Australian Wing Riders Association (Qld) Inc

A club for riders of Honda GoldWing and Valkyrie motorcycles

Victorian Overnight Ride

26/27 Feb 05

 By John Gilbert

Sat 26th

Meeting place was McDonald Pakenham, as Karen and I arrived; John and Margaret were already there with Denny and Jenny close behind us. TimandLyn had to pull out as they had other things that they had to attend to.  Brian arrived less Edith and after finishing renovations with their home Brian knew that the best place to be was out riding.

 

With brekky out of the way and a perfect day of 23 degrees ordered we got under way and headed towards Bairnsdale and if anyone has done this trip before you’ll know its not very exiting road from Melbourne to Bairnsdale. However Denny broke this up a little with a stop at Rosedale to see the Vietnam Veterans (Gippsland) club room (The Pitt Stop). For us ex-military it was good to see some of the old photos however the mozzies nearly carried us away, once inside it was OK, it was good to see that those that need a break from the world and spend some time with their mates that understand where they have been, have a place to come to flush out the Cobb webs.

Click on any photo for a larger version

 

After a break at Rosedale we moved on towards Bairnsdale refueled and moved out of town to Bruthen for a lunch break as Bairnsdale was very busy. After good break and some pies and vanilla slice (the first of many for some of us) we headed up the mountain for Mt Hotham.

(Look at for a TV program soon for the Denny Van Maanenberg Vanilla slice selections of Victoria, I have asked Denny to grade the vanilla slices on future rides

 

Heading up the mountain we were in heaven, roads that were just made for riding and the day just made for riding, its hard to put on paper when you get all the elements coming together to make for a perfect days ride.

At Mt Hotham we took a break for some photos and stretch of the legs not much open and no vanilla slices. We moved on and stopped again a Danny’s lookout (some would be familiar with this point from the ride down for the Ulysses AGM Geelong.) there was something mentioned about changing the signs spelling to Denny. The break here allowed us to let the sports bikes past that were going at a great rate of knots down the mountain. Thought we would pick some up as we went down due to the speed they were going but no requirement.

 

   

From Danny’s lookout we made our way down the mountain to Bright for our overnight stay at the Bogong Motel, a great little spot to stay, swimming pool and nice rooms. With the bikes packed away Karen and I headed into town for a look around and started to look for a restaurant.  It soon became evident that the town’s restaurants were starting to book out for meals, with the skydiving championships in town and other activities we quickly made a booking so as not to be disappointed as we didn’t want to be eating Vanilla slices all night.

Later we headed into town for some dinner after a little time we finally got the main course and we were all happy with full stomach and good liquids, some of us were very happy as Marg was seen later hugging a concrete pole, we forgot to bring the camera and that’s properly just as well as it would have been irresponsible of me not to put the photos in this article.

 

This is were the photos of Marg hugging pole should have been

                

 Sun 27th

We awoke to another beautiful day forecast of 23 degrees blue skies,  Denny and Jenny decided that a walk was on, and went for a leisurely stroll through the river banks of the Ovens river towards town and returned in time for brekky, with brekky out of the way and bikes ready to go, we decided to detour a bit and head to the Beechworth bakery for some morning tea as Denny had to try their vanilla slice. One is never disappointed when visiting the Beechworth Bakery (Denny thinks he found the best Vanilla slice.  Watch this space for more  to come) and after filling ourselves with cake and coffee we headed to Mansfield via Whitfield.

 

The road to Whitfield is another motorcycle paradise with long sweeping corners one could ride all day on this type of road and in this weather.  At the top of the mountain we took a turn off to Powell’s lookout which overlooks the King Valley  It’s a dirt road in and took us a little time to get through to the end but the view was once again great.

Leaving Powell’s lookout and heading to Mansfield we traveled the last part of great motorcycle road riding.  We took a break at Mansfield and Denny confirmed that Beechworth Bakery had the best Vanilla slice for this trip anyway. Denny and Jenny left us here to head back home via Alexandria (the burning question, that has not been answered was there a better vanilla slice that he was not prepared to let us in on in Alexandria).

 

We headed for home from Mansfield with Brian taking off through Seymour and leaving Marg and John and Karen and I to head back into Melbourne.

We arrived home at around 3.00pm with 870 km for the two days under our belt.

 

Thanks to DennyandJenny for taking the time to research and book the accommodation.

 

Thanks to the ladies for letting us blokes hook into the turns and not break our ribs

 

Great ride, great company looking forward to the next one.

 

For anyone in Victoria reading this article, if you are after a group that rides and has fun doing, it then look us up and get on board and come for a ride.