Wednesday 10 Oct
I rode my pushie to work, and came home a little earlier than usual.
Betty arrived at about 5pm. I was about to head off to the shops when
Clem, Leon and Howard called in from Tuggeranong. I met them at the
local petrol station and directed them to the house, then purchased
some BBQ essentials. Clem was duly nominated to be the Tongmaster.
We ate, drank and were merry until about 10pm, at which point even a
screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail wasn't sufficient to keep
Clem and Leon out of bed.
Thursday 11 Oct
Betty arrived at 7am (too excited to sleep, she said) and we headed
off at 7:30. We managed to ride together as a group for about 1km, at
which point Leon apparently decided that the 4 people ahead of him
turning right at a roundabout were all wrong, so he went left. We met
up again at Williamsdale about 20 minutes later, and managed to stay
together until Cooma. The boys wanted to head over the mountains, so
Betty and I parted company from them and headed off via the Cann River
route.
The ride was uneventful, although we were probably dallying a little
to long at each hourly stop, and so we had to hurry things up from
Bairnsdale onwards to try to make Frankston before dark. There was a
bit of crosswind and a rainy patch around Pakenham, enough to justify
putting on a rainsuit.
I'd given away my large-scale map of Melbourne (Melways page 512) to
some ill-prepared rider at Bairnsdale, and as a result we ended up on
Springvale Rd before I realised that I'd missed the turn. Once we
regained our bearings, we were about 1km from Marty & Sasha's house
when the lads turned up behind us once again.
Friday 12 Oct
Faffed about in camping supplies stores shopping for tent poles and
torches in the morning, before retrieving Minx from the bus stop in
Frankston (she'd flown down and taken the airport bus). Headed off to
the island following Marty's bike, which seemed to suffer more in the
crosswinds (probably due to being taller and lighter than my GPZ900).
Drank far too many poofter drinks, and got my feet wet in the tent
overnight from rain leaking through the zipper.
Saturday 13 Oct
Went for a walk into town, took a pushbike ride up to San Remo with
Moike. Set up the annexe on Jody's caravan, since it had been so
bloody miserable the night before. Cooked up a mighty evening feast
on a tiny BBQ.
Sunday 14 Oct
Headed back to Frankston at about 2:30pm, there didn't seem much point
in trying to go out to the track after GS's 6:30am crowd report. Easy
ride back to our digs in Frankston, following Sasha and Minx who were
in a car. Watched Life of Brian on Marty's impressive home theatre.
Monday 15 Oct
Headed for home at 7am. Still a nasty crosswind, causing me to weave
about 18 inches either way in my lane. By Bairnsdale I was sick of
all the once-a-year numpty sportsbike riders trying to overtake me
without leaving my lane despite the weaving, so I went to Buchan and
thence to Jindabyne via Barry way. The dirt surface was in very good
to excellent condition, the scenery was magnificent, and I'm sure I'll
enjoy it even more on a pushie in 6 weeks time. It would have been a
little more fun if I hadn't been muscling 250kg of machinery around
the bends, and having to be so cautious on the throttle. I might
rectify those problems by riding my postie bike that way sometime in
the new year.
Arrived home at around 7pm, feeling wretchedly ill from hayfever but
otherwise quite pleased with myself.
BTH
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