Raff's Mid Week Ride Wed 10 April 2024

Ride Leader: Raff Ferrara
Ride Report: Peter 'The Scribe' Townsend
Pics: Jules Pearce & Raff Ferrara
 
Thirteen riders and 1 pillion (John and pillion Amanda joined us having ridden down from Altona) arrived at Maccas car park at Waurn Ponds to take part in this month’s mid week ride. Today was a bit of a milestone for ride planner and leader Raff, as it was the first time he has led the group on an all day ride. The morning was cool and dry, and the BOM rain radar was showing that the weather should be on our side. Raff outlined the plan of attack which was to have morning coffee in Lorne (via Deans Marsh) and then head to the Bellarine Peninsula along the GOR and via Portarlington, Indented Heads and St Leonards make our way to the port area of Queenscliffe to have lunch. Geoff volunteered to have the longest ride of the day and after a happy snap or two we mounted up and headed off.








 
We rode west on the highway onto Waurn Ponds drive and then via Ceres and Mt Moriac found the start of the Cape Otway Rd and, unfortunately, also found misty, drizzly rain, which annoyingly stayed with us as we travelled through Moriac, Modewarre, Bambra, Deans Marsh and at Benwerrin (on top of the Otway Ridge) the drizzle magically disappeared and the run downhill into Lorne was on completely dry roads with an accompanying increase in temperature! (Lived in the area all my life but the weather systems in the Otways have always completely baffled me!) Around Deans Marsh our rider count decreased by one as Tiger decided that his slick shod Speed Twin and the wet roads were not a good combination and decided to call it quits. The run into Lorne however turned into an extremely pleasant ride and the only vehicle we encountered between Deans Marsh and Lorne was a large truck which obligingly pulled into a slow vehicle bay to let us pass.
 
 Morning coffee at Lorne was at Grandma Shields Bakery near the Hotel, and we could tell that the food and coffee was going to be good by the number of cockatoos hovering around tables and chairs waiting to steal anything they could get their thieving beaks or claws on! The staff even warned us to not leave anything edible on the tables unattended. So, after a relaxed break enjoying the ambience of Lorne and the serenity of the screeching cockatoos, it was decided that we need to keep moving and, once again mounted up and 11 bikes headed out of Lorne towards Anglesea. Bob on “Black Betty” left the ride at this point to make his own way home.









 So, Raff navigated us to Ocean Grove by keeping the wet bit of Victoria on the right hand side and the dry bit on the left, and we worked our way along the coast through Aireys Inlet, Anglesea, Bells Beach, Torquay, 13th Beach, and Barwon Heads. By the time we got to Ocean Grove it was around 1:00pm and, with still around an hours ride ahead of us to get to Queenscliffe, Raff decided to have the lunch break at the Groove (in the Grove) at the start of Wallington Rd. (Remember, this time last week, 1 o’clock was actually 2 o’clock and our body clocks are still adjusting –well, mine certainly is!) 
 
Lunch was very relaxed and enjoyable and as we sat and chatted and appreciated the dry and mild conditions apparently, unbeknown to me, a general consensus began to form through the group that maybe we might finish the ride here, and I became aware of this when Geoff took off his Hi-Viz Ulysses vest and draped it over my head!  Ah, I say, you’re trying to tell me something!






 
In summary, in spite of the drizzly start to the ride, it was an enjoyable day out on the bikes, and although I had misgivings about heading down to Lorne in the middle of school holidays, I was pleasantly surprised by the small amount of traffic that “got in our way”. On the Deans Marsh-Lorne Rd and the GOR most traffic was going in the opposite direction to us. (Reinforcing the theory that you should generally ride the GOR anticlockwise!) It was a shorter ride than usual (I had clocked up around 170Klm at the Grove), however most of the roads travelled had speed restrictions or were in built up areas and consequently time disappeared fairly rapidly. Well done Raff on your inaugural venture as ride leader and thankyou Geoff for your diligent TEC duties, and thanks to everyone else for coming along and making for an enjoyable day out.
 
Peter t.

It is a wise man that is prepared to listen to his companions when you start to run out of time.
Well done Raff on your maiden Ride Leader voyage, hopefully there are more to come.