Compared to Sunday's Club ride to Mt Macedon, the Walwa Weekend was effectively incident free for the eight attendees. Given that Rhys Williams, Tim Walker, Geoff Jones, Geoff Barton and Ben Warden did in the order of 2400 km and the Wayne Grant and Neville Maggs (who trailered their bikes) and Bruce Saville did at least 1000 km, it is a pretty fair effort. A similar ride a couple of years ago resulted in seven out of ten bikes either crashing (4 off) or suffering a serious mechanical failure such as a holed radiator (2 off) or broken muffler bracket (1 off). Geoff's fears were well founded.

On our ride, interestingly consisted of five Kawasakis (team Green) and three Hondas.

Over the course of the weekend there were plenty of minor incidents such as hitting birds, playing chicken with foxes, cows, lizards, echidnas, rock wallabies and snakes. Leaving from Hallam at 1 pm we encountered a rain storm near Maffra as part of the 700 km ride over Hotham, arriving after dark with the attendant animal risk and billion bugs to contend with, and the unseen (but felt and heard!) gravel over the Granya Gap. What a way to start a three day weekend.

Next day on the Alpine Way we encountered pea-soup fog and two sections of wet, slippery clay road works. Pretty hairy, especially for those who took the deep puddle option. And then Geoff J. ran out of petrol coming into Adaminaby. He was using in the vicinity of 10 litres for 70 km at times, a fair effort for an economical 600. Geoff Barton rescued him with a quick syphon of petrol from Rhys's tank.

Of course the electrical storm Friday night took out the TV and telephone tower and the power lines. A pub with no lights, no TV, no phone and no power. Out with the candles so we could at least see what we were eating. And then there was Saturday night's band "The Giants" with security supplied by the Black Newlands. We heard the last Harley rider leave at 3 am, the others pitching tents in the back yard.

Did I mention the humidity? Extreme, all weekend. We called it quits after "only" 400 km on Saturday at 2.30 pm. Everyone was physically knackered by the oppressive weather after we descended from the cool altitudes. An air conditioned pub with a quenching ale becomes very enticing in these circumstances. After 1700 hard km, sleep was the only option for some.

The weekend may have been (major) incident free, but it was never dull. Throw in a million Rhys stories, Wayne's view on life (He hate's those Bad Girl stickers), Geoff Jone's world travel tales and there was plenty of entertainment after a great day's riding.

Great company. Bikes faultless. Top weekend.

25.1 12.81 15.12 84.7 3375 Hallam

25.1 11.27 11.75 95.9 3571 Stratford

25.1 12.45 12.59 98.9 3758 Omeo

25.1 9.27 9.87 93.9 3909 Dederang

26.1 9.80 9.83 99.7 4058 Walwa

26.1 10.69 10.70 99.9 4228 Jindabyne

26.1 15.81 15.83 99.9 4490 Adaminaby

27.1 11.81 11.85 99.7 4672 Walwa

27.1 14.29 14.90 95.9 4902 Tumut

27.1 16.95 16.97 99.9 5167 Corryong

28.1 14.36 14.97 95.9 5400 Myrtleford

28.1 12.63 13.59 - 5631 Yea

1. Home

So, the overall economy between Hallam and Yea (2256 km for 142.85 lites) worked out to be 15.79 km per litre. Adding up the dollars came to $152.14.

Day 1 Route: Hallam, Moe, Yallourn North, Moe, Maffra, Stratford, Bengworden, Bairnesdale, Omeo, Mt Hotham, Harrietville, Bright, Tawonga Gap, Mt Beauty, Tamgamballanga, Tallangatta, Granya, Walwa. (700 km from home)

Day 2: Walwa, Corryong, Kkancoban, Alpine Way, Thredbo, Jindabyne, Charlottes Pass, Lake Eucumbene, Adaminaby, Kiandra, Cabramurra, Elliot Way, Tooma, Tintaldra, Walwa (614 km)

Day 3: Walwa, Corryong, Cabramurra, Kiandra, Tumut, Adelong, Rosewood, Tumburumba, Tooma, Tintaldra, Walwa (400 km) (Ben did another 140 km exploring south of Corryong.)

Day 4: Walwa, Granya, Tallangatta, Dederang - half headed back over Mt Hotham arriving home 7 pm ?, others home via Myrtleford, Oxley, Swanpool and Yea - home by 3.25 pm