Yarram via Talook Sunday 23^rd March, 2008

Willem Vandeveld	Honda ST1300	Dennis Lindemann	Honda CBR600
Richard Marek (2^nd ride)	Honda CBR1100XX	Marty Thompson	Kawasaki ZRX12
Paul Southwell	Honda CBR1000	Chris Pointon	Suzuki GSXR1000
Ben Warden (leader)	Honda CBR954	Misho Zrakic	Suzuki GSXR750
David Haine (1^st ride)	Honda VFR800	Tim Emons	Suzuki SV650
Dave Ward	Honda CBR600	Pina Garasi (rear)	Yamaha R6

I was looking forward to this day as I had missed out on a few rides due to other “commitments”, but no relatives, friends or events could hold me back this time. Everything was looking great except for one thing: I couldn’t make it out of my parking garage. After 10 minutes in front of the gate I could hear Willem firing up his 1300cc (on the 5^th floor!) and we were off to Berwick.

With Ben leading we started off towards Moe in perfect weather conditions for our first stop to occupy the local Subway shop. After a comfortable ride to our first stop we were soon heading to the Tarra-Bulga National Park to catch up with the wildlife or whatever was left of it...poor snake!

The first section took us through a twisty log truck road with hardly any traffic at all and an occasional view in the valley. The road was in excellent condition with some gravel as we got into the rain forest. We stopped on a T-intersection for some photos and to determine: Who killed the snake!?

From there we turned right and went downhill through some tight twisties with wet roads and a few damp branches lying around which slowed us down a bit, but at least the scenery was worth it. You could smell the freshly smelling logs next to the roads as we passed by. After a tighter than expected 60km/h bend right before the sawmill we arrived for lunch at Yarram. In addition to our food we could consider ourselves fortunate to enjoy an entertaining one man band which delivered all the classics in his very unique style. Maybe he would be a nice addition to our next club meeting?!

After the refreshments we headed back through the Latrobe Valley on open roads with a great view of the local Loy Yang Power Plant near Traralgon. As I was riding along, trying to catch up with the others and enjoying the view, I saw in the distance a bike and a car next to each other, which is never a good sign. As our little group passed by, I saw our leader standing next to the unmarked police car (1^st rule: no one overtakes the leader?) Marty lead us from there for a little while until Ben caught up with us to make sure we were going into the right direction.

After an entertaining break back in Moe via Yallourn North thanks to Marty and Ben reporting his meeting with the local authorities, we were off to our last stop in Powelltown. We followed the Willow Grove Road through Hill End to Icy Creek to turn left towards Powelltown. The last section was no exception from the rest of our trip today: good fun roads to ride and nice scenery.

Thanks Ben for leading and hope to see you guys next time!

Bis zum naechsten Mal!

(www.babelfish.altavista German to English translate as “Up to next time!” …Ed.)

Dennis Lindemann