Or KSRC Trip to the Supers =)
This is gonna be a long one… you have been warned!
Wednesday 27 February 2008
After spending the previous evening up at Dave’s drinking bourbon and being social, 1am found me trying to decide what I needed to take with me. I finished packing and was in bed by about 1:30am.
I was up with the birds, got all the gear onto the bike, oil check and chain lube and we were good to go. Rode up to Dave’s place… they were barely out of bed! LOL. Stood around for a while before we finally got going. About 7:30am Dave (ZX12R), Mick (Z1000), Glen (ZX10R), Wattie (ZX10R), Hoffy (ZX12R) Dale (some gixxer thing) and I finally got on the road.
Took ..Macs Reef Road out to Bungendore where we met Mick C (ZX10R). Then off to Braidwood, rolled straight through and stopped just at the top of the Clyde. Dave had sorted out a camera on his bike so he turned it on to record the trip down the Clyde… brilliant stuff! We took off, Dave came last so he could overtake us one by one going down the hill. Dale waved him straight past and Dave sat behind me until just after Government Bend. In true form I sucked at the hairpins, but picked up the pace after that. The weather was good but the road was a bit damp up the top, as usual. Before long I’d caught up to Glen and Hoffy so followed them down to the bottom of the hill, stopping at Maccas at Bateman’s Bay to meet the rest of the crew.
Strika (ZRX) was already there waiting for us, and shortly after the rest of the Sydney crew rolled in… Rod (ZX9R), Phil (ZRX) and Robyn (ZXR750).
We fuelled up at Bateman’s Bay then headed south for Bega, just following the Highway. I was at the rear and poor Robyn and I got left further and further behind as we got every bit of traffic at the worst spots! Lunch and refuel at Bega, then off for the fun stuff!
We headed up to Candelo, where Phil got Dale to take a photo of all the kwakas rolling into town =) is a very nice shot! Then over Myrtle Mountain to Wyndham and up Mt Darragh to Cathcart. I had a really good run for these stretches, I had found my place in the group and ended up with nobody in front of me and nobody behind me so settled into a really nice pace. Going up Mt Darragh, Dave had pulled over to get the camera rolling… took him longer than I expected for him to overtake me but eventually he did… so I stepped up the pace and managed to keep him in sight for all of about 4 corners LOL the chase was on!
We got into Bombala and found Eric (ZRX). Here the group split with most of us heading for Delegate and the Bonang with Eric and Dale taking the soft option and heading straight for Cann River to avoid the dirt.
The sky had started to cloud over and there was a lot of water on the road leading into Delegate. It seemed to clear up a bit by the time we actually reached Delegate… we kept on going through the town, now we were on new territory for me as I had never been past Delegate before. Soon enough the road turned to dirt, there were road works going on. This section was really good and even though I was very nervous about the dirt I kept up a pace of between 70-80km/h through here.
Then… then we hit the sealed section. Heaven. I was behind Glen and Hoffy and we just all kept pace together, they set a really good pace through there. We pulled up at the 105km of twisties sign for photos then kept going. The sky was getting darker and darker, and as soon as we crossed over into Victoria the skys opened up and let us have it. The road turned to dirt again, and was quite tight and windy, with a tinted visor now kinda muddy I couldn’t do much more than follow the tail light in front of me, which was good, at one point I cracked the visor and had a look at the road… I was better off just not seeing it I think LOL. Had some pretty impressive bolts of lightning and thunder and just before the end of the second dirt section we had a logging truck coming the other way… he was hogging the road so we all had a very narrow section of road to ride on… the rest of the group was waiting for us just off the dirt, so we all stopped for a quick smoke then off we went again. This road was just amazing… non stop corners (I believe someone once said that there were too many corners? LOL). I tried to hang onto Glen and Hoffy but lost them after a while so just cruised along. After a while came across Dave, Mick, Glen and Hoffy pulled over, Dave had a cramp so was stretching it out, so another smoke break J Dave put the camera back on, and we took off… Mick was leading then Glen, Hoffy, me and Robyn and Dave started from the back again. I kept up with Glen and Hoffy for ages, and we were really pegging along at a good pace (well for me anyway) but eventually I lost them again. Then it started raining again LOL just for a change. Just before Orbost we all regrouped before rolling into Orbost and onto the pub. We had a group photo of all the bikes out the front, before moving them around the back for the night and settling in for a night of bourbon, bourbon, chicken parmies and more bourbon!
