Australian Wing Riders Association (Qld) Inc

A club for riders of Honda GoldWing and Valkyrie motorcycles

AWRA Victorian Ride to Cann River 19 - 20 Feb 2011

On Saturday morning, Julie and I were joined by John G and Steve for our ride to Cann River.

After a week of pessimistic forecasts for the weekend, we were wary of taking the longer route through the hills due to the ominous black clouds. We decided to take the freeway (yes, boring I know, but dry). In the end we were treated to some pretty good weather.

Heading off from Jeffrey Honda, across Eastlink to the Monash Freeway we proceeded down to Gippsland. As expected, a fairly uneventful trip. We had to detour off the freeway at Morwell due to recent road damage, just before our coffee stop at Traralgon. After this we were able to leave the highway and take the back roads to Maffra. Fairly light traffic through here bypassing Sale, then taking some more back roads to Bairnsdale. These are not the most exciting of roads, but they sure beat the Princes Highway. A stop at the servo for fuel and a bite to eat for lunch at Bairnsdale. Steve had to head home and left us at this point.

John and us then made our way to Bruthen and Buchan on some great roads away from the Princes Highway. A nice mix of hills and turns. Buchan was where we could turn on to the road back to Orbost - a really great piece of road. Fantastic scenery, some really good twists and turns, and virtually no traffic. Well worth the detour to get there. A stop along the way for a rest as shown in the photo's then into Orbost for a cool drink as it was getting quite warm at 34 degrees (remember the pessimistic forecasts?).

Bikes Bridge John

We then headed along the (good part of ) the Princes Highway into Cann River where we met up with Frans and Jeannie, having come down from Wollongong. They had some AGA riders, Peter, Mark and Margie with them. We all enjoyed a very relaxed meal at the only pub in town - a good night enjoyed by all.

The next morning was a bakery breakfast, where we found out some great news from the baker. Recent road sealing has meant there is now only the last 5k's to go to complete a sealed loop on the Delagate Road. This will be a fantastic ride when it is complete (hopefully fairly shortly).

Reversing our journey on Sunday we took the Lakes Entrance route and stopped at Bairnsdale for a coffee, where John decided to head home. Julie and I had a good run until we decided to stop and put the wet gear on at Heyfield, just before the rain started. We only had about 30 minutes of fairly decent rains before it slowed to a drizzle. The rest of the run was fairly uneventful. Another great weekend away.

Ride safe

Craig