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 Well we have ran another rally, this time the weather & climatic conditions scared a few people off before  the event, but on the weekend the weather was great on both days. The rally basically started for most at the pre dinner socializing at the Maffra Motel. The Motel cancelled a group of Golfers that had booked in also to another weekend, so we could have the whole Motel to ourselves, but 2 of our riders booked in & then did not turn up. With the bikes unloaded, chained up & ready to go, the riders began to relax
The informal dinner at the Maffra Community Club was well supported with a couple of riders collecting $100 each in the raffle for the bush fire appeal. Many were impressed at the amount of fund raising for the bush fire victims that was going on in such a small town. Buckets were left in the street to donate money, boxes for collecting tools etc, for those that lost everything. Boards for putting your name down to travel to the fire areas to help the people clean up & rebuild fences etc, to keep their cattle & horses in again.
One rider unfortunately was running late getting into Maffra & clipped the roundabout causing great damage to his pride & some damage to his bike, but the garden is OK, he is a bit sore.
Saturday Morning saw no wind & brilliant sunshine, with a cuppa to start the day off at the Maffra Motor Museum at 10.00 am. The riders briefing was held & the marshals were on their way followed by the riders. The parade of 66 bikes down the main St was very impressive to all of the local shoppers. Bikes from the old to the new all made it look good, letting Maffra know we were in town for the weekend.
Heading out through the vegetable & dairy areas of Boisdale to Briagolong where a brief regroup for the marshals to catch up before heading into the forest areas towards Fernbank & onto the Dargo Rd. The 1.4 klms of gravel Rd on the East Gippsland Shire Boundary was a bit of a test for a few riders.
Turning toward Bairnsdale & traveling through Glenaladale, Flaggy Creek, Calulu, Wy Yung then into Bairnsdale for lunch at the River Walk on the banks of the Mitchell river.
Much of these roads have only been sealed in the last few years giving us another new & interesting route to travel on, all riders agreeing it was now a great piece of motorcycling road.
Unfortunately the tucker trailer had problems on the way up to Bairnsdale, and then were confused on how to find the lunch stop, but the magic of mobile phones helped the situation out & lunch was soon on the go.
After refueling it was off to windy Eagle Point, Paynesville & returning via the same road as they were resealing Forge Creek road where to rally was planned to go. From Bairnsdale it was onto Lindenow & Lindenow Sth to Munro & into Stratford for afternoon tea at the river Park.
A couple of riders were getting a bit carried away & ran wide on corners but luckily no harm was done. These modern bikes can go a bit quicker & you have to ride them to the road conditions, not to their capability.
The Afternoon tea by the Avon River was very pleasant with plenty of shelter & Jan's famous Anzac biscuits & other slices to nibble on. Vern & Marg had the urn all set, no worries this time.
The Warrnambool trike was reported to be in trouble, he had an altercation with an Echidna, the 3 ton trike won with only minor Injuries to it, but another of our wildlife was sent to an early grave.
It was mentioned that maybe the rider was throwing a bottle away as per the T.V. advertisement.
The lead rider Andrew reported he was only passed twice during the days run , but No Victorian riders passed him
The evening dinner was at the Maffra Sale Motorcycle clubrooms where another great meal was prepared, but many missed the entertainment of Ross our poet who recently passed away with a heart attack.
Vern did a poem "The man from Iron bark" to help the night along.
The Rally glasses were handed out & the raffles were drawn. Dave thanked the caters & the organizers and the socializing continued on into the evening.
Sunday saw another bright sunny morning as all met again at the Motor Museum before heading off in a loop around through Lowalong, Bushy Park, Velencia Creek, Newry, Coongulla to Glenmaggie dam wall for breakfast.
The breaky was catered for by our family as we had run short of caterers at the last minute.
Our grand kids assisted with their first catering of a meal, so some will know what to do after we have gone. A few extra riders on Sunday made the catering very hard & food had to be stretched to make ends meet with some missing out on their allocated breakfast.
During breakfast I found out that a car & trailer was traveling in the middle of the riders & a couple of corner Marshals (one from Warrnambool) thought it was the back up trailer & left their corners early. This allowed some riders still to come to visit some new country to the Nth & others to arrive back in Maffra. Again the magic of mobile telephones phones was able to direct the riders back to Breakfast stop.
The CB Honda had a terminal problem that caused it to be carried into the breaky stop by trailer.
After breakfast a few riders departed for home & the others enjoyed one of Australia's best pieces of motorcycling roads up to Licola. Many stories & comments of the ride up were discussed over an Ice cream at the Licola store.
I had stopped to help get morning tea organized at Cheynes Bridge.
We had just pulled up when a 4 WD drove out leaving his campfire still smoking.
Even after two weeks of bush fires some people have not learnt to respect the bush & its hazards.
One good gust of wind would have had another bush fire on the run & we would have been in the middle of it.
A beautiful Norvin who was had not entered the Rally, was doing the English thing of spewing oil onto his back tyre, so we helped him out by putting him on our back up trailer & taking him & his bike back down the mountain to Maffra.
It was also back down the mountain for everyone else, to where Alan, Val & Rose had the morning tea all set up for riders to again enjoy Jan's home made cooking.
Onto Heyfield for a fuel stop & where many riders departed for Traralgon & onto Melbourne or home.
The Rally then fell apart with the rest of the riders doing their own thing & they did not want to enjoy the planned scenic river ride back into Maffra & elected to go straight down the main Rd. leaving Jan & I, the marshal's & the back up trailer behind.
So next year's run, we will finish soon after breakfast on the Sunday as not too many riders really want to ride far on the Sunday.
Thanks to.....
Jan who takes all the entries & does the cooking, Andrew for doing the lead riders job.
Peter & Duncan for tail end charlie & back up, all the riders that helped do corner marshalling Vern & Marg for transporting the meals on Sat and the ladies that assisted us with the lunch stop at Bairnsdale.
Special thanks to Ann, Lynne & Julie for selling the raffle tickets.
Terry & his helpers for the Sat night dinner.
Kylie, Mark, Brody, Dyson & Briella for breakfast.
Also Alan, Val & Rose for the Sunday morning tea stop.
Without all of these workers we cannot run an organised & successful event.
I thank every one who supported this year’s event & also those who had problems & could not make this years run & sincerely hope the bush fires gave their properties a wide berth.
lan & Jan Kennedy.
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