Eric and Dale met us here, although Dale’s gixxer had developed a hole in the radiator so he patched it up as best he could and set out for Melbourne to get it fixed.
Thursday 28 February 2008
Phil, Rod, Robyn and Eric all left really early as Phil had to be at the Island by lunch time and they were all camping and wanted to get set up. Dave also left heaps early as he had killed his rear tyre the day before and wanted to get to Bairnsdale to get a new one on. Much later I got up, showered and by the time I was ready the place was in silence! I grabbed a coffee and settled in on the balcony for a bit, before Mick came to find me to tell me breakfast was on downstairs…
We set off with Marty in the lead, we went straight down the highway to Bairnsdale where we met Dave, then up to Dargo. The weather was starting to look a bit ordinary but I adopted my usual “she’ll be right” attitude to the plastic suit. Before long it started raining. It had stopped by the time we got to Dargo though the roads were still wet. It was a really nice stretch of road that I’d like to revisit one day in the dry!
We turned around and headed back the way we came. I was really starting to learn some new things about riding along this stretch, I was again chasing Glen and Hoffy, who both punch it out of corner and my little 6 was getting left behind. I really started working the gear box to make sure I was at maximum power to get out of the corners to keep up… it was a lot of fun. And then it started absolutely bucketing down. I think there was some hail mixed up in it!
Got into Stratford for lunch, pretty damp by this time, but the sun had come out by then so we all sat around enjoying the sun for a while. From there I’m not sure where we went exactly. Some very fast straight backroads that Kathleen and I had done on our GP run and then we were onto new territory. We ended up on the freeway heading towards Melbourne for a bit, then off to another twisty back road. My head just wasn’t in the right place for twisties so was left behind, had a bit of a moment when brain fart kicked in and I missed seeing a corner and ended up off the other side of the road… luckily there was a driveway there… ooops. Keep going and the road turns to dirt… a short way up everybody was stopped for a regroup, or so I thought. Turns out Mick C had a bit of a Crusty Demons moment, which I only realised as I saw them pulling the crim out of the ditch! He was okay, they taped the bike back together and we kept going. For some reason Dave was behind me and he sat behind me all the way on the dirt… it seemed to go on forever, I didn’t really like that much at the time, but on reflection it wasn’t so bad.
We stopped somewhere else for fuel (no idea where, Leongatha maybe?) then Marty took us down some road which was absolutely stunning… sweeper after sweeper just following the coast. Spectacular, except that we seemed to have lost half the group. Glen was behind me for some reason, I had just overtaken a car, went to change up a gear and missed, got it into neutral…. Oops. Hit the rev limiter, I shifted properly and off we went. Glen told me at the next spot that at that moment I shot a huge flame out the back of my exhaust… hehe.
Marty waved us off at the turn off to San Remo and he kept going back to Melbourne. Mick stopped to mark the corner and Hoffy, Glen and I continued on for Cowes. MadKaw had kindly collected the keys for us as we had doubted we would be there in time, and we went to the caravan to collect them before heading to the “love shack” to check out the weekends accommodations. We got the bedding arrangements sorted then headed off to the shops for supplies. A lot of bourbon was purchased as well as food, and we went back home for a bbq – what a feed! We watched Mad Max 2 and then all went off to bed.
Friday 29 February 2008
We woke up to the sounds of rain… spewin! We hung around the house for a while, before firing up the bbq for bacon and egg sandwiches. I think we finally made it out to the track at about midday, me riding bitch with Mick on the zeddy. We caught up with the rest of the crew and hung out there… there were some bikes going around the track or something…
Found the new ZX10 in the expo tent… hawt! Indicators are on the mirrors and are ugly as fuck, as is the exhaust but they are easily fixable! If I get rich I’ll put in my order straight away! I had a sit on it and they all reckon it took a crow bar to get me off it again. It felt really comfortable, I really like it so far.
