Last weekend signified the first official AMTRA 'Adventure' ride, and what a cracker it was!

5 souls met in The Basin at 7:30 on Saturday morning.  It was a bit drizzly and bloody cold, but Rob and Willie were there on their BM's and Paul had arrived on his Africa twin.  Soon after I arrived, Steve rode in on his Trusty Husky and we prepared to head off.



The plan was to head through the ranges to Olinda and Cockatoo, then to meet up with Phil in Gembrook where he would lead for a while.  All went according to plan, except that a steady rain had settled in and this made riding a little less interesting.  Still, with appropriate clothing (and heated grips), we were up for the challenge.  From Gembrook, we made our way to Neerim South and onto the tar section of the Grand Ridge Road into Mirboo North and our first 'leg-stretch' break.



All of the BM models were in attendance....large, medium and fun size!  We left mirboo and got back onto the Grand Ridge Road (dirt section) and I was happy I had new tyres fitted!  The road was quite sloppy in places and a few of us 'over-cooked' a couple of corners, making for some interesting breaking manoeuvers.  Fortunately, most of the rain had stopped and the rest of the ride was conducted in brilliant sunshine, albeit still cold.  Another short break saw an emerging problem with the magic inside Paul's auto gear-box.  The Honda didn't seem to want to go into neutral, but a suggestion from Willie seemed to sort it and we were on out way again.





We continued on through Binns Junction and the quaint little area of Tarra Valley, with its beautiful tree-ferns and magic twisty road and into Yarram for lunch at the bakery.  we had planned to go onto Woodside for lunch, but were running a bit behind schedule, so a quick blast on the sandy roads through Wooddside and out onto Old Rosedale Road into Rosedale.  A quick check of the map and we were off again, but no sign of Paul.  we waited and he caught up, claiming drive problems with the big Honda.  The emerging gear-box problem from earlier, manifested in a big issue and the Big Girl was going nowhere!  A couple of phone calls later, we decided to leave Paul at Rosedale and we continued on,  Sorry mate, it was good while it lasted!







From Rosedale, we headed to Briagalong, the picked up the dirt road (some 35ks of it) along the river.  It would have been a scenic ride, but by this time it was close to 5:00 and light was failing fast.  By the time we hit the tar for the final run into dargo, it was dark (and cold).  Mindfull of nocturnal creatures on the road, we all took it easy on the home stretch.  Steve was hanging back a bit so he could use his high beam, as the low beam on the Husky was next to useless!  rolling into Dargo was a pleasent relief and it didn't take long to check int, get out of our riding gear and head to the pub for some drinks and a feed.  Pat had riden (solo) from Melbourne and was waiting for us, which was good and we settled into an evening of post-ride banter,  Word from Paul was that he bike was holed up in a farmer's shed and that he was on his way back to Melbourne on the train, with the intention of heading down to retrieve it on Sunday.  After dinner, we headed to our digs for a well earned sleep.  We'd travelled 500ks for the day.



More later.

Saturday night was cold, but Sunday morning was colder!  When we emerged from the cabins, we were greeted with brilliant sunshine and a layer of frost over everything.  Puddles were frozen and jack frost even took time out to adorn Pat's seat with a little icy graffiti!









We headed to the pub for a warm, hearty breakfast and contemplated the route for the day.



The thermometer on Willie's bike was telling us it was minus 3 degs as we re-fueled and geared up.











Soon it was time to fire up and head off.  We back-tracked last night's route (this time in the daylight).  The twistie bitumen was a hoot, and as expected the dirt road along the river was very scenic, but I'm glad I didn't see the drop in the dark, 'cos I would have been sh!ttin' myself!









We headed around lake Glen Maggie and made our way to Stoney's track, which lead us onto Stoneys #2 Track.  Now things were starting to look interesting!  The drop into the track was quite steep and had some large erosion mounds to navigate as well.  On a regular dirt-bike, you wouldn't even think about it, but on 200kgs of adv bike, well I don't mind saying my ABS (and pucker valve) were working overtime!  At the bottom of the track, it flowed into a lovely bit of 'single' track and then we had to climb up a long, steep, rocky exit which was a hoot.  It was great to feel the power of these bikes working.









It seemed that everyone was having a chance to lead this ride.  Willie took over for a bit and even I lead for one section (do I get points for that?).  We made our way to the Conwar-Walhalla Road and stopped at Walhalla for lunch.









We took South Face Road (which was bloody cold as we were quite near Mt Baw Baw), spotting lumps of snow that had fallen off descending cars and continued on through Tanjil Bren and onto Noogee.  By this time, I was getting critically low on fuel and there was none to be had at Noogee, so a quick squirt to Neerim for gas, with about a litre to spare.  From here we headed to Yarra Junction, via Gladysdale where we said good-bye to Phil.  Then onto the Warby where the rest of the crew peeled off to Cockatoo and I continued on to Lilydale and headed home, pulling into my driveway at 5:00 with another 385 ks on the clock and a big smile on my face.

Thanks to Rob for putting on a great weekend.  Thanks to all who attended for make it fun.  Thanks to Pat for making the effort to come down solo and bolster our numbers for the return trip.  Commiserations to Paul for his busted bike.  Hope it gets sorted quickly.

Great report Serge

Ken R wrote:
You should have been there, Keneth!

Serge C wrote:
I know, I know.
I thought Pat and I might make it, but he decided to sneak off without me, knew I'd blow him away on the bitumin.

Great report and pic's Serge. 

Good job crew sounds like a great weekend

Looks like you guys had a fun weekend, and nice report Serge

Yep, well done on the report Serge and to Rob for putting it on.
What happened to DK, thought he was going up to find a wife ???

Well, it looks like Photobucket has 'stiched me up'?

My account has been 'disabled' because apparently I have gone over my allowable 3rd party upload limit, and they now want me to pay $400.00 a year to post photos!

So, at this stage, no more pics from me!