Melbourne Cup Weekend, Day 1

Ian Payne	Honda CBR1000	Ha Du	Honda CBR600
Misho Zrakic	Honda CBR1000	Dennis Lindemann	Honda CBR600
Paul Southwell	Honda CBR1000	Ben Fuller	Suzuki GSXR1300
John Rousseaux	Honda CBR1000	Rob Jones	Suzuki GSXR1000
Dave Ward	Honda CBR1000	Ross Gellatly	Suzuki GSXR1000
Peter Jones	Honda CBR1000	Bronwyn Manifold	Kawasaki Z1000
Ron Johnston	Honda CBF1000	Cliff Peters	Kawasaki ZX10
Ben Warden	Honda CBR954	Pina Garasi	Yamaha R6

Day 1 Berwick 10 am, meet everyone at the servo. Itching to get going. Do the spiel. Then Longwarry North, Jindivick, Neerim South, Crossover, Old Sale Road, Yallourn North and Tyers for fuel and short stop. The weather is perfect.

Next stop Licola. Good run and good bit of road this. I like it anyway and I’m not the only one either by all the smiles. Short spell and then back the way we came in. Turn off and follow the road to Glen Maggie, across the old wooden bridge. Glenmaggie Weir is full to the top after the recent rain. There are lots of people camping here and it seems a nice spot.

We turn left and head towards Briagolong and the next fuel stop. I missed the turn to Maffra West Upper and the next two after that. Is that smoke coming out of Ben’s helmet?...oops sorry. My confidence is shot to pieces now and I can’t find a rock big enough to hide under. I think I had been this way once before on the same ride a couple of years ago, but nothing’s familiar. I should have gone the way I went a fortnight ago on a Dargo run. I had no problems then, having gone that way before. Straighter probably, but at least I knew it.

Briagolong for fuel and some have lunch. Ben’s hanging on for a hamburger in Dargo. Weather’s looking stormy out over the mountains towards the north, north east. That’s right where we are going. We set off towards Dargo and we get about half way to the Dargo Road and it starts to rain, so we pull over and put on the wet weather gear.

We set off again and get about half a kay up the road when it buckets down. Can hardly see a thing it’s raining that heavily. Ben and Ian at the back saw big hail stones. Stop at the intersection at Dargo Road and wait for Paul to arrive. Should we give it a miss? Go half way, turn around and come back, Paul reckons, because of the way it was pissing down. I wasn’t keen. Anyway, we head in and the rain stops (localised thunderstorm). We get to see at least three more such storms over the course of the trip; nothing as heavy as what we just came through though.

We get about 5 kays in and the road is dry. Okay, go all the way in now. Man, what a road! Good width and surface. Watch that snake. He isn’t happy. Involuntarily leg lifting of the left foot up near my ear somewhere. It was standing up ready to strike as I went howling past. Peter’s rapt with this road too by the way. Loves the sweeping nature of it. No really heavy breaking. By the way mate, you don’t look right on the Honda. I sure miss the sight of that gorgeous Yamaha R1. I can’t believe you want to sell it.

Everyone arrives at Dargo except Paul and Bronwyn. Apparently Paul stopped for a snooze. He only arrived home from the Malaysian Moto GP late the night before.

A fella walks over and asks if we are missing someone. He saw a rider coming slowly down towards town. Yep, Bronny. So we all head back the way we came, keeping an eye out for her. We get about half way back and there she is with Paul and Dave. Flat tyre. A sharp stone had cut its way into the tyre. Plug it and use some of Peter’s compressed air containers which are not really satisfactory. Dave breaks out his little hand pump and with lots of pumping we have about 17 pounds which will have to do till we get to Bruthen.

We turn left at the Finger Boards locality intersection, the road ducking and weaving. Ben takes over as I don’t have a clue where to go here. We arrive at the second last stop, Bruthen, for fuel and a short rest. Okay, can’t get lost on a straight road so I take the lead again to Orbost, past where we saw the cop the last time backed into the bushes. Sneaky bugger. Not going fast enough for Ronnie. He zooms off into the distance like a scolded cat. We catch him up a few minutes later. I look at his face as I go past and there is a smile from ear to ear. Silly bugger I thought. Mind you, I had a big grin on my dial as well J.

We arrive in Orbost after some 650 kays for the day. A nice hotel room, hot shower and then head down to the pub for tea and tonsil lubricating for some. Beer o’clock, hey mate? A good day was had by all, I think. I apologise for the wrong turns everyone. (Ben’s leading tomorrow) Over to you mate. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Cliff Peters