We hung around at the track until the days activities were over, then back to the love shack for a bit before heading into town for pizzas with the crew from the caravan park, we all sat down on the beach and ate pizza, a case of jimmy & cola turned up so we drank and were merry. The Victorians at the love mansion were all being soft and not coming down so we all went up to harass them, damn it was a long walk! We hung out there for a while, until the owner called to complain about the noise! So we left them in peace and came back home. We started watching Team America but didn’t get through it all before all heading to bed.
Saturday 1 March 2008
Dave was up heaps early to be at the track for the first of the historic races at 8am – the rest of us slept in. I woke up to someone talking about something then “where’s Mel, did she go out to the track with Dave?” I must sleep very quietly! LOL
Dave came back and it was bacon and eggs for breakfast again.
Mick C spent the morning glueing the fairings back together then he rode my bike out to the track – he said afterwards that he was surprised by how well it went and how much power it actually had once you get the revs up… yay for Jimmy! I rode out with Dave on the 12 – he didn’t really have a chance to really open it up, but wow anyway!
We hung out at the track again, again there were some bikes going around the track… quite a few of us all got on the bikes for a lap around the track – I went on the back of my bike with Mick C riding it, I had his camera so was taking random pics all over the place, dunno how many of them worked out as I couldn’t see the screen! Later on we went around again to try and find the Jim Beam girls but nobody was around… got a photo of Jimmy in front of the Jim Beam bus anyway… looked good on the camera!
We went up to the caravan park for a bbq which was fun, there were quite a few of us there and KayBee and Stace came down from the soft Vic crew so that was cool. Wattie, Mick C, KayBee, Benno and I went down to the town to see what was happening at about 11pm but it was kinda deadish and the band wasn’t on so we went back to the shack… where the rest of them were watching the tits and arse video footage they’d taken through the day… fun. LOL KayBee headed off and I walked back part of the way with her, before going back home and to bed.
Sunday 2 March 2008
We got out to the track much earlier than the previous two days – twas race day apparently! We went over to the historic garages and checked out all the bikes there, then stood around near the grid while the boys all checked out the grid girls (was very boring). Spewin cuz I had a pass for the pit walk but lost track of the time and missed it (it was on while the boys were looking at the girls, would have been a great time to go!). ah well.
We left Dave with his video camera and headed back over to watch the start of the race. Race started – dude stalled, a dude on a Kawasaki hit him and ended up on the grass right in front of us with the bike falling on top of him =( didn’t realise until they came to pick up the bike that his leg was stuck up under the tail, between the pipes! Was pretty awful. They finally got him free, the ambos finally came and took him away, and the bike was taken away as well. I found footage today of the dude whose bike had stalled, he got hit and his boot went flying off like a rocket! Pretty amazing and pretty scary also… boots are supposed to stay on! I think that race was pretty much carnage there were a couple of big stacks in it.
Back to KSRC corner and caught up with Mal and Kaz which was pretty cool, hadn’t seen them in ages. It was stinking hot! I ended up seeking shade, Benno was in the shade cast by his bike, and I sat in the shade he was creating! It worked well =) I went back for another gander at the new 10 and ran into Doit and fatal, went and said hi to Lianne who was doing the shave for a cure thing, saw a few of the other B & S guys and gals before heading back for some more race watching.
It all wrapped up and we farewelled the VIC people before heading back to the love shack. Cath and Dave joined us for a bit and we watched some of the footage from the day… lots of tits and arse shots again… then I walk in front of the camera and they zoom in on my arse!!!!!!! OI!!!!!!! LOL at least I didn’t get any “doinka doinka” comments… or maybe I should be insulted by that? LOL we wandered into town for dinner (fish and chips and other take-away delights) then back to the house to clean up a bit. Then out came the video camera… we were mucking around a bit and it was all very hilarious.
