Mid Week Ride to Camperdown Wed 14th Sept 2022

Ride leader: Mark Nicoll
Pics: Peter 'The Lens' Barclay
Ride Report: Peter 'Scribe Extraordinaire' Townsend
 
  Nineteen riders plus Geoff (on 4 wheels) turned up on this cool, but sunny spring morning to follow Mark (ride leader and planner) around the countryside, eager to see what mischief the day could bring! So, after some happy snaps and a briefing from Mark outlining the plan of attack, we headed out through Highton with Rob V volunteering to have the longest ride of all. 












We travelled through Ceres and Gnarwarre, hitting the Princes Hwy where we turned right and on into Winchelsea. In Winch we chucked another rightie onto the Cressy road and at Eurack turned left onto the Mt. Hesse Rd. Then, after a few kays it was left again onto the Warrowie Rd and at Irrewarra we cut across to the Colac / Ballarat Rd taking us back to the Princes Hwy and into Colac, our morning coffee stop. A quick scenic tour of East Colac brought us to the IGA store on the main Hwy, where we parked and went off in search of coffee and sustenance.



 
 It was great to see Jimbo join the group in Colac, having enjoyed a nice early start to his day (8am) to ride down from Portland – geez, Jim, the coffee at the Colac IGA must be bloody good!! So, after our welcome stop, stretch of legs and coffee break, Black Betty Bob, Biggles, Dodgy and Geoff headed homeward bound leaving 17 of us to continue the day’s meandering. We headed west out of Colac on the Hwy and at Pirron Yallock took the Swan Marsh turn off and then at Carpendeit turned right onto Ansons Rd taking us up to Lake Purrumbete. All the roads travelled were sealed bitumen surfaces, however with the combination of  a wet winter and the movement of farming equipment and dairy cows across roads to get from one paddock to another, meant the road surface in a lot of areas was covered over with a nice layer of  wet, slippery mud and cow shit, which added an additional level of excitement to our ride! About 5 kays past Lake Purrumbete we turned right onto the Cobden Rd and then left onto Naroghid Rd, eventually finding Sadlers Rd which cuts between the 2 volcanic crater lakes just to the west of Camperdown. This bit of road presents mind bogglingly spectacular views of the 2 lakes and is a must see for anyone visiting Camperdown -- Absolutely brilliant!  We then continued on and detoured up Mt Leura which provides some pretty scenic views over the township, before heading into town, parking outside the Bakery in the main street, to give lunch some fairly serious thought.












 
 After an enjoyable lunch at the bakery, (we apparently cleaned out their entire stock of pies! – my word, this riding caper certainly gives you an appetite!) – we headed over to the servo to refuel for the trip home. Another 4 of the group, including Jimbo, parted company to make their own way home leaving 13 to continue the afternoon’s entertainment.
 
Unfortunately, on leaving the bakery, one of the group (no names) had one of those “get on bike, put foot down – oh dear, very slippery surface where foot is, oh shit, now bike has fallen over with me on it” moments! We’ve all done it and eventually, you look back and laugh. Fortunately, no real damage done to bike, rider or camera! Riding a bike is a bit like flying a plane – taking off and landing is the tricky bit!!
 
So, with full stomachs and full petrol tanks we headed out on the highway back towards Colac. At Pirron Yallock we turned left at “The Blue Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” (Religion – Pastafarian -- No, I didn’t make this up! Google it), and on up through Nalangil and Corunnun (who dreams these names up!?) Whilst on the Highway going through the Stony Rises, Graeme and myself were at the back of the pack keeping TEC Rob company, when we rounded a bend to be confronted by a motorcycle top box sitting on the highway. Now, we didn’t need Sherlock Holmes to work out where the top box might have come from, and that the owner was probably unaware of it abandoning ship. So we stopped and Rob managed to strap it onto his bike’s pillion seat, so it was trapped between him and his own top box. This delay caused some confusion with subsequent corner markers, and at some point the main group of riders realised that Phil’s Goldwing Aspencade was indeed, missing it’s top box. I assume that Rob had contacted Mark at some point to bring him up to speed and Rob decided to finish the planned ride and head home with the top box precariously tied to his bike. Meanwhile, Phil headed back to meet up with Rob and his errant top box, but unfortunately took a wrong turn and consequently parted company from the rest of the group. (This is all going well, isn’t it?)




 
Eventually, the now 11 remaining riders regrouped at the start of Ryan’s Lane in Coragulac, with Mal S becoming the ‘Stand In” TEC. At the end of Ryan’s Lane we turned right and at Ondit it was right again on the Colac / Ballarat Rd. Left at Ryan’s Rd took us past the Colac airport and onto the Princes Hwy where we chucked a leftie. We took the Birregurra exit off the Hwy, through Birragurra and at the Cape Otway Rd turned left and followed it all the way to Moriac, where the formal ride finished. The good news was that Phil, after taking the wrong turn decided to make his own way to Moriac to complete his ride and catch up with the group.




 
In summary, another brilliant days ride with a bit of unplanned entertainment along the way to keep our interest up! Weather was coolish, but pleasant and the morning leg of the ride was under a perfectly cloudless blue sky. After lunch the sun pretty well disappeared and the cool wind had increased in strength ahead of a rain band that came in much later in the day from the west – but for early spring it was still pretty good. A very unusual aspect of the day’s ride was that we encountered NO roadworks – anywhere - None at all! – Zilch! (Gotta be a first!)
 
Great days ride, great company, great roads (quite a few new ones for me), good coffee and lunch destinations, good weather, excellent work Mark! – and thanks to Rob and Mal for making sure we didn’t get lost (well, most of us, anyway!)
 
                 Peter t.

Thanks for a great report Peter
You've covered everything I reckon.
A visit to Camperdown always calls for a visit to the crater lakes.

Now with the roadworks... of course I planned to avoid them all!
(Well... how about just plain lucky!) 

It's great that Phil found his way back to the group, on his Honda Deauville 
(not Goldwing, careful - you'll give him a big head...)

Despite a couple of mishaps, it was a good day out!

Well, in my defence, Phil's bike looks big enough to be a leadwing!! Must admit until today I'd never heard of a Honda Deauville - Live and learn eh!!