Lavers Hill via The Great Ocean Road – 10^th February 2002

Ray Walker (leader), GSXR1000 Pete Weyermayr, CBR 929 Liz Oliver, CBR 919

We turned up at the West Gate Shell servo just after 9am – no one was there yet so Pete disappeared into KFC for breakfast. Soon Ray turned up, followed by Ben who told us he wasn’t coming on the ride but was just dropping the First Aid Kit off (or was it the company he didn’t like?). We hung around for a bit to see if anyone else was going to turn up, and Ray and Ben passed the time with a bit of Kiwi bashing (yawn – still it kept them amused).

No one else seemed prepared to chance the dodgy weather forecast, so the three of us headed off down the freeway watching out for the new fixed speed cameras. We turned off at Little River and followed a maze of roads that went through Lara, Moriac, Deans Marsh and eventually popped out in Lorne (how does he do that?). Pete was happier this time from Deans Marsh to Lorne as he had played with his suspension since we last did that piece of road and it had halved the tank-slap tally.

We stopped in Lorne for petrol and a break. The weather was starting to look good, as were the roads, so Ray decided to ditch his winter gloves and get his new “fast” gloves out from under his seat. Unfortunately the seat lock wouldn’t open and he spent a fair bit of time trying to pop it. None of us had the right sized allen key to take the seat off, so he had to stick with the old gloves.

The road from Lorne to Apollo Bay had lots of traffic but was fun as usual. We struck our only rain for the day in the next section to Lavers Hill. It only lasted for about 10 minutes but made the road a bit slippery. Still fun though. By the time we got to Lavers Hill it was pretty cold so we ended up sitting inside for lunch. The compulsory pumpkin soup warmed us up for the trip back.

Back to Apollo Bay for another petrol stop (and another play with Ray’s seat lock), where we made the decision to carry on through to Lorne and back the same way we had come. It was difficult to keep a decent pace through to Lorne with all of the traffic, but still enjoyable. The group stayed together pretty well – afterwards Ray admitted that he was taking it easy as he was saving himself for his track day at Phillip Island.

Another quick stop at Moriac where Ray managed to bludge the right allen key to get his seat off. It turned out that his disc lock had slipped under the seat lock, preventing it from rotating to open (apparently the second time this has happened). This is the same disc lock that took a chunk out of Ray’s mudguard when he forgot about it once. Get rid of the disc lock Ray – it’s cursed!

On the next section of road through to Lara we all played bike swapsies. I think Ray is still trying to make Pete feel bad about trading the Suzuki on a Honda. At Lara Ray suggested that we go to his place for a traditional Aussie BBQ. As it turned out this comprised of turning on the BBQ, chucking on the sausages and steaks, staring at the BBQ for a while, swearing loudly at the empty gas bottle and going inside and frying the food on the stove. Cool. A bit different to the way we do it in New Zealand but we can adapt.

It was a most enjoyable day. Thank you to Ray for leading the ride, and to Ray, Katrina and the boys for their awesome hospitality.

Pete Weyermayr (Honda CBR 929)

Liz Oliver (CBR 919)