Australia Day Weekend – Sunday 26^th January, 2002

On Sunday morning there were some fairly tired looking people around the breakfast table. It probably had something to do with the noisy locals and the live band playing outside our bedroom windows until early in the morning in celebration of Australia Day. I don't know, I wore earplugs to bed and slept quite well. Added bonus with the earplugs - I couldn't hear Pete snoring.

Everyone was fuelled up and ready to leave Walwa at 9am. Neville, Dave Moore and Darryn Webster had ridden over from Cudgewa to meet us at Walwa. We headed off towards Granya via the beautiful Murray River road. I sat behind Ben for as long as I could, taking advantage of his knowledge of the road - giving me a bit of a chance to check out the scenery. By the time I got over Granya Gap, Danny, Pete and Darryn had flown past me. Darryl and I stopped to chat to Pete and Darryn who were corner marking. Then Pete took off after Ben. That was strange - I thought he was corner marking. So did the others. I guess he got carried away in the excitement of the ride… Darryl said he would corner mark instead and I followed Pete. Dean left for Melbourne at this point as his rear tyre wouldn't see another days ride as well as get him home.

A few kms out of Corryong I came around a corner and saw a white 4x4 on the side of the road. I slowed down - too late. The flashing lights came on. When the "nice" police officer showed me 120 kms on the radar I almost smiled (but not quite). After yesterday’s quick ride, 120 didn’t seem too bad.

In the meantime Dave on the R6 was the only bike who had gone through. Very strange. It turned out that Wayne had gone flying into a corner on Granya Gap too quickly and had shot over the bank. He had hurt his back, so was packed into the back of an ambulance and taken to Albury Hospital for some scans. Apparently the ambulance driver was most impressed when he turned up to find Wayne lying on the side of the road with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. One of the locals drove past in his 4x4 and helped winch the bike up the bank. The bike was rideable so Enzo rode it to a nearby farmhouse. The ride carried on to Corryong where Dave and Bronwyn had been waiting for a couple of hours.

It was about midday and the day was starting to heat up when we left Corryong. My policeman friend was waiting for us on the other side of town - but he was not so lucky this time. We were heading to Cabramurra for lunch. A beautiful winding piece of road made all the better by the fact that we had just done it the day before. A quick regroup at the dam partway up and we were off again. No sign of Ben's wallaby from the day before (good). During lunch Tim, Geoff and Neville decided to form a breakaway group. Their plan being for Geoff and Tim to get back to Walwa a bit earlier, visit Wayne in the hospital and drop off his car and bike for him. Geoff was also keen to save his rear tyre as it was not looking good to get him home. Neville was heading home to Melbourne that evening.

From Cabramurra the rest of us headed down the highway to Tumut. It was stinking hot and not very exciting - especially for those of us who were paranoid about the police at this stage. Pete and I did see an emu strolling across the road in front of us - cool! From a bike, they look pretty big. Apparently Darryl got a wasp in his helmet somewhere around here and almost ran off the road trying to get it out.

After filling up with petrol in Tumut we turned off onto a logging truck road heading out to Rosewood. "No logging trucks on a Sunday" promised Ben. Liar. At the start of the road there was about 800 m of thick crushed rock on the road. Very hard to ride over. However the rest of the road made up for it. Awesome high speed twisties through the pine plantations. I'm not sure what drug Pete was on but I am sure I saw him corner mark both at the start and the end of that road. I should never have encouraged him to get a new bike.

Next stop was Tumbarumba. Ben was being a bit cagey about how far we still had to go, but we did manage to get it out of him that this was to be our last petrol stop for the day. Well for everyone except Danny who was having to fill up every 100 kms! The heat and the long ride was starting to take its toll on a few people. I know I was starting to feel a bit tired. However the next section of road - Elliots Way revived me. Another fantastic piece of road. We stopped at the bottom lake by the caravan park for another quick regroup and visor cleaning session.

As we went to leave I noticed Danny seemed to be having a bit of a problem starting his bike. He tried the usual crash-start that had worked for most of the weekend but his bike would only idle and not rev when it started. He looked at his bike in shock. "What could be wrong with it?" Most of the group had gone by this stage, just Danny, Darryl, Pete, Bronwyn and myself were left. Pete took the battery out of his bike and they tried it in Danny's bike. The bike started. OK we knew what the problem was, but no one had a spare battery on them. I mentioned that Wayne had a battery in his ZX9 that he wasn't using - only problem was it was about 200 kms away.

We decided to leave Danny's bike at the caravan park. As Bronwyn very kindly pointed out - no one was likely to steal it. Danny hitched a ride on the back with Pete and we carried on, meeting up with some of the others coming back the other way to find out what had happened. Ben and Rob had made it as far as Cabramurra (22kms) before deciding to come back.      

The next section of road to Cabramurra and down to Khancoban was awesome. After that Dave W, Bronwyn, Darryn and Dave M headed off to where they were staying and the rest of us continued on to Walwa. I almost got caught out on what Rob told me later is known as Davron's Corner - named after the last Club member who didn't notice the gravel sign either (doh!). I came over the crest of a hill at about 140 – 150 kms, only noticed Rob corner marking on the left hander as I came level with him. By the time I looked back at the road I was almost on the gravel - still doing 140 plus. Good brakes on the Blade took some of the speed off before I hit the gravel - probably still doing about 100 km/h. Thank goodness it wasn't the thick stuff we had been through earlier in the day. All back at the Walwa pub by 7.45pm, making for a very long but enjoyable day.

Over dinner that night a cunning plan was hatched to retrieve Danny's bike the next morning with the best use of our resources. i.e. who had enough petrol/rear tyre tread/oil/a functioning battery etc. Pete, the publican, had a battery in his ride-on mower that we were welcome to borrow if it helped (country hospitality). So everyone went off to the shed for some "Secret Mens’ Business" (Geoff's words - not mine, and he also mentioned something about comparing the length of spanners...) Unfortunately the battery was the wrong size, but if the worst came the worst I'm sure Danny could have ridden the ride-on mower back to Melbourne and still run circles around me. Tim and I did notice, with some amusement, that it took seven of the guys to help top up Enzo's oil. All offering helpful suggestions such as "You'll need a funnel for that", or "You'll need some oil", and "Hold the bike upright", even "Take the filler cap off". Well done everyone - I'm sure he couldn't have done it without your help.

Once again, awesome roads, great company, good weather, fun, fun, fun…..

Liz Oliver (Honda CBR919RR)

Comprehending  Engineers

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An architect, an artist and an engineer were discussing whether it was better to spend time with the wife or a mistress. The architect said he enjoyed time with his wife, building a solid foundation for an enduring relationship. The artist said he enjoyed time with his mistress, because of the passion and mystery he found  there. The engineer  said, "I like both."  "Both?" the others asked.  "Yes, replied the engineer:  If you have a wife and a  mistress, they will each assume you are  spending time with the other woman, and you can go to the lab and get some work done."