Trawool  er  ah Yea?           Sunday, May 11th 2003

 

Yes, the commercialism of Mothers’ Day has definitely taken over the eateries of rural Victoria. Club Pres., Ian Payne, was faced with the conundrum of Trawool Resort serving a mothers’ Day Special at $39.50, and every other pub in country Victoria with its ‘lounge’ likewise booked out. Decisions, decisions. Those attending the ride, departing Whittlesea were:

 

Ian Payne (Leader)       Fireblade CBR929                   Liz Oliver                                 Fireblade CBR919

Ben Warden                 Fireblade CBR929                   Pete Weyermayr                       Fireblade CBR929

(There! That’s got rid of all the ‘Blades’, now for the real motorbikes …)

Andrew Symes Suzuki RF900              Rob Langer                              BMWR1150GS

Justin                            Suzuki GSXR750 (1st ride)       Stewart Lens                            Suzuki 1200 Bandit

Aaron                           Suzuki GSXR750 (1st ride)      Les Leahy ( Rear)                     KTM  LC4

Ian & Sherry Handforth            Yamaha XJ900

 

Being now domiciled in country Victoria, I had concluded that “Meet Whittlesea, destination Trawool Resort, short ride” had all the ingredients of a ride that would be suitable for my good self. The ride down from Heathcote was pleasant in the extreme and to my surprise the journey took no longer than from my previous residence of Camberwell (riding within legal speed limits). As our President so correctly indicated in his AGM Report “With the spread of suburbia and its crowded roadways, it has become more difficult to reach the good riding roads quickly.” Henceforth, I bequeath on all of you, permission to chuck in yer jobs and go live in the sticks.

 

By departure, a goodly number had gathered at the Mobil servo with the first timers Justin and Aaron on a pair of very well presented GSXR750s. Their riding also seemed up to the standard of their bikes. Off we trundled in the direction of Kinglake West, Flowerdale, Strath Creek and … Oh Dear …first curve and Andrew had thrown the Suzuki RF900 down the road. As Ben fiddled and farted around with the Suzuki’s reluctant motor, being rear rider I took a stroll over to the nearby culvert. There were indeed scores of pieces of broken motorcycle plastic; bits of indicators, fairing bolt-attachment moldings, segments of screens, broken blinker lenses … and very little of it from Andrew’s Suzuki/ And this was the ‘easy’ corner! Imagine the amount of plastic in some of the others.  Ben waved me on, indicating that he would ascertain that the bike was rideable and that Stewart (Bandit 1200) would quietly return to Melbourne with Andrew.

 

At Broadford we attended to the emptying of bladders and the intake of liquids. A strange process when viewed scientifically. More conversation was also had about a possible venue for lunch, with Yea being proffered as having eateries not influenced by Mothers’ Day hysteria. This decision led is out of Broadford on the western side of the Freeway. As we were disappearing from view, Ben (his excellent house keeping work at the crash site now finished) tagged onto the tail end of the convoy and we were now all present and correct.

 

Eventually joining the Tooboorac/Puckapunyal Road we droned on into down-town Seymour. Ian knows the turn-off to Highlands like the back of his hand, and soon we were sweeping (left, right, left) along the prettiest of rural Victorian roads. I can’t think of another section of roadway where the classic Australian bush comes right down to the edge of the bitumen. And everybody enjoys this 30 kilometres whether on sports bikes, two-up tourers or Austrian chook chasers.

 

The descent from Highlands Shire Hall gives a stunning view of the Goulburn River Valley and the ridges on the far side. Whoops! Almost didn’t notice that heavy spread of gravel on the roadway.

 

Yea offered its usual array of poly-heavily-saturated food. I noticed Ian wisely going for the salad sandwiches instead of the deep fries, You can never ride your bike to Yea without spotting someone you know. Or someone who knows someone you know. And so it was, with conversation between our group and various others. Rob Langer and I were busy giving a bloke form the BMW Club the third degree. He has an R1150 GS set up for solo all-roads touring. It was like a mobile accessories catalogue. Obviously too much time on his hands.

 

By now various Club members had indicated to our leader that they had to nick off with various Mothers’ Day commitments etc. until there were only three of us left. Robby, Ian and myself; I sure as hell wasn’t going back to Melbourne. Could this be the greatest distance from Melbourne that we have invoked the break-up point? (We broke up at Drouin the other day …Ed.)

 

On the way back to Heathcote I rode past Trawool Resort. Judging by the mass of cars in the parking lot, they had a bummer of a Mothers’ Day lunch. Who needs to be serving ships and salad to a bunch of bikies when you can be making $39.50 a head.

 

Les Leahy (KTM)