It Was Good Last Time And Better This Time. Sep 2013

That last ride to Victoria was great but wasn’t quite perfect so we decided to do it again. Mohawk, who had organized everything told us to meet at Maccas at 7AM  for an early start. I was still in my jimjams at five-to so had to scarper to get there on time ” Pretty sure Bright’s on the agenda DD ” said Sideways, once we’d all gathered at Maccas, but DD was not to be fooled twice in the one year. “Look fellas, if it happens it happens and that would be glorious but, you know what, just being here with you blokes is good enough for me.” Yeah nice little guilt trip there which washed right over the top any of our collective and fairly limited thoughts. This time there were five: Mohawk, Sideways, Killswitch, Lucky, and DD. We wiped the last of the sleep out of our eyes and headed west.

Guess who we ran into at the servo in Mt Victoria!! It was that big bloke again. You remember him, he was the guy hoovering down all the cream buns and vanilla slices the last time we came through. ‘course you remember. He was the bloke who rode a KLunKer like Lucky’s but with solid rubber tyres and a swing arm made of a girder recovered from the Tasman Bridge disaster of 1975. He was corpulent. This time he draped himself in black which is nicely slimming and probably felt pretty pleased  as he checked himself out that morning in his garage-door-sized mirror. “Oh yeah you look gorgeous. Wait’l the girlies at the Caltex see me now”

 

Off we went and found ourselves heading towards Tarana. A nice windy piece of road where Lucky turned Goldenboy into the worlds fastest trailbike after rolling the front wheel sideways over a small stick on a left-hander. Dirt and dust and grass were all as surprised as lucky was to see him there but the mighty Busa punched through and eventually slowed enough to find its way back to the road without falling down. “How’s yer sphincter Lucky?” Killswitch, who had witnessed the unhappy event, enquired. “Yeah no great thanks. Wont slow me down.” It did. A lot.

We found our way into Tumut and stayed in the Woolpack Hotel that served beer and it was very good. My recollections of day 2 are a little vague. I remember Moey and Sideways checked their maps a few times and seemed to know where they were going.  I also know we rode some twisty bits down into Victoria and I remember names like Batlow and Wangaratta but time got away from us a bit and we stayed a little short of our intended destination opting for Seymour instead. The Royal Hotel was pretty good though and we got to wander around and saw some old army tanks.

 

 

One of the great pleasures of travelling with other blokes is the shout. When we were in Tumut on the first night, and after more than one shout each, it so happened that it was Lucky’s turn but everyone was tired and wanted to go sleepy byes. “OK no worries, I’ll shout next round tomorrow night” Brilliant!! Have you seen the beers they drink down there? Check this out.

Here’s a close up.

 

Look, it was a great victory for Lucky in Seymour. I think the whole shout was about a shilling. But getting back to those tanks. They are all over the town and apparently Puckapunyal is just down the road a bit. We had a good play with some of them and then had dinner at Subway. That was a bit ordinary but very nutritious..I guess.

 

Next day was crazy. We rode up into the mountain ranges and into Maryville. The roads were great even though the high winds had scattered all matter of the local shrubbery all over them. Mohawk could’t understand why he had some trouble in tight right-handers and once again suspected the steering geometry of the muscle bike. Turns out a length of the local timber had somehow wedged itself between the exhaust pipes and stuck forward and beside the front wheel. Any attempts at turning to the right meant the stick was rubbing away his sidewall and preventing his wheel from pointing in the right direction. Sideways reckoned he could smell something burning for most of that section. It was found when we stopped at the highest point at some lookout. We also had lunch at some cafe called the Ten Bears where there were way more than ten.

Speaking of Sideways, which I now will, reminds me of his incredible powers of observation. All along the way he’d say “Did you see that old pre-eighteenth century barn on the ridge about half a kay off the road back there?” or “Did you see that Indian Myna Bird nesting three kays up that mountain back there. I think its beak was a bit twisted.” or when Johnny said he saw a piece of some plastic in a ditch next to the freeway Sideways said “Yeah it was part of a Navman GPS. Part number 638B was stamped on the side. Did you see it Moey?” Moey and Lucky exchanged pensive glances. “No” replied Moey, “I dont think so”. “Well what about you Lucky? you must have seen it.” “Ahhhm maybe, I saw something grey I think” “Yeah that was the road Lucky” DD helpfully added. “Oh. Right. There did seem to be a fair bit of it.”

 

By the end of day three we were back in NSW. Culcairn seemed a nice place to stay and the pub was huge. Inside was another typical Aussie drinker called Billy. Now Billy was  one of those characters who had a practiced reply to every comment the barmaid made. “Yeah c’mon over here love and I’ll give yer something to smile about” He drank and drank and drank. He lost about a million dollars in bets to the bar staff when Adam Reynolds kept missing conversions for Souths against Manly. The rooms were comfortable and the owner was a lovely lady who only charged us $40 for the night. Jackpot!!

 

Last day and we were ready to get home.  Backroads up through Blayney saw the four of us head into Bathurst. Bell’s Line and home. 2500k of fun. Forgot to mention when we got to the Bright turnoff  DD veered towards it heedlessly but that’s as close as we got. “Wait till the big fella upstairs finds out about your rotten behaviour you blokes” He said but, again, we never listened. We got close to the best riding ever but I think we might give it another go pretty soon.