Drouin via Noojee                 Sunday 5th October, 2003

 

Tim Walker                  Green ZX7 (Leader)               Liz Oliver               New red and black 954

Pete Weyermayr            Red 929                              Mark Easterbrook            Silver 955

Kate Stewart                Yellow f4i                                Peter Pondeljak            Yellow f4i

Paul Southwell            Red 954                              Alan Zimmer             Red ZX9 (Rear rider)   

Tony Raditsis                BlueTRX                                 Ian Black               Black FZ1

Peter Rykenberg            Black TRX                             Dean             2nd ride             Green ZX6

Rob Jones                    White 954                              Bart                              Yellow 954

Martin Hastie/Carmen DeBono                                   ?                                  Blue CBR1100XX

 

            15 bikes, 16 people including eight Hondas and three Peters

 

I have been experimenting with different ways to get to Yarra Glen. On this occasion it was an unfortunate choice that led me to Mangans Rd to by-pass Lilydale. My second poor choice was to overtake three cars and another bike on a long, straight, down-hill. I realised it was a bad move when I saw the divvy van parked in a driveway ahead, mid overtaking manoeuvre. I grabbed a huge handful of brake and hoped I could talk my way out of the expected fine.

 

Peter was following and I hoped he had either seen the cops or braked hard when he saw me braking. There was no sign of the cops in my mirrors as we rounded the bend so I thought we were okay. Unfortunately this was not the case for long. They went around the line of cars waiting at the Maroondah

Highway T intersection with lights flashing and gestured to us to pull over. Damn. I was kicking myself..... what a dumb choice I'd made. To my surprise they weren’t interested in me and focused on Peter. Double damn. How was my female charm going to work to get him off? I tried, but it didn’t help.

 

I must have woken them up. Either that or Peter's loud pipe got their attention and by the time they had a fix on me, I was back to the speed limit. Peter wasn’t so lucky. After threats of license loss, dropping the charge back to a three point fine, with the usual fee attached, seemed a good deal. After that, we made our way to Yarra Glen, cautiously, and filled up with fuel. Peter washed a large spot of bird-do off the front of my bike. I think he thought I'd had my share of good luck for the day.

 

Something big was happening in Yarra Glen and there were cars everywhere. Tim elected to take the direct route to Healesville past the racecourse (the function car parking) and on to Chum Creek. I started the ride cautiously, still thinking about my earlier run in with Mr Plod. Chum Creek was as much fun, as ever, with its wide and mostly smooth roads. I had a tad of rear wheel slide (which I never like) as I accelerated over a patch of fine gravel out of one corner. Mark and Pete looked pretty chummy corner marking at Toolangi, and I proceeded down the Myers Creek road alone. GRRRR (Rob Jones) and Bart flew past me as I neared the bottom at a great rate of knots and I had a white Subaru wagon on my ass taking the windy bit along the creek a great deal quicker than I thought would be sensible in a car. Man, there are some crazy road users out and about on Sundays!

 

I followed Peter into Healesville and we stuck together for the remainder of the ride. It was laborious but relatively easy to pass the extremely long and very slow line of cars crawling up the Black Spur behind the cumberland.com.au mini bus and trailer. Once the rest of the group, plus a few ringins, were past the mini bus, it was plain sailing to Marysville.

 

At the first roundabout at the top of Marysville's main street, Ian's rather lustful FZ1 stole a kiss from Mark's sexy, silver Daytona 955, resulting in both bikes hitting the asphalt in an undignified display I passed by while they were righting the beasts, hoping all damage was minor. There were already enough helpers so I didn’t stop.

 

Grrrr and Bart flew by me again just out of Marysville, leaving Peter and I to tackle the 4wds and bark strewn road to Cumberland Junction on our own. There was no snow and the roads were dry. However, I got pretty cold and was keen to get back to the lower altitudes again. Peter and I just stopped long enough to tell Pete and Tony, who were corner marking, of the minor accident in Marysville. Of course the quick pair of Blades had already passed on the news. About half way down the Reefton Spur, Mark flew past like the devil was on his tail, so I gathered his bike was okay.

 

It was a welcome relief to stop at Warburton for lunch. Although we had only done around 124kms from Yarra Glen, it seemed like a lot further and I was tired and sore. We stood undercover, sheltering from the rain, chatting and eating our take away burgers etc... outside one of the sit-down cafes. I'll bet they hated that, because we weren’t using their facilities, but had every right to be there. Martin and Carmen joined us after doing their own jaunt across to Warburton. The Spurs are pretty twisty for a pillion to handle, and I don’t blame her for not wanting to do them. I think she is pretty brave being a passenger on ANY Club ride.

 

I wondered where Ben had disappeared to as I hadn’t seen him since Yarra Glen, and was informed that he didn’t join the ride, he just saw us off. Apparently Paul added a few scratches to his bike with a bit of an off somewhere up near Cumberland. He seemed in good spirits as his bike was heading back to the shop to have the previous damage repaired the next day anyway.

 

Peter and I left the ride after lunch. We got home just after 2pm and sat in the sun drinking beer. Before long it was time to mow the grass and attend to other pressing matters (the weekends are too short). Even Peter's earlier ticket couldn’t take the gloss off a good day. Bring on the next one!

 

Kate Stewart (Honda CBR600f4i)