Last weekend signified the first official AMTRA 'Adventure' ride, and what a cracker it was!
5 souls met in The Basin at 7:30 on Saturday morning. It was a bit drizzly and bloody cold, but Rob and Willie were there on their BM's and Paul had arrived on his Africa twin. Soon after I arrived, Steve rode in on his Trusty Husky and we prepared to head off.
The plan was to head through the ranges to Olinda and Cockatoo, then to meet up with Phil in Gembrook where he would lead for a while. All went according to plan, except that a steady rain had settled in and this made riding a little less interesting. Still, with appropriate clothing (and heated grips), we were up for the challenge. From Gembrook, we made our way to Neerim South and onto the tar section of the Grand Ridge Road into Mirboo North and our first 'leg-stretch' break.
All of the BM models were in attendance....large, medium and fun size! We left mirboo and got back onto the Grand Ridge Road (dirt section) and I was happy I had new tyres fitted! The road was quite sloppy in places and a few of us 'over-cooked' a couple of corners, making for some interesting breaking manoeuvers. Fortunately, most of the rain had stopped and the rest of the ride was conducted in brilliant sunshine, albeit still cold. Another short break saw an emerging problem with the magic inside Paul's auto gear-box. The Honda didn't seem to want to go into neutral, but a suggestion from Willie seemed to sort it and we were on out way again.
We continued on through Binns Junction and the quaint little area of Tarra Valley, with its beautiful tree-ferns and magic twisty road and into Yarram for lunch at the bakery. we had planned to go onto Woodside for lunch, but were running a bit behind schedule, so a quick blast on the sandy roads through Wooddside and out onto Old Rosedale Road into Rosedale. A quick check of the map and we were off again, but no sign of Paul. we waited and he caught up, claiming drive problems with the big Honda. The emerging gear-box problem from earlier, manifested in a big issue and the Big Girl was going nowhere! A couple of phone calls later, we decided to leave Paul at Rosedale and we continued on, Sorry mate, it was good while it lasted!
From Rosedale, we headed to Briagalong, the picked up the dirt road (some 35ks of it) along the river. It would have been a scenic ride, but by this time it was close to 5:00 and light was failing fast. By the time we hit the tar for the final run into dargo, it was dark (and cold). Mindfull of nocturnal creatures on the road, we all took it easy on the home stretch. Steve was hanging back a bit so he could use his high beam, as the low beam on the Husky was next to useless! rolling into Dargo was a pleasent relief and it didn't take long to check int, get out of our riding gear and head to the pub for some drinks and a feed. Pat had riden (solo) from Melbourne and was waiting for us, which was good and we settled into an evening of post-ride banter, Word from Paul was that he bike was holed up in a farmer's shed and that he was on his way back to Melbourne on the train, with the intention of heading down to retrieve it on Sunday. After dinner, we headed to our digs for a well earned sleep. We'd travelled 500ks for the day.
More later.