Eildon 11^th April, 2004

Honda CBR929 Ben Warden Yamaha R6 Joel Haley

Honda CBR929 Ian Payne (leader) Yamaha FZR1000 Trevor Harris (rear rider)

Honda CBR954 Paul Southwell (write-up) Kawasaki GPz1000 Nigel Hellyer

I rolled up to Whittlesea feeling ready for fun, after sitting out Easter for various reasons, one being double demerit points for every/anything!

The day was promising to behave itself as well. After a quick riders brief, we were off up the mountain to Kinglake West, lovely when the road is dry. Across to Flowerdale, Junction Hill is a big personal favorite, and down intoYea. At this point we turned right and headed for Alexandra. After passing through Molesworth it’s turn right at the Whanregarwen Road and blast through the country side without much fear of flashing blue lights, demerit points and empty wallets. A word of warning at this point: keep a sharp lookout for slow moving farm equipment in this area.

At the Maroondah Highway we turned left and headed for Fraser National Park and Eildon after passing through Alexandra. About two kilometers out of Alexandra Ian lead us onto UT Creek Road, which leads up to Haines Saddle. This was very interesting for me, as I hadn’t ridden Haines Saddle from this direction before. I have to say it is one of those fantastic roads that rides well in both directions. Coming down off Haines Saddle into Eildon via Skyline Road is a great exercise in controlling the right amount of throttle and brake.

After fuel for both the bikes and us at Eildon it was off to Mount Pinninger lookout for Ben to capture the moment for the ever-increasing Club photo album. Mind you we had to perform a few tricks for the camera such as “trail-riding” the last 20-meter walking section to the top of the ridge.

After going back down to Eildon we rode to Thornton and took the turn-off to Taggerty. This took us past the magnificent Cathedral Ranges (for those who enjoy camping, etc), through Buxton and Narbethong and into the Yarra Ranges over The Black Spur. Those who haven’t been up there in the past two months will be in for a very nice surprise. There is a newly laid, beautiful surface, from Maroondah Reservoir Park to Dom Dom Saddle, with good surface conditions after that all the way down to the Hermitage Hotel. Sadly, the ride finished in Healesville. Thank you Ian for a very pleasant 250 km day.

Paul Southwell (Honda CBR954)