Once again we had another pleasant and successful Otway with this year being a much-changed format. No first Saturday local run as usual except of course for the main Great Ocean ride plus for some, the inland route down to Apollo Bay and then both groups joining up for the final leg onto the Cape Otway venue where we were all accommodated in the Bimbi Park Caravan Park. Why an alternative inland route?  This was a surprise to me and the reason being that some riders consider the Great Ocean Road too dangerous and wanted to avoid it. What? Too dangerous?

To see photos of the 2008 Colac Rally click here or go to Gallery/2008/Otway Rally 2008.

I know that some of its tight bends and narrow sections in damp conditions make us all a little cautious but surely it’s not that bad?  Particularly this run as the Otway is always sensibly arranged for a much staggered start right from Anglesea to Apollo Bay allowing riders to ride at their own comfortable pace and as always with the comfort of the back up trailer traveling way behind. Also I know despite the 80kph and less limit right to Apollo Bay you sometimes get hoon riders or drivers right up your jacka that can be annoying but there are heaps of spots to pull over and let them go. Maybe some riders have had near misses with overseas foreigners driving on the wrong side of the road? Now that I could understand. Or is it the cameras? Read on.

So this year Ron Richardson and Bob Lee had to organize two back up trailers for the two separate runs.

 Another surprise to me and again a first for the Otway Rally this year was the entry of riders from two other clubs being the Ballarat Ulysses club and the Yamaha 650 club. Ron told us that member entries were so low this year that without the influx of these other riders this Otway would have been abandoned. Ron didn’t even have enough riders for the usual stationary marshals and along with all the other jobs it was Ron and Bob that had to drive the back up trailers!

  At the start in Moolap Ron gave us his legendary briefing in which he told us about the latest camera gadgetry that the cops are now using on the Great Ocean Road. They now have remote cameras set up at their favourite revenue spots and linked to receivers monitored by police hidden further down the road. If you cross a double line or whatever and its filmed and witnessed by police on the camera, bingo! They stop and book you. If you argue they play it back to you on their monitor. Would you care to challenge that in court sir? Nice one eh?                                                                    We were off under somewhat cloudy skies led by Ken Adams with the inland riders led by Ron driving the ‘front up’ trailer (no lead rider) leaving a little later. As we left it was a nice feeling knowing that along with some other members my car and trailer were under lock and key in one of the factories now used in Ron’s family crash repair business – such luxury!

We rode down to our first regroup at Anglesea via Torquay. As we parked I was amazed to see that one of the Ulysses riders who dismounted from a massive Triumph Rocket was a woman! And a very competent rider she was too. Found out later that it was one of two bikes that Laurice owns, the other being a Triumph America being ridden by her friend Mick. 

We had a short rain shower at Aireys Inlet that didn’t bother us at all and another short but heavier shower as we were leaving Lorne. Unfortunately it was on the last bend leaving Lorne that one of the Geelong riders had a bit of a spill suffering a graze on a knee and knocked a couple of indicator lenses off his bike. Bike on trailer, rider in car for rest of weekend and seemingly no real damage to knee.

Weather improved with sunny spells turning grey seas to green – beautiful.  Both groups arrived at Apollo Bay with no further mishaps, I don’t know in which order as I was a bit behind on account of playing tourist by taking seascape photos as I usually do on this run.  With every return to Apollo Bay there seems to be yet more café s appear in the main street and all doing good business. Had a very pleasant cuppa getting acquainted with another couple of riders on our run who had ridden from as far away as Mt. Beauty and were members of the Yamaha 650 club, Chris and Janet.

We had the usual gathering of bystanders taking an interest in our bikes and why wouldn’t they? There were some very appealing bikes, classic and modern on this run.

From Apollo Bay it was a faster winding road mostly

Through forests until the turn off to Bindi Park Caravan Park situated on the Cape Otway lighthouse road.

Bindi Park was a mixture of older but comfortable timber self contained units and caravans positioned irregularly on a hilly and wooded site. We had hardly settled in when it was time to wander down to the main bunkhouse verandah to eat.   A couple of cooks were busy barbecuing chops, steaks etc with an assistant helping out. All beautifully cooked and heaps of it. They had so much food, which made me think they had catered for a larger crowd. There were even plenty of nice big prawns being barbecued and all followed by lovely apple pie with cream or ice cream.  Plenty of second helpings of everything. Not only that but as much free wine (yes you read right - FREE wine) as you could drink and beer at only $2 a can. The planned ‘Pirates’ night didn’t eventuate (after me making a black pirate’s eye patch!) but who cared. We were all having too good a time yakking the evening away with old friends and making new ones while some of the younger brigade mucked about with a jukebox type music machine. For my liking they could have selected more of the good old get up and go dance hits to get us really rocking but never the less the whole evening was a great social success. The Ballarat Ulysses and Yamaha 650 club members were certainly welcome and good company.

The cooks were up early in the morning and again supplying us with heaps of tucker. Plenty of eggs, bacon and mushrooms, plus a big variety of cereals and porridge. Second helpings? Again no problem! Delightful. We also spotted a koala bear climbing a tree.

Before the off we all gathered near the caravan park shop for a group photo, then rode back to Apollo Bay. We were informed that a somewhat more extensive planned run somewhere in the Otway National Park had to be abandoned because of road works so apart from a stop at the reservoir near Forrest it was a direct run to the pub at Forrest for lunch. That run through the forest became almost as dark as night but luckily the threatened rain never eventuated. At the pub I was so full of last night’s dinner and the big breakfast all I could manage to put away was soup! And very nice it was too.

One or two riders left us here with the main group heading back to the start venue at Moolap via Barwon Downs, Deans Marsh, Bambra,Wurdiboluc, Modewarre (sad to see Lake Modewarre completely dried up) and Moriac.

 Arriving back at the factory Ron and the ladies had a sausage sizzle (yes, more food) on the go for us and then Bob handed out the beer glass trophies.

A great weekend, a good range of classic and modern bikes to admire and good on Ron and Co for taken the trouble to organize something different.                                                                                          Ron worked particularly hard on this years Otway and had more than his share of problems, the first being the knock back on the original accommodation at the Cape Otway Lighthouse complex (no clear reason given). Organizing accommodation for groups is always stressful so you can imagine the horror he faced when confronted with that. However with Bobs help he did very well to be able to secure accommodation at the caravan park and a very successful venue it was run by very helpful and obliging owners. The second big disappointment for them both was the low number of entries and as mentioned earlier the run would not have taken place had it not been for the input from those two other clubs. How Ron managed that I have no idea but it certainly saved the weekend.  It was however good to see the entire contingent from Corowa (Bill Garner) and Colac (Malcolm and Christine Wilson) on the run.                                                                                     Total bikes entered this year on the Otway where marginally up from last year: 36 to 29. However only because 12 or so of those 35 bikes (and the majority had pillion riders) was from the two invited.                                                                                             Although it was quite a worry for them at the time, Ron and Co shouldn’t concern themselves too much on the poor member attendance, as they are not alone. Declining numbers of participants at full weekend rallies seem to be the norm at present not only for our club but other clubs also.  The rocketing cost of living, along with the horrendous price of fuel doesn’t help. A challenge we all face. Despite all that long live the Otway.

Thanks again Ron, Bob and your team for a great weekend.

Reg Hammond