Great Ocean Road (Lavers Hill) Sunday 9^th December, 2001

Ray Walker (GSXR1000) [Leader - about to abandon us at Moriac! May have been the last we ever heard of the Kiwis!]

Ian Payne (CBR919R) [went rear rider due to drug habit, Neurofen for a sore neck]

Peter Weyermayr (CBR929RR) [did he get this new bike to have one more “R” than Liz?!]

Liz Oliver (CBR919R) [will she now get the CBR929RR?!]

Zac (R1) [left at Apollo Bay on return trip as didn’t want to do Skene’s Creek Road]

Bruce Saville (VFR800) [also left at Apollo Bay on return trip – a blind driver ruined his ride]

Ben Warden (CBR929RR) [tested how Fireblades handle in mud puddles]

Greg Hales (TL1000) [explained how important it is to “look good”, at expense of paint on bike]

Dave Nimmo (GSXR750L) [showed how acrobatic riding is done]

Rob Langer (BMW 1150S) [who saw out the whole ride after intending to leave at about morning tea]

Craig Morley (CBR929RR) [cruising for the day apparently, though I’m sure with the front tyre in the air at times!]

Marc Knight (TZR250) [sporting new Troy Corser leathers, and a screen autographed by Norrick Abe]

Dianne Welsford (CBR600) [only sane one on the ride?!…You get the right to say these things when you do the write-up!]

13 bikes, 13 people - Weather: 20º and fine (except for the odd shower out west)

Route: Westgate Servo (10.15am) – Lara – Lorne (morning tea at 12.15pm) – Apollo Bay – Lavers Hill (lunch) – Apollo Bay (rebel petrol stop) – Skenes Creek – Moriac (servo stop) – Lara (5pm finish)

Westgate Servo – Lara – Moriac - Lorne (166km)

As I headed onto the Westgate Bridge I noticed a big sign “Motorcycle Event on Westgate Bridge”. How nice of them to warn everyone of our ride for the day! To be truthful, it was put out for the annual MRA Toy Run, of which we saw a branch riding towards town. We left the Westgate a little late, which was great as otherwise I (along with a few others) may have missed the starting point….a result of too many Christmas parties and the inability to wake up early on a Sunday. Thanks Ray for the 10.15am start, I wouldn’t have made 9.30 am. After a warning of a hole on the Great Ocean Road, some gravel either side (interesting course left to take!), and Ian volunteering to go rear rider, we headed off.

It was a slow case of “dodge ‘em cars” along the Westgate Freeway due to roadworks and I think the start of Christmas crowds. It was a relief to finally leave the Highway and work our way along the backroads to Lara.

Apart from being very cold, it was a fun, fast, incident free trip down past Geelong and all those back roads to Deans Marsh. I didn’t know exactly where I was until Deans Marsh, and I was suddenly extremely alert as Zac flew past almost adjusting my right-hand mirror on his way through. His reason he told me later…..he was in a hurry, to get to the next corner. The roads were a bit damp on the way down into Lorne but no-one seemed to have any trouble through there. We stopped at 12.15 pm for petrol and a drink. It was here I learned that appearance is everything as I discussed with Greg what is scratching his tank. Appears it may be his leather jacket with zippers on it. However, the main issue here is looking good; the bike can be repainted later.

I told Pete here that I may just have a break in Apollo Bay and join them on their return as I was having trouble staying awake. He managed to convince me to continue all the way with them. It took ages. The conversation went along these lines: “Nah, come to Lavers Hill with us”. “Okay then”!

Lorne – Apollo Bay – Lavers Hill (97km)

After an interesting chat with Liz (girls talk, doesn’t make it into the mag!…something about Possums though wasn’t it Liz!), we headed off to Lavers Hill. Again the road was damp, but seemed to still be grippy. This time I didn’t get stuck behind a bus. We seemed to have a pretty good run. I also kept my eye out for those slippery, dark bits. I rode on my own for awhile and then found Robbie and settled in behind him for the rest of the Otways. Bruce, however, was overtaking 4 cars at one point and one of them decided to just pull out as Bruce was coming through. Personally I think these are the drivers who should be penalised, not those going 5 kays over an already slow speed limit. But that’s just a gripe I have! Hopefully that driver will, at some stage, learn what mirrors are for, before he hurts an innocent person. (Note: it is illegal to pass more than 3 cars in one hit. … Ed.)

We had a late lunch at Lavers Hill and I had my next caffeine fix to try to keep my eyes open. I’m sure Ray would have had another Red Bull. After a lunch break we decided to head back, with Bruce wanting to take over rear-rider due to being a little shaken by his earlier close call (which was apparently his second for the day). Zac mentioned he’d also had a close call, and I also found out later the Liz’s tyre had a slide in the Otways section due to it having gone “off”. Seems to be the day for close calls….as Dave can certainly admit to, but we’ll come to that later.

Lavers Hill – Apollo Bay – Skenes Creek – Deans Marsh – Lara (156km)

At Apollo Bay several people stopped to refuel and the rest of us turned left up the Skenes Creek Road. Ahead of me were Ray, Liz, Pete and Ben. As I came around a right-hander I found them wheeling Ben’s bike out of a deep mud patch at the bottom of a gravel driveway. It seems he overshot the corner and ended up going up the muddy road, which caused his bike to sink, thereby stopping it from falling over. Very lucky considering. Liz had gone up to the corner to slow the bikes down as they came around. I noticed the driver of a red stationwagon get a bit of a fright though as he came hooning around the corner, probably in a vain attempt to try to catch up to some bikes.

With Ben’s bike back on the road we headed off back through Deans Marsh and on to Moriac. Ian was now rear-rider again as Bruce and Zac had stayed on the Great Ocean Road to go straight home. Apparently somewhere along this section of the ride Dave had a pretty spectacular “save”….I’ll let Ben insert his eye-witness account here as I couldn’t do it justice from the reports I was getting.

(##Ben, please insert what happened.) Ah, didn’t see it. … Ben

We had a petrol stop (and probably a chance to slow down Dave’s heart rate) at Moriac, where Ray was voicing his thoughts on finishing the ride here. A mass rebellion made him reconsider. I think the Kiwis would still be trying to find their way home, along with probably a few of us that have gone down there many times but still wouldn’t be able to find our own way back. So Ray led us back to Lara, where a cop turned around to follow us as we went past. I think he was horribly disappointed when we all stopped at the servo as he drove past and a few minutes later came back the other way back to his original spot.

The ride finished at about 5.00pm here and everyone made their own way home. Greg and I went separate ways on Geelong Road and we discovered that the route through town and back out to Warrandyte seems to be quicker than the Western Ring Road. Now we know!

Thanks Ray for leading the ride, thanks Ian and Bruce for rear-rider duties. Dave, I don’t think you should bother buying a tatts ticket for the next year as you’ve used up a year’s worth of luck in saving that situation.

Di Welsford (Honda CBR600)