Tuesday was the final day’s riding and everyone was up with the birds in order to get an early start. The plan was to indulge in a "free" Lions Club breakfast in the town centre; alas another great plan never seemed to eventuate, as people gathered for the traditional pub breakfast.

The planned route home had only four starters: Ben Warden, Tim Walker, Gerry East and myself. Wayne’s ZX9 was loaded onto his trailer, then Darren’s GSXR onto the other trailer for their trip home. Danny Kosinski decided that there was simply not enough rubber left on his rear slick to enjoy the tour over the mountains and opted for a simple ride down the Hume.

After saying our good byes, we were immediately stymied to find that we were too early to get fuel. The decision was made and we headed off towards Dederang hoping that a reasonably large BP would be open about 20 km down the road. It was a good call and so we all filled up only to be informed that Mr. Plod had just headed off in the same direction as we were going.

Ben maintained a casual pace down the Kiewa Valley Highway for around 35 km until a right turn set us on a mighty piece of road called the Tawonga Gap. Around 25k’s of grouse twisting bitumen had everyone’s head down until the Hotham turn off, Ben out of sight and Gerry right on my tail. Alas no Tim…the worst was not to be, as he had simply shot back a couple of K’s to retrieve some lost luggage.

On our way once more we wound our way up through spectacular sights of Mt Hotham to Dinner Plain were we planned morning tea. Cheated again, the only source of food and coffee didn’t open till 11am. We may as well have slept in an extra hour. While we took a short break, Tim found an appropriate piece of fencing wire to help re-attach Ben’s muffler. We decided that it would be Omeo for coffee.

The road surface through to Omeo was quite alright, but it is already showing some signs of wear and tear, with the occassional pot hole and breaking up at the edges. Still it’s definitely better than dirt. Omeo for rest and coffee. A quick tyre inspection showed Tim’s rear 207 looking decidedly unwell. In fact it was so unwell that it was going flat! A can of Pyroil tyre inflator, and let’s ride!

The scenery along the Omeo Highway and the Tambo River is the kind you see on post cards: absolutely magnificent. So is the road. Tim’s tyre seemed to be holding so we headed onto Bruthen for fuel and some more air.

Leaving Bruthen and on to Bairnsdale our little jaunt encountered a small hiccup with the local constabulary. Somehow we lost our leader for a short period but soon we were all reunited at Stratford when we stopped at the Mad Cow for a somewhat late lunch.

By now Tim had no option but to head home via the highway in order get a reliable supply of air for his failing rear tyre, whilst Ben, Gerry and myself took the scenic route. With the weather deteriorating we got back on the highway at Yarragon and endured the damp ride home.

This is my third Tallangatta, and thanks to Ben as our ride leader, and the great company of the members, all I can say again this year is: GROUSE WEEKEND…