Tarra Bulga National Park      Sunday 1st December, 2002

 

Kawasaki ZX9 Rhys Williams               BMWR1150GS           Rob Langer (1/2 rear)

Honda CBR929           Pete Weyermayr           Yamaha FZR1000        Derek Atkinson (1/2 rear)

Honda CBR919R         Liz Oliver                     Honda CBR929RR      Ben Warden (leader)

Honda CBR1100X      Martin Hastie                Honda CBR954 RR     Rob Jones

Honda CBR250RR      Kate Stewart                Yamaha R1                  Mario Ibeas

Yamaha R1                  Geoff Jones                  Honda CBR1000         Mark Rhodes(1st ride)

Kawasaki ZX9R          Dave Hives                   Kawasaki ZX9R          Collin Gray (1st ride)

Suzuki GSF1200          Ron Johnston                Honda VTR1000         Ross McCurdy (1st ride)

Ducati 750SS               Mark Easterbrook        Honda CBR600           Darryn Hutchinson (1st ride)

Suzuki TL1000S          Greg Hales                   Suzuki GSXR600         Craig Davidson (1st ride)

 

Saturday drizzled all day, and it was still wet late Saturday night, so I was relieved to wake up on Sunday morning to the sun peaking over the hill. It looked like it would be a nice day for what I expect to be my last Club ride on my babyblade before it is sold. I rolled into the servo at Hallam to find a good turn out of bikes, lots of regulars and many new faces. After filling up with fuel, I ventured over to tell Ben I planned to go on ahead and meet the ride at Pakenham, as I had forgotten my earplugs and hoped to stop at a chemist to buy some. Ben scoffed, and duly unzipped his top pocket and to my surprise, several packets of new and used earplugs spilled out. I was most grateful when he offered me a nice (new) pair of bright orange ones. Thank you Ben :)

 

Ben jumped up on a trailer to give a rundown on today’s ride and explain the corner marking for the benefit of the new faces, then we were off! I was one of the last to leave and only had Rob and Ron behind me. Unfortunately, just as I started to leave the servo my contact lens shifted and I blinked it out. Not a good start. I immediately stopped (in the middle of the service lane) to try and rectify the situation before I lost it. This involved returning to the restrooms to put it back in with the assistance of a mirror, while Rob moved my bike. It was a lengthy delay, but Rob (the rear rider) was patient as ever.

 

Finally I was back on my bike and ready to leave.  The traffic was fairly heavy, and with these roads being patrolled heavily, there was no hope of catching up with the ride before the Pakenham turnoff.  Ron suddenly appeared from behind us at the last set of lights in Pakenham. I have no idea where he had been, he was supposed to be in front of us! I felt very sorry for all the corner markers sitting at the many corners from Pakenham to Drouin. I did my best to make up for lost time and scooted my little machine along most of the way, so by the time I got to Drouin I had to corner mark myself!

 

From Drouin the ride was back in tight formation, but not for long. This was shaping up to be a pretty fast ride. Ben led us along familiar roads. I've definitely done many of them before. However, I always feel like I'm lost in Gippsland, so I can’t relay the exact route. We had an early lunch and fuel stop in Korrumburra. I know that!  It was there that Mario showed me how he spins his new R1 on its stand instead of walking it out of the parking spot backwards, very slick! It’s amazing how inventive we shorties get. I'll have to remember that one.

 

It was such a long ride that I don’t recall if the gravel section was before the stop or after, but it slowed me down as usual. (3km of dirt road on the Arawata Road …Ed.)  At some stage we passed through Mirboo North. It looked different to what I remembered from the last time I'd been there on my first Club ride, last December. Maybe because we approached it from a different direction, I'm not sure. Gippsland has a huge amount of terrific twisty roads, and the variety in the road surface condition makes them quite challenging. With lots of blind corners on narrow unmarked roads, oncoming traffic (although scarce) is a worry. I'm especially wary of meeting one of those big milk tankers. The odd big bump seems to catch me by surprise occasionally too, but on the whole it is a great place to ride. I think I'll enjoy it more once I get a bigger bike as those roads really call for more torque than my little bike offers.

