Onion and I had an un-eventful trip, until we were accosted by Seano at Macca’s in Glenrowan. We convoyed from there to Holbrook, arriving around 6:00 to find most of the crew settling into fizzy refreshments. Dinnertime was rapidly approaching, so we debated whether to walk or drive to the RSL, until someone mentioned that the RSL had a bus! “I’m on it” says Daz, and 15 minutes later, we were being driven to dinner, how cool is that! We had a good feed and then walked it off on our return to the motel, where we had a few more
drinks, then hit the sack.
Up early for a full cooked breaky, then into the cars to drive out to God knows where to start the ride. Muzza was still recovering from an injury, so his son Ben was our fearless leader. Big Ferg was tailman for the morning and the rest of us slotted in between. We took off into bright, sunny blue skies and dusty, dry tracks. 6k’s in, and we came across a rider down. Muzza’s other son (Mark), had had an altercation with a roo, and the roo won! Initial prognosis was a broken arm, but turned out to be a nasty gash on the underside, so not as bad as initially
thought. Luckily, Muzz wasn’t too far away, so he came and collected his boy and took him off for medical attention,while we continued on.
In true Holbrook style, the ride was a mixture of open trails, tight singles and the obligatory ‘follow-the-leader’ through the pine forests. Everyone was keeping a good pace, including Ted (to his credit), until he almost tore himself a second fundamental orifice, whilst trying to navigate a tricky log crossing. Once again, to his credit, he soldiered on. The morning loop was fairly uneventful, except for an awkward creek crossing, that included a rocky exit after a steep entry. Photos never do these things justice, but it was tricky!
Plenty of blokes were on hand to help out, and we stoppedfor a re-group at the top of the hill.
Pete was being Pete, what can I say?
After the crossing, it was on to lunch, where Muzz had cooked up chicken sticks and burgers, yum!
Ted decided to bail at lunch, and followed the cars around to our next meeting point, while we continued through more of the
same. Not long after lunch, Ben’s bike broke the throttle cable, so that saw his day done, so Al took over the leader
role, and did a splendid job (almost)! A few moments of geographical embarrassment, but all good. We met up with Muzz and Ted at another small creek crossing, where I managed to dump myself into a hole, and finished the ride with wet boots. The locals new a better way around, and used it to their advantage. The rest of the ride went according to plan and we returned to the cars with around 120k’s on the clock.
Back at the motel, we showered and changed and settled infor the evening with a ripper BBQ meal that Muzz and Pauly prepared, accompanied with more libations. Most called it a night around 10:00
Sunday morning we were up again at 7:00 for another big breakfast, then into the cars and off to Woomagarma for the days ride. We left the cars at the Fly Flaire winery, and headed out into some of the terrain we had ridden in previous years. The pace was hot from the get go, with a couple of retirements from Saturday’s crew and some fresh faces added. Lots of singles, lots of logs, more ‘follow-the-leader’and even some High Country-esque trails. One ripper (in particular), that was 4ks of sandy, twisting downhill ,through a forest of black-boys, to emerge at the bottom, only to be told that we had to go back up! There were no complaints!
Another re-group and a soft drink with Muzz mid-ride.
There was love in the air!
And something in the water!
Some more of the same trails then had us skirting around the winery’s property, and before we knew it, the day was done and we were pulling into Fly Flaire for another burger lunch on their deck, with around 80 k’s for the day. Most packed up and said their good-byes after lunch, but Onion and I stayed for a while and tried (and bought) some of the local offerings.
All in all, a great weekend as everyone has said. Big thanks to Pauly for organizing it all, along with Murray who’s always smiling and ready to help out. And thanks also to Al for stepping into the lead role, Ferg and Darcy for tail duties, and all those who came along to share in the fun of this annual event.