The day started out fine, but showers began to fall while we had breakfast. It would continue to rain on and off during the day. Peter filled up on the way out of Orbost; the rest of us could wait until the next planned stop. Behaving ourselves, we followed the Princes Highway 76 km to Cann River. We all filled up. Peter checked his rear tyre and pronounced it close to worn out. And this was after only about 1600 km (including a track day at Phillip Island)! A quick check of the map for our intended route, and Peter decided that he would pass up some of the mornings’ more interesting roads and head straight up the Cann Valley / Monaro Highway to Cooma. Bruce agreed to accompany him.

So it was Ben, Rhys, Geoff and Trevor who turned off at Bombala towards Brown Mountain. The road to Wyndham was dry and was covered quickly. We saw a number of other bikes around, some going the other way; others appearing when we regrouped here and there. As we started up a wet Brown Mountain we were passed by a TL1000S and GSX-R 1100, just as the going got interesting. The GSX-R appeared to go backwards at the sight of corners, so the four of us passed it and took off after the TL. Feeling uncomfortable with the pace on the wet surface, I waved Rhys past so he could join Ben in keeping the TL honest. And then we came across a set of traffic lights, complete with red light and a number of cars patiently waiting for the green! The lights were present due to roadworks to fix a number of slips. So, we did the obvious thing and moved to the front of the queue.

Green light, and we were off again, this time with the TL and GSX-R behind us. And then we hit fog. Thick fog. More accurately described as riding inside a cloud. This lasted a few kilometres, and then it was back into daylight; things sped up again. We didn’t see any more of the pair of Suzuki’s. Next was the Snowy Mountains Highway and on to Cooma where a) it absolutely pissed down big-time, and b) Peter and Bruce were waiting for us. Further checks were made of Peters’ rear tyre, and he decided to go straight to Canberra where he would get a new tyre fitted on Monday. He would then join up with us later in the day.

So five of us set off to Jindabyne. After a snack break and some more rain, it was on to Thredbo. Two things were different this year: we didn’t have to pay a toll, and the road is now fully sealed all the way to Khancoban. However, just like last year there was a fair amount of horseshit on the road; there must be a good reason for the wild horses to drop it there but I can’t work it out... Ben led at a fast pace through this stretch, with Rhys and Trevor following close behind. Geoff and Bruce took a more sane approach and caught up at the regroup at Tom Groggin. Trevor looked at his rear tyre and pronounced it close to the end — we were starting to wear out a tyre a day on someone’s bike! After a quick squirt of chain lube we then headed to Khancoban at our own pace; Rhys was first away. The road was subject to road works on a number of corners where the local council was installing mesh to prevent rockfalls where the road has been cut through the rock.

Petrol for all at Khancoban, and by now it was hot and sunny. There appeared to be a BMW convention or gathering of some sort at the campground across from the service station; a couple of R100GS’s were seen for the first time; we would see them constantly over the rest of the weekend. Then it was off to Walwa via Tintaldra. Dry roads, but the speeds were kept down due to encounters in previous years with the local constabulary by one or two of our group. Arriving at the Walwa pub around 7:00pm, we claimed five rooms, had a meal cooked just for us (no pub meals on Sunday nights), enjoyed a couple of beers and headed to bed.

My figures for the day: Filled the FJ four times; covered 641 kilometres in just over six hours riding time for an average of 106km/h. My maximum speed was recorded as 341.1km/h but I feel that the computer had a bit of a hiccup....