 

This was such a strung out ride that I only seemed to catch a glimpse of Pete, Liz, Ron, Rhys and Geoff was when I passed them corner marking or while we stopped for breaks. Martin (passengerless today) filled my mirrors then flew by on his Bird several times and I saw plenty of Greg in those bright new leathers! Is he riding faster now he looks like a racer or do I just notice him more? He did seem to both fly by me and do more corner marking than everyone else on this ride.  At one stage Derek passed me riding like a man absolutely possessed.  He was obviously enjoying himself, hanging off the side of his bike and positively devouring the road. I usually see Derek so restrained, often as rear rider. It was great to see him cut loose.  

 

I hardly laid eyes on Ben most of the ride and when I finally did get all the way through the field to the front (courtesy of lots of corner marking by everyone else) I'm right behind him when he gets lost and leads us to an unexpected gravel road.  Bens brake light came on.... eeeek ! Gravel road just ahead.... BRAKE HARD.... lock up on the loose gravel on top of the asphalt..... biggish slide onto the gravel road...... brake OFF..... yikes..... nearly lost it ..... phew.... still on two wheels..... WOW !  Much gasping and laughing in relief was done as I tentatively turned around. Only later when we stopped for fuel, did I notice a crack in my fairing under the seat where my leg must have hit it in my 'save' effort.... Bummer. But it could have been a whole lot worse.

 

After my little off road adventure, I was in no mood to take on anymore gravel. So with the possibility of an unmade road some of the way out to the Tara Bulga National Park I decided to hang out with a few of the others at the servo and rejoin the ride when it came back past. Rob (white & blue CBR954RR - GRRR plates!) and his mates Craig, Ross, Collin, Mark, Dave Hives (new purple ZX9R), Rhys and myself all stayed while the remainder of the ride checked out the National Park. I chatted to Rhys as he polished his visor and helmut for at least10 minutes! He couldn’t have got it any cleaner. His shiny black Arai lid dazzling, putting my bug littered one to shame, but I wasn’t about to reclean it. As long as the visor didn’t have any bugs on it I didn’t care how bad the rest of the lid looked.

 

We sat on the grass waiting for the ride to return for what seemed like about an hour. (During that hour we rode the 21 km to Balook and Tarra Bulga NP and checked out the suspension bridge. The sections of unmade road I had alluded to were all now made. It is now an excellent road with great scenery. ...Ed.) After such a long and lively ride I welcomed the rest. Some of the guys took the opportunity to catch a few rays. We heard the ride returning long before it came into view so most of us were geared up and ready to follow once they passed. Rob stopped to let us know Derek was now rear rider.

 

Fast and clear roads to Traralgon..... a little confusion about direction in the town centre.....lots of corner marking and we were back out on the fast roads heading to Tyers for a fuel stop. After this mini break we followed our trusty leader through Yallourn North and oops another wrong turn....  I thought Ben was going to show us a new way across to Noojee, but he realised his mistake and did a U turn a couple kms down the road. He had turned right towards Erica instead of a left followed by a right to Willow Grove. This is a nice road of sweepers then it gets really twisty through a thick forest section before joining the Mt Baw Baw road down to Noojee.

 

I did most of the home stretch completely alone, apart from an R1 with pillion (not one of our riders) passing me at great speed before Powelltown.. I felt sorry for the pillion.... there’s NO WAY I'd be on the back with someone hooning as fast in tight stuff! Maybe he was told off by his pillion or had a scare because I passed him after Powelltown and he didn’t even try to keep up.

 

The ride finished at Yarra Junction where I joined the collected riders for an ice-cream, then headed home via the fast Woori Yallock Road. This had been a really long and incredibly fun, fast ride. This past year of riding with the Club has been a lot of fun. I will miss riding over the next couple months but look forward to returning with a new, bigger bike next year. Merry Xmas and safe riding everyone.

 

 

Kate Stewart (Honda CBR250RR)