Monday 3 March 2008
Alarm was set for 6am – we had to meet Phil and the others at the San Remo servo at 7:30am! We got everything packed up and ready to go, swung by the caravan park to drop off some things to MadKaw and Phil found us there. So we all headed to San Remo, filled up and off we went. Again no idea where we went, one part of the road Kathleen and I had done but only part of it. We hit some very heavy fog which made things interesting. Into Sale for fuel, then Bruthen for a wee break then into the fun stuff! Got caught in a bit of traffic and road works heading up to Omeo, got overtaken in a corner by a dude on a 12 who I later caught up with… he was good to chase for a while. Lost him just before Omeo. Refuel at Omeo and lunch… how can it be lunchtime already? Felt like 10am. From there up to the top of Hotham – I love that stretch of road. I was left behind for a bit but before long I’d caught up to the group… mind you they were going pretty slow LOL so now wonder I caught them. We stopped for another little break at one point on the road just the other side of hotham, photos were taken then off to Harrietville. No way I was ever gonna keep up with anyone along this stretch so I took it at my own pace and really enjoyed it, got a nice rhythm going and just cruised.
Marty had waited for us at the start of Tawonga Gap – his wife was sick so he was heading straight for home from there. We went up and over Tawonga Gap – I kept up with Hoffy and Glen for a bit but then lost them when I got stuck behind a 4WD and then a truck! Up the Redbank Road into Tallangatta for yet more fuel, then Granya =) Had a really good run up here as well, no loose crap all over the road like there had been the last few times I’d been through there, again I had a really smooth pace going. We regrouped at the other end and onto Walwa. The boys all said they could hear me and Robyn coming as we were both flogging our bikes through there =) =) =).
From Walwa, Dave nicked off early so he could get us all rolling into Tintaldra on the camera, the rest of us all road together as a group, it was only about 20km.
Bourbon was the order of the day – they only had about 7 cans at the pub so it was jugs of bourbon all round! We were buying two jugs at a time and they were gone before you could blink… eventually we were all becoming well lubricated so slowed down.
Now Phil had been raving about the Eggplant Moussaka for some time… and finally I got to sample it – and it was everything he had said it would be! Fuck yeah!! Maija had also put on Chilli Con Carne and there were chips and fresh bread rolls and butter and rice… yum! What a feed. I was pretty pissed by that point, was having a great time! We watched the footage from that day’s riding on the screen in the pub which was cool, I ended up behind the bar washing glasses, I think it amused Alf! He said next time I’m there he might teach me to pull a beer! Then off to the bridge for the ritual pissing in the river to send to Neka (I didn’t partake in this LOL).
We headed back to the pub, sat around talking for a bit before all heading to bed.
Tuesday 3 March 2008
Breakfast was at 7am so we all assembled in the pub for breakfast. I have no idea what time we got going but it was pretty early! As we got to the place where Phil had his skippy incident last year on this run, we all stopped and Wattie was trying to find the bones from the roo, with no luck.
We continued on, then up the Elliott Way. I was cruising along and could see headlights getting nearer in my mirror – it was Robyn catching up to me! Hadn’t seen her for ages, that was how bad I was going LOL Found the boys waiting for us at the Selwyn turn off, quick smoke then off to Kiandra then Adaminiby for fuel.
Had an absolutely fantastic run from Kiandra to Adaminiby… god I love that stretch of road! Kept pace with Hoffy and Glen through here, absolutely flogging my poor bike to keep up with them on the straights!
Was a good run back into Cooma then the very boring stretch to Canberra. We stopped at Williamsdale to make our farewells – the Sydney crew were going through Queanbeyan and down the Clyde and up the coast to Sydney, Mick C lives in Tuggeranong somewhere so was turning off shortly. Mick C turned off and I was at the back of the pack. I saw all the Sydney crew turning off at Lanyon Drive – I didn’t realise until I had passed that Dave and Mick had gone with them! Ah well… I just headed for home via maccas cuz I was hungry LOL.
Got home about 12:30pm, parked the bike, left all my gear on it and inside.
Was a fantastic week, even though it only felt like a weekend. Great company, great roads and of course, the Island! =)
Bring on the GP!!
No comments:
Post a Comment