Licola – 23^rd March 2003

Ron Johnston (leader), Bandit 1200 Pete Weyermayr, CBR 919

Liz Oliver, CBR 929 Ben Warden, CBR 929

Darryn Hutchinson, CBR 954 Paul Southwell, CBR 954
Dave Hives, ZX9 Geoff Jones (rear ½), R1

Derek Atkinson (rear ½), FZR1000 Craig Davidson, GSXR600

Dave Ward, R1150GS Graeme Tattersall (1^st ride), R1

When Sunday rolled around, Pete and I were almost desperate for a ride as we’d had my parents staying for the last two weeks and had managed to miss three weekends riding in a row. We were also keen to attend one of Ron’s infamous Licola rides, having heard many tales of the previous one. There was a good turnout at Hallam by 9.30, and after Ron did his pre-ride talk we all headed down the Princes Highway towards Pakenham with Geoff taking up the position of rear rider.

After Pakenham we hit the straight and boring back roads that you have to go through to get to the good stuff – Nar Nar Goon, Longwarry and Drouin. Once past Drouin South we got caught up in a traffic jam of cars waiting to get into the car park for the Agriculture Show. After weaving our way to the head of the queue and waiting for about 10 minutes, we were waved through, continuing on with our ride.

From there we headed to Yarragon, Trafalgar and to the bright lights of Moe where we stopped for fuel and something to eat. Moe was recruitment time and Ben got busy signing up new members Paul and Craig.

We left Moe via the back roads and headed through Yallourn North and Tyers, hitting a patch of heavy rain that luckily didn’t last very long. Somewhere between Tyers and Glengarry there was a cop skulking around in a silver SS Commodore, trying to catch someone doing something they shouldn’t. Unfortunately he was lucky and Craig wasn’t. Craig, doing a little over the speed limit got ticketed not just for speeding, but also for riding a bigger bike than he should have been. Picky picky…

After that hold up, the ride got a bit strung out as various corner markers waited for Craig to catch up. After Heyfield the good roads kicked in. We got onto a fantastic piece of road leading to Licola. The road has beautiful scenery with the road winding above the river – if you can remember to take your eyes off the road to have a look. Another small patch of rain was encountered here – just enough to wet the roads .

We arrived in Licola to find Derek already there. He hadn’t been at the start of the ride, and somehow just materialised from nowhere, as only Derek can do. We had a bit of a break and a drink. Dave tried to tell me that we were heading on the road to Jamieson (about 90 km, unsealed). However we turned around and headed back the same way we had come, this time remembering to have a look at the scenery. It was slightly more slippery on the way out due to another small patch of rain.

We stopped in Heyfield to fill up with petrol, and from there we retraced our path to Tyers. After that we took a different route to Rawson, Tanjil South, Willowgrove and Hill End ending up in Noojee. I’m not sure if I have been on those roads before but I loved them, in spite of them being a bit wet from the odd spots of rain we had had all day. I stopped to corner mark just before Noojee, my first break in about 150 kms. I hurt almost all over, but couldn’t stop grinning.

From Noojee it was the usual fast blat via Powelltown to the break up point at Yarra Junction. I had a fantastic day, the first time in a while that I have been on unfamiliar roads. Thanks Ron for putting together an interesting ride. I think he was really pleased with how the ride went because I heard him exclaiming happily at the end of the ride that no one had fallen off! By the time I got home I had done about 600 kms all up. No wonder I was sore.

Liz Oliver (Honda CBR 919)