The sleep on the boat was a bit cooler this time, they had not turned the heaters on, but I survived to get a cuppa and a snack before disembarking. There were only a few bikes this time, 5 in all, that is Mandy on her Suzuki.

I had a bit of a wait until the ride at 11.30am that had been organised by K1W1 again, so I was very surprised when I saw this bike right across the road from the ferry exit 🙂

I had been in contact with John but had confused myself with exactly who it was. When I saw his face I realised we had shared a room on the Long Ride last year and met again in Townsville this year. Once I saw the ex Cop bike, I knew who it was, he had decided to meet me now rather than try and pick a time in the afternoon. It had already been organised that I was staying at his place that night, so it made things a lot easier. So, I followed him to his home where I had a welcome shower, the ferry has nothing for seat people 😦

I had neglected to say yesterday that my TomTom Rider 2 had started to play up and was not charging so as I did not have an AC adaptor, I needed to save the charge it had for navigating Melbourne. Once at John and Debs house it was simple work to find out that there was a missing pin on the cradle, so I fashioned one from a piece of wire and glued it in, it worked and I was back to normal. I have found when doing the twisty windy roads it helped enormously to see what type of corner to expect by a quick glance at the map in front of me, without it, I was riding blind, hence the few mistakes I made by going in too hot into corners in Tassie.

Anyway, after a refresh it was off to meet the other riders, John and Deb were heading to the bike show. It was only a small showing, but being a long weekend and a late call up, 3 other bikes besides myself was good, and a lot easier to manage 🙂 We had K1W1, Smacastrom and myself on Vstroms and Bruce riding a Yamaha.

We started at point A, and headed up some ranges to a place where a rock has been painted like an elephant at point B. It was getting a touch up while we were there by some girls.

Off we go again and there were quite a few other bikes on the road as well, crotch rocket kiddies mostly, overtaking on double white lines on corners etc, temporary Australians! But, there were other safer riders as well, also a lot of cars, it was Sunday.

Then we got to a small town called Wesburn. If anyone has seen the old Carlton Draught adverts, the posters and mirrors etc, there was an old chap called Sam Knott who said “I allus has one at eleven”, this is where he is from and the pub he drank at. They have carved a wooden memorial to him.

We stopped at Marysville for lunch after some nice tight windy roads up through one of the spurs, that is K1W1, Bruce and John.

On we went with some more very tight roads and narrow up Black Spur I think it is called, lost of cars but that did not stop the boy racers dicing with death. We did it safely and enjoyed it anyway. 🙂

We then stopped at Croydon where we got a group photo. During the day we had also done a short section of dirt between Yellingbo and Hoddles Creek, this was crap dirt, very loose material on a hard surface. Not as much fun as the dirt in Tassie, but we all survived. They were playing gridiron at this park, they had about 2 spectators, this was at point F, at back L-R is K1W1, John and Bruce, I am in front of course 🙂

This is what K1W1 had to say about the ride and my prescence there.

“Now you can say that you have ridden the Spurs so when we combine that with the Hot Chocolate and the Ice Cream I think you may be verging on becoming a latte sipping Melburian. 🙂 “

No way Jose, not this little black duck 🙂 Did I mention that when we had ice cream, K1W1 had Espresso flavour? How bad is that? I had a great ride today, so thanks for making it happen and if you get up north when I find a place in the future, I will reciprocate.

After that, I headed back to John and Debs as it was getting late in the afternoon, so we went and bought some beer and coke and ice etc and settled in for a chat. Some friends came over to join in the BBQ and a relaxed evening was had until quite late, the next day was a holiday so no getting up was needed, and that sleep in would be needed as they had a cupboard full of square bears 🙂

From the left is Michelle, John, myself, Deb and Vin.

Day – 285km
Trip – 25,356km
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