16 Jan Otways Mid-Week Ride

by **Jules Pearce** Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:16 am

Below are a selection of photos from Graham Aitken, Peter Barclay and Jules Pearce from Wednesday's most successful ride. We had around 33 riders and a record of 7 Peters participate. Thanks to Peter Barclay for organising and leading the ride. Peter did an excellent job managing so many bikes and taking such a scenic route. Thanks also to Jim Crerar for volunteering to be Tail End Charlie. Below is Peter Townsend's entertaining ride report.

PETER TOWNSEND RIDE REPORT

Summer has finally arrived and the prospect of riding in warm, sunny conditions for our 1^st scheduled ride for 2019 lured 33 Ulysseans to the Waurn Ponds Maccas carpark for the 9:30am start. I believe this is a record attendance for a mid week ride and ride planner and leader Peter Barclay spent a bit of time shaking his head in disbelief. We had 30 bikes, 2 Spyders and 1 pillion rider – Big Bill on his Big Triumph even came down from Queensland to join the ride! Also, whilst in record breaking territory we accumulated 7 Peters! – Parents back in the 1940s and 50s showed a distinct lack of imagination when coming up with names for their offspring!-(“What is it? It’s another boy – oh, OK, let’s see?? I know, we’ll call him Peter”). Jimbo on his Harley volunteered for TEC duties and after the ride briefing and a few photos we donned jackets and helmets and streamed out of the car park and onto the Princes Hwy heading west with the sun on our backs.

We made our way out to Ceres via Waurn Ponds Drive and Cochranes Rd, turning right onto the Barrabool Rd and after a few kay chucked a leftie into Andersons Rd. This brought us back onto the Princes Hwy where we headed west and then turned left at the Mt. Moriac pub and on into Moriac. At Moriac it was right onto the Cape Otway Rd until the Winch/Lorne Rd where we turned left and on into Deans Marsh which was our morning coffee stop. We had lost our Sun by this stage of the ride with high cloud cover taking over, however conditions were still pleasantly warm. The café on the corner never disappoints and they handled the influx of 33 people in their usual cool, calm and efficient manner. After the break, Tiger provided mid morning entertainment by inadvertently flattening the battery on his Thruxton (apparently parked it with the parking lights turned on). Consequently, two of the fitter (I use the term loosely!) Ulysseans huffed and puffed the thing back into life!

We headed out of Deans Marsh on the Birregurra Rd and then turned left onto Bushs Rd, travelling through Murroon and bringing us to the Birregurra/Forrest Rd where we turned left. One of the fairly fast “blind” corners on the Murroon Rd intersects with a gravel road and much of the gravel had ended up on our side of the road - this fortunately was negotiated safely by all – but it would be so so easy to come to grief - need to be alert all the time!! So it was on through Barwon Downs, Forrest, Barramunga and at the Turtons Track intersection we regrouped before heading down the track. Due to the large number of bikes, Peter, in his infinite wisdom had quite a few stops to allow us to regroup – Corner marking otherwise would need to have involved a comfy chair and a good book!!

Turtons Tck is a narrow strip of bitumen that winds and snakes its way along the top of the main Otway ridge, passing through some glorious rainforest which is literally brushing against your shoulders. Speed limit is 40Kph and carries a fair bit of traffic – coming from Geelong it is the quickest way to get to the Otway Fly and other tourist spots in the area. Peter took every opportunity to warn us to take it easy – he obviously didn’t want to be responsible for someone becoming a “bonnet mascot” on the front of some random’s car!! So, after successfully negotiating the track we made our way through Beech Forest, Weeaproinah (boasts highest annual rainfall in Victoria! – but not today!!) and then on into Lavers Hill, our lunch destination. As we approached Lavers Hill our warm inland breeze was, in the blink of an eye, transformed into a very cool Southerly with around a 10 degree drop in temperature.

