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Date:
By Wom Battle
Category: Rides

Unlike the last few days of near heatwave on Phillip Island the weather was pretty bleak at 5.30am this morning. Suited up in the wet weather gear with the BMW Pro Winter 2 gloves on and the night time yellow sunnies on the sun was just up when Dave and I began our trip home.  At the time there were quite a few other bikes in town filling up and leaving town as well, lots of knowing nods and waves.  The weatherman had told us what we were in for.

There were a few sprinkles of rain about that did not look like going away, and soon enough, not long after we hit Buckingham it fair bucketed down and the winding roads I was looking forward to between there, Healesville and Yea became pretty hard going. By the time we got onto the Melba Hwy (which is by no means a Highway) visibility was almost zero, water, leaves, bark and gravel were across the road and the boots were full of water. 

We stopped at a Roadhouse at Glenburn happy to get out of the rain for a while and took out time over a coffee. Back out to it we headed for Yea where we turned right onto the Maroonda Highway towards Mansfield and then left onto the Midland Highway.  The last time I rode this area was on the Thunder Run at the 2010 National HOG Rally.  We poked out onto the Hume Freeway at the Benalla turnoff, this time not too unhappy to be on it.  The next stop was the BP Glenrowan and as expected there were a few bikes there, everyone wet, everyone cold, everyone smiling, more knowing nods. Some reported flooding across the Hume to the south which made us glad we didn't go that way.

No rush to leave at that point, we only had 1136ks to travel today so fuelled up and with my first McChicken done and dusted our next stop was Holbrook for photos of the submarine we didn't stop for on the way down.  Dave wanted more coffee there so we stopped at the Caltex and then headed for the next fuel and Macas stop at Yass.  Fortunately by that time the weather had cleared a little and the rain had stopped.

By Yass I had started to get my riding head on and was keen to push a little further between stops, the trip was taking too long for me so after another McChicken, knowing that Dave mentioned he had 300k's range in the tank and that Thornleigh was only 296k's away I was determined to ignore everything in between.  At Pennant Hills Road off the end of the M2 Dave pulled up next to me and mentioned he was nearly out of fuel.  So the next stop was the BP Thornleigh.  I was ready to push on but Dave needed coffee so we rode around the corner to the Macas for a while.  We said our goodbyes and "enjoyed the weekends" there, it was my last stop.

It was getting dark by the time we left Thornleigh but the trip down the F3 to home was uneventful. I waved Dave hooray shortly after the Cardiff exit and not much later I was home, with water still in my boots from the morning's deluge but happy to be back home.  All up a good day's ride considering the weather and the time spent on the Hume.  Dave deserves a special mention though, it was his first 1000k+ day and he did good!

I tracked the trip home with my Spot Connect, the map's below.  I'll write about that somewhere else when I get a chance.

 


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March 2024
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