|
 As I arrived at 8:30 to the Laverton start, I was a little surprised to see almost all of the Melbourne riders already gathered. One could have been forgiven in thinking it was the BMW club as there were BMW R model’s everywhere, six of them in fact, including Ross Patrick’s newly acquired egg fryer R80 mount. Finally twelve 12 riders us (now seven BM’s) left on time led by myself on my old Beeza for a 40 minute trouble free run down the Geelong Freeway to the start of the Three Rivers Run at the CFA station in North Geelong. After a while along came the Ballarat brigade and then a few more riders from Geelong.
It was good catching up with the Geelong and Ballarat members although I was sorry to see Bob Lee in a bit of strife. He had come down to the CFA station to see us off after a week’s chemo treatment and told me the prognosis was good.
Good on you for coming down Bob and we all wish to see you up and riding again soon.
As always, the ladies, Pat Lee, Sandra Lauder and Joyce Russell did us proud serving us, not one or two but three varieties of lovely homemade hot soup and bread rolls. It was delicious and they supplied enough soup and rolls to feed an army. Thanks girls.
There were now around thirty bikes in the car park and after a short briefing by our leader Eddy Lauder, he led us out of the suburbs up over the Geelong bypass across to the Anakie/Ballan then onto the Steiglitz road and riding over the Moorabool river, the first of our three river crossings. Our lunch stop destination was Birregurra, a distance close to 100klms. Ed got us there just after 12:00 noon by riding entirely along pleasant country roads and cri- crossing over a few highways heading South and then West. The weather was a mix of overcast conditions with some intermittent sunshine breaking through. Depending on the direction we headed we also, for a while, copped some blustery winds. However we were lucky in having no rain at all the entire day. As expected there was plenty of water everywhere and all the countryside was nice and green. Farmers should be happy and many acres have been put under the plough. In the Bambra area, close to Deans Marsh, I was intrigued to see signage to the “Hari Krishna Valley”. Official brown tourist signs! Strewth! Please don’t tell me the Government has given them some sort of land rights down for a commune? I havn’t come across any Hari Krishna’s for years. Maybe this where they all are now!
We had a brief regroup at Deans Marsh before arriving at our lunch venue in Birregurra. A few of us went to the café and a few into the pub. In the café Burger and I had some pleasant banter with a group of happy local elderly ladies having a fish and chip birthday lunch. One old dear chatted about riding pillion many years ago on her late husband’s Norton and she asked if I had heard of a Norton! I told her there was one outside and she made moves to go out and have a look. However the others told her to stay put as they were about to be served. I took some photos of the birthday group. Next day I processed enough copies for all eight of them and sent them off to, wait for it….Katie Cockaine! “I’m a druggie” she said laughing. The old dear who talked about her husband’s Norton never did get around to seeing Noel Will’s ES2 outside. They were still tucking well into their fish and chips as we left.
On the following Wednesday Katie phoned me to say they got the photos and thanked me.
Our lunch period was around an hour and a pleasant one at that. We then headed North, had a fuel top up at Winchelsea before riding further North to Inverleigh. Having already crossed the Moorabool and Barwon rivers (probably more than once), we then crossed the third and final river, the Leigh. Mission accomplished! From Inverleigh we rode up into the Batesford area ending the ride at a servo stop on the Midland Hwy close to the Geelong by-pass. After thanks and farewells, riders then headed in all directions for home.
We, the Melbourne riders, numbers still intact, headed back home back up the Geelong Freeway. I was home at 4:15 and 365 klms on the speedo (yes, the Beeza has a Smiths clock reading in Kilometres).
Thanks again Edward for a well-planned run, Bruce for the back-up trailer and Pat, Sandra and Joyce for the soup.
Reg Hammond
19th June Participants list
Peter Cullen BMW R60/5 1971
Ross Patrick BMW R80 1986
Ray Isles BMW R80 1995
John Best BMW R80 1986
Tom Myers BMW R100 CS 1981
Tony Border BMW R100 RS 1982
Graham Boulter BMW 1150 GS 2000
Reg Hammond BSA 650 Gold Flash 1957
Richard Haughton Moto Guzzi Nevada 750 2003
Anthony Maiorano Honda CBR (Guest rider) 2003
Bill Graham Triumph 650 (Cafe) 1966
Bill Weedon Honda ST 1300 2003
Ken Bombardier Triumph Thunderbird 1952
Edward Lauder Honda Hornet 2000
Noel Wills Norton ES2 1954
Burger Drake Triumph Tiger 650 1970
Ken Adams BMW R100 S 1977
Rodney Wright Harley WLA 1942
Andy Symons Triumph Bonneville 2008
Laurice Beckers Triumph Rocket 3 2008
Steve Miller Triumph Tiger 650 1971
Moses Laurance Harley FXS 1978
Michael Simpson AJS 350 16MS 1956
Neville Humphryis AJS 500 1985
Laurance Moony Honda Deauville 2007
Malcolm and Christine Wilson BMW RT 1200 2007
Chris Ridsdale BMW R57/6 1976
Roger Hicks Harley Softail 2006
Faye Backstrom Honda CB250 ?
Colin Loather Honda VFR ?
Bruce Armfield Kawasaki W650 2001
Bruce Kinnersley Back up trailer
Keith and Belle Emmet Car
Apologies to riders I may have missed. |
