Mid Week ride, Waurn Ponds to Inverleigh via Creswick Wednesday 12 April 2023

Ride report and Leader: John Grace

 Wednesday 12 April 2023 Waurn Ponds to Inverleigh via Creswick (260 Km)
 
Wednesday dawned wet, wet, wet. However, by the time I had ridden from home (Pt Lonsdale) to Whittington, the rain eased off and stopped.
 
Five hardy riders showed up for the ride, John T on his BMW, John on his Honda Gold Wing, Phil on his Honda VRF, Ian on his Harley, and Dennis (Biggles) on his Yamaha. Thank you, guys, for showing up and making the ride so enjoyable.
 
This was a ride that Darkie would have thoroughly approved. He always claimed that it never rained on any ride he was leading; and so it proved for us as well. We left in the dry, we travelled in the dry and we arrived at our destination still dry. We even saw the sun on occasion!
 
At the risk of turning this report into a weather report I’ll move on to the details. With six riders in total we decided to drop the corner marking and Biggles did an excellent job as Tail-End Charlie, thanks Dennis. We rode out through Ceres then onto Meredith via Bakers Bridge Rd, and the Steiglitz Rd. Here I changed plan and we stopped for morning tea, this gave us a more even interval between stops.
 
From Meredith we rode to Ballan because I wanted to check if we had any riders waiting at the advertised morning tea spot. We took the Slate Quarry Rd and then turned onto the Anakie - Ballan Rd. No one was waiting for us at Ballan so we continued on through Gordon, then turned off on Carey Rd, Butter Factory Rd to Wallace and then on to Creswick via the Bungaree – Creswick Rd.
 
After a very pleasant lunch at the Creswick Bakery, which turned out to be quite popular (a regular “hot spot” in fact) we headed home via Bald Hills Rd and Gillies Rd through Wendoree and by a devious route from there which popped us out on the Glenelg Highway at Smythesdale. We travelled to Scarsdale and then turned off towards Lismore as far as Cape Clear where we turned off to Rokewood, and from there to Shellford and the ride ended at Inverleigh.
 
Unfortunately there were no photos of this ride. So there is no hard evidence that it ever took place. Conspiracy theorists please insert your alternative reality stories here.
 
I hope to see you all on a ride in the near future.
 
JohnG