AND BREAD ROLLS