It was raining as I made my way down the hill to the Shell Garage in Templestowe but by 9:30, the start time, it had eased off and we were away. Jack led us up Main Road towards Eltham to the Montsalvat turn off on a road that managed to by pass Eltham and Research, all nice and twisty with hardly any traffic up to Kangaroo Ground and then over to Wattle Glen and up to Hurstbridge and the turn off to Arthur’s Creek and Whittlesea, always a nice ride, even in the rain which up to now has been off and on.
At Whittlesea we stopped at the Motorcycle Café for a coffee and to say G’Day to Conor Murphy who joined us at this point.
After morning tea a few decided to forgo the rest of the trip and we proceeded up Yea Rd to Flowerdale then over to Strath Creek, then on to the Goulburn Hwy. Just outside of Yea half of us made it through a lane closure on the green and as I rode past the barricade I noticed the work had been completed. I guess Friday was an RDO and there was no time to open the road for the weekend. Then into Yea where we stopped for lunch at Richard and Dot Sommerville’s home for lunch. Richard was working so Dot took over as hostess and did a bang-up job. We barbecued the snags and steaks to be accompanied by Dots magnificent salads after our cup of hot soup. All very nice indeed.
When I pulled up and parked I noticed a group of bikes across the road on a verge but chose the group on the curb when Burger ambled over and asked the year of “Chookie”. When I replied he directed me to place my bike on the verge with all the “Classics”, which I did. I then noticed someone pushing my bike out of the line. I thought to myself they must really admire BMW Craftsmanship and want the bike in the foreground. As it turned out there was a distinction between “Classic” and “English Classic”. Chookie had the distinction of being the only one of the group never having been on the back-up trailer. Yes, German Craftsmanship must be the Criteria.
Bill Garner joined us all the way from Corowa (and back) and it was good to see that kind of enthusiasm and club spirit and good to see Bill and have a chat. During the stop I overheard one of the rider’s comments on the Start Whittlesea segment being a bit twisty with too many concealed driveways while the Whittlesea-Yea portion was magic. An attorney friend once advised me: “You can please some of the people some of the time and that’s enough to make a living” Words of wisdom. I thought the whole trip was great, ESPECIALLY the first part.
After lunch we started back to the afternoon tea stop with some going straight over the Melba to home. The rest went over the Flowerdale rd to Glenburn road, over to the Melba to Mt Slide and then on to King Lake. Now it gets interesting! Not only rain, but rain with FOG. I can’t see the taillight on the bike in front and all the while thinking about the Kinglake-Hurstbridge Rd coming up with Zero visibility.
Well on the way down the rain and fog eased up and all made it to Hurstbridge in good nick.
At this stage I decided to continue home to enjoy a warm fire and a wee glass. On the way, however, I had to traverse Eltham, never a pleasant trip was most of the Eltham Motorists appear to be retarded. Today however, Vic Roads has stage a Worke Faire. All the stalwarts were standing around watching the traffic chaos on overtime rates. I keep forgetting it is an election year.
Yes, there was a warm fire and all was good again.
It was raining as I made my way down the hill to the Shell Garage in Templestowe but by 9:30, the start time, it had eased off and we were away. Jack led us up Main Road towards Eltham to the Montsalvat turn off on a road that managed to by pass Eltham and Research, all nice and twisty with hardly any traffic up to Kangaroo Ground and then over to Wattle Glen and up to Hurstbridge and the turn off to Arthur’s Creek and Whittlesea, always a nice ride, even in the rain which up to now has been off and on.