Mansfield RTE 10 Dec

[Kev Murphy]

I decided to ride to meet Williamson on Friday afternoon, and hopefully cadge have a sleeping area there. A lot better idea than leaving home at 5 am on Saturday. Had no sleep on Thursday night.
Did a bit of fiddly footing around on the way to Melbourne, as I hoped to visit a few friends on the way.

Left Portland around 9 am Friday after a visit to the strawberry farm. A bit chilly but dry, around 12 degrees. Took a coffee break at Camperdown around 10am, and then on north eastwards towards Cressy. Deviated off the highway to Shelford where I headed north west, and then north through Mt Mercer. Amazing number of Wind Towers there now.. Last time I used this road there were none, so I guess its a few years back that I passed this way. No answer to phone call to friend that lives in this area so I kept going.

From Mt Mercer I headed slightly east of north through Bunninyong, then Yankee Flat road to Warrenheip and onto the western Fwy just east of Ballarat.
Left the Fwy at Melton West, turned north again and called in to visit a mate who lives at Diggers Rest, arrived around 2.10pm. Time for another short rest stop, back on the road at 2.30pm.
As many of the roads I took thus far are secondary roads, there was very little traffic. 16 km run down the Calder Fwy to where I turned onto the Western Ring Road, then a further 20 Km run to Greensborough.
From Tullamarine to Greensborough, very high density traffic at a virtual standstill. It took me until 5 pm to reach St Helena from Diggers Rest.
... a distance of about 40 Km took 2 and a half hours? .... People regularly run the same distance in a marathon in that time frame?
I rang Michael from the shopping centre at St Helena, and he caught up with me on his way home from work around 5.20 pm. Not sure what time we actually gave up chatting and went to bed, but I slept right through until around 7am... not bad for an insomniac, lol.

We left there around 8.30 am, short stop at the servo to refuel and set tyre pressures, and then eastwards to meet with Nigel at Yarra Glen. Some nice twisties through there. Nigel was patiently waiting, I think it was around 9.45 when we arrived? ... Onwards to Yea for an iced coffee! Met up with several other riders there, and we left as a group.

Roadworks after Molesworth held us up for maybe 20 minutes, slow traveling through that area.
Back to traveling speed after Molesworth, and a clear run to Merton, 'Right turn, Clyde!' and on to Mansfield.

I think it was around 11.40 when we arrived to meet and greet with others.


More script to follow....

[Williamson]

I decided to ride to meet Williamson on Friday afternoon, and hopefully cadge have a sleeping area there .....

Okay if you like sleeping in the down stairs room next to the garage.

..... Had no sleep on Thursday night.....

Excited with the prospect of meeting me.
 

..... a visit to the strawberry farm .....

Nice fresh strawberries, Helen and I, and the grandsons loved 'em.

..... I rang Michael from the shopping centre at St Helena, and he caught up with me on his way home from work around 5.20 pm. Not sure what time we actually gave up chatting and went to bed .....

If anyone PM's me, I'let 'em know how long you we talked.

..... We left there around 8.30 am, short stop at the servo to refuel and set tyre pressures, and then eastwards to meet with Nigel at Yarra Glen.....

You missed the part where we went back to get your smokes and lighter.

..... More script to follow....

We're waiting .......

[NTRebel]

Yeah Kev where's the rest of the story.I'm running out of 

paul

[Kev Murphy]

Unreliable internet at moment... only getting short 15 seconds of connection every 15 minutes or so... telstra has some problems in this area

[NTRebel]

Smellystra is the problem full stop.

paul

[Nigel]

Telstra. please, I mentioned it once but I thought I got away with it...........Not on my christmas list>

[Kev Murphy]

Part two, If I can maintain connection.. Fantastic to meet so many new faces and catch up with many friends at the venue.











...and I snuck an arm round Vera and Jean in the last photo 

Had a really great meal at the Mansfield pub, more than I could eat on my plate. Due to a mixup in the kitchen order there was a delay, but understandable with the number of people there. Staff did apologise for the delay and refilled my glass of squash as compensation. Courtesy of the staff regarding the mixup was rewarded with a generous donation to the 'tips' tin from myself. (almost equal to the value of the meal)

We then went to the car park for the obligatory photo session, and I was back on the road around 2.45 - 3 pm... GPS indicated arrival at 9.45pm but I took a few deviations (back roads) on the way home.

Rode south again to Yea where I turned west onto the Goulburn Valley Hwy, then turned south again on King Parrot Creek road through Kerrisdale to Strath Creek. Why?... because I had not been there before!
At one stage of the twisties, it was interesting to look over the side and see the road just traveled at least 100 feet below...



Turned south onto the Hume Fwy at Broadford and took the western ring road til the Ballarat road exit.
Refuelled and coffee break at Ballarat, then got off the main road and took to some secondary roads through Carngham to Streatham, Nerrin Nerrin, Caramut, Woolsthorpe, Hawkesdale and onto the Princes Hwy just west of Kilarney. These back roads from Ballarat are very narrow, no centreline, but fun to negotiate in good daylight.
Contrary to the pic below, I did not pass through Warnambool, but to the west of it. Google Maps is being a pain.



Uneventful trip from Port Fairy to home in fading light, and I was home and in the door at 9.15 pm at absolute last light, a much better time than estimated by the GPS, beat it by half an hour.

[Kev Murphy]

Internet is being a real pain here... around 20 x 5 minute dropouts since I started penning part 2 at 9.30pm

... has taken 2 and a half hours to upload pix and finally post

[Kev Murphy]

Is anyone into entomology?.. I have a fine collection here.. almost thick enough to peel off in one sheet...

"There's pink, and blue, and primrose too...." ... no, wait a minute?... that jingle has been used for something else....

[Kev Murphy]

DAMN! but it was hard goo to scrub off?

If we could just analyze what the bug guts consists of, we may have discovered a new environmentally friendly all-purpose adhesive?