Lavers Hill via the Great Ocean Road Sunday 28^th July 2002

Pete Weyermayr - CBR929RR (leader) Liz Oliver - CBR919RR

Ben Warden - CBR929RR Graeme Maisey – GTR1000

Rob Langer – BMW GS 1150 Mark Easterbrook – Ducati 750SS

Geoff Jones – R1 (rear) 7 bikes, 7 people

17 degrees, warm and sunny. That was Saturday - unfortunately our ride was on Sunday, 14 degrees and showers... Pete and I turned up at the Westgate Shell servo just after 9 am. We were keen and enthusiastic as it was Pete’s first time leading a ride. The only motorcyclists that were already there looked suspiciously like Ulysses members. We parked by them (but not too close) and went over for a bit of a chat. We told them what club we were with, and when Geoff Jones turned up on his R1 they looked at his bike and said “this guy must be one of yours”. I think they were suitably impressed when he took his helmet off and they realised that he could also be one of theirs (no offence Geoff).

Pete explained the route for the day, Geoff volunteered to go rear rider and we set off through all the boring 60 km/h and 80 km/h road works on the freeway. Relief from the boredom came at the turnoff to Little River. From there Pete somehow managed to find his way via all of the back roads through Lara and Batesford to our first stop at Moriac without missing a single turnoff. After a quick stop at Moriac the pace picked up a bit as we headed through Deans Marsh to Lorne. There were a few slippery patches along the way but nothing too bad. In fact it was a lot of fun.

We stopped at Lorne for another quick break and to fill up with petrol. From Lorne to Apollo Bay I sat behind Pete and Ben, having a ball. There was almost no traffic on the road probably due to the uninspiring weather. The roads were a little damp, but nothing to worry about. Ben pulled over at the public conveniences at Apollo Bay while we continued on. Apollo Bay to Lavers Hill was wet and slippery – parts of it were not too much fun. I think everyone managed at least one slide. As Graeme put it – if you didn’t have one, you weren’t trying hard enough (hmmm).

When we stopped at Lavers Hill, I noticed that the pocket on my seat bag was open. I must have forgotten to do it up when we left Lorne. Along the way my purse, sunglasses and phone had gone flying out. Graham mentioned that he had seen something fly off my bike, but he had thought it might have been something I ran over. When Rob turned up at Lavers Hill, it turned out that he had seen money flying all over the road and stopped to pick my purse up. It looked like all my cards had survived the fall. Unfortunately most of my money had flown away. Lucky for me that Pete was there to shout me lunch and petrol.

After lunch on the closed in balcony we looked out into the fog and drizzle and decided we had to make a move. The ride back to Apollo Bay was better than the ride up, as the roads seemed a bit drier. We stopped in Apollo Bay and decided to stay on the Great Ocean Road until Lorne and return the same way we came. The road looked dry, the weather OK, and there still wasn’t too much traffic. Pete and I had been down the previous weekend for a pre-ride-drive and the road up from Skenes Creek had a fair bit of gravel and debris on it.

The road from Apollo Bay to Lorne was fun second time around too. There was a bit more traffic than we had on the way down. I stopped with Graeme to corner mark just outside of Lorne and he was sweating buckets. He had been working his GTR pretty hard along the last stretch. After Graeme and I had been waiting about 15 mins we started to think that something might be wrong. Pete, Ben and Rob had already gone through so we were only waiting on Mark and Geoff. We waited a bit longer before we decided that something had definitely gone wrong. I left Graeme to wait on the corner and started heading back towards Apollo Bay. Just as I was leaving Lorne, Mark and Geoff came around the corner. I turned around and followed them to Lorne. It turned out that Mark’s throttle cable had broken, making riding pretty hard work for him. He decided to carry on down the Great Ocean Road to Geelong and find his own way home from there.

The rest of us carried on towards Deans Marsh. Just before the turnoff to Moriac I saw three bike headlights coming towards me. The others had finally decided to come back and see what the hold up was. We carried on to Moriac where we filled up with petrol and used the charming toilets. Pete managed to get us back to Lara without getting lost (hey – it’s confusing in reverse). From there, the rest of the way home seemed to go on forever. The traffic on the freeway was quite heavy, and it seemed unbearably slow. It’s a shame you have to go through all that to get to the fantastic roads down there.

When we got home there was a message on the phone from the Apollo Bay police station. Scary! I hoped they were ringing to tell me someone had found my phone. When I finally managed to get hold of them, I found out that was indeed what they were ringing for. Once I had managed to prove to the very serious Senior Constable that the phone was mine (yeah, it’s a black Nokia…with gravel rash), he promised to send it on to our local police station for me to pick up. What a relief. It turned out to be a great ride. We were lucky with the weather – it could have been a lot worse. Thanks Pete and Geoff for leading and rear riding.

Liz Oliver (CBR919RR)