Bob, on his Jaffa coloured Beemer had no sooner parked the bloody thing when an attractive young Asian woman draped herself over it whilst having her photo taken!! Mmm – make note to self – get home, paint bike orange!! Anyway for lunch we shared our custom between the Otway Junction Bistro and the café across the road – “Yatzies” – who’s main claim to fame appeared to be purveyors of the most expensive pies in the Southern Hemisphere - $8.50!! Anyway, after a fairly long, cool, leisurely luncheon interval Peter rounded us up to continue on our merry way. Our numbers dropped to 25 bikes as some left the ride after lunch to make their own way home.

On the road once again, we backtracked to Weeaproinah where we turned left towards Colac – interestingly as we made our way inland we soon ran back into our warm wind and into Summer again! The run into Colac is around 45klm from Weeaproinah with no need for a Corner Marker. The Colac/Lavers Hill road rates as one of the great motorcycle rides in this country and we were treated to an hour or so of brilliant exhilarating motorcycling –for a Victorian country road it’s in reasonable condition and not too much traffic. Fast corners, slow corners winding out of the Otways and through the undulating farming land around Colac - If this road doesn’t put a smile on your dial, get your pulse checked! However, all too soon we were in Colac where we turned left on the Princes Hwy and refuelled at the Servo in West Colac. Unfortunately, after refuelling, Barry’s Spyder refused to start and after some deliberating and prodding and poking it was pronounced dead. Barry stayed at the servo to arrange pickup of his bike and the rest of us headed off on the last leg of the day’s run. At this point a few more riders left the ride to go their own way home and the remaining 17 bikes headed off to our final stop at Winchelsea.

We headed North through Cororooke via Rossmoyne Rd, Sheehans Rd and Factory Rd. At Cororooke we turned right onto the Corangamite Lake Rd and continued on through Warrion. Around this time we lost our warm wind and rediscovered the cool southerly we left behind at Lavers Hill! Near Lake Beeac we turned left onto Grassy Vale Rd, continuing on to the Eurack Rd which becomes the Cressy Rd and on into Winchelsea. At the Princes Hwy in Winch we turned left, crossed the Barwon river and finished the ride at Café La Hoot near the public toilets.

In summary a brilliant Summer’s day ride with a well thought out mix of interesting and great motorcycle roads - Peter and Jimbo excelled in their respective roles and showed that even with a large group the Corner Marking system works and works well allowing everyone to have a thoroughly enjoyable day out. Peter on the remaining Spyder left Winch and headed West back to Colac to pick up Barry and get him home. Hopefully his Spyder will get sorted and be back on the road soon. The rest of us made our way back to Geelong by various routes – worryingly, Peter was last seen studying a rather large map of Australia – hopefully not trying to work out how to get back home! - More likely planning his next ride! I chalked up a total of 311 enjoyable kilometers.

Peter t.

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Above: Where's Noel?

Below: Morning tea was at Deans Marsh.

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Peter was a very popular boy's name in the 1950's it seems. We had seven present on the ride.

Tiger's Triumph needed a long push start to get going after morning tea and the pushers looked like they might need the defib any time soon!

Below: We passed through Forrest and then re-grouped on the Apollo Bay road before heading down Turtons Track to Beech Forest and Lavers Hill.

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At Lavers Hill we spread ourselves around the various cafes. It was a chilly 17C at Lavers Hill and just down the road at Colac it rose to 31C.

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by Mark Nicoll Mon Jan 21, 2019 10:28 am

Thanks Peter T for a great report on the ride.
Thanks Peter B for the excellent ride-leadership, especially with such a large group.
Thanks to all the other Peters for creating a new record!
Thanks to ~~Peter~~ ... ummm I mean Jimbo for the TEC duties.
Thanks Jules, Peter B and Graeme for the excellent photos.

It was a great ride, and no matter how many times we do the "Otways", it never gets boring.
I left the ride at lunchtime but also did the Colac-Lavers Hill Rd - one of our best in the area!

16 Jan Otways Mid-Week Ride

16 Jan Otways Mid-Week Ride

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