Ride Leader : Vince Green

Tail End Charlie : Mike

Other Riders : Steve, Jeff, Colin, (Italian) Nick, (Greek) Nick, Marty, Pat, Gary and Wendy, Shane

On the first Sunday since CoVid restrictions were relaxed, a sunny but cool winters day saw 11 riders line up at Kalkallo, including first-timer Shane who is a member of Whittlesea Branch. The clouds and fog hanging over Mt Macedon were not looking good (confirmed by Gary and Wendy who had come through heavy fog), but Vince led us out through Donnybrook and towards Whittlesea in mostly sunny conditions. After mixing in with traffic on Plenty Road the group headed on to Kinglake West and then Yea. Tail-end Charlie happily cruised along behind the new guy on his Harley Davidson (high handlebars, two pipes out the side), until the rider turned off to Kinglake – damn those Japanese Harley look-alikes ! TEC then enjoyed a quick sprint to catchup with the real Harley near Flowerdale. In spite of his own judgement, Vince was talked into stopping at Yea for the important morning tea and the toilet stop ! Enjoyed in the sun, along with a collection of other riders out for the day.

Pat, Gary and Wendy, and Shane opted to head home after morning tea (in the case of Shane due to ongoing injuries from a work accident, good effort by him for the morning). The rest of us went up over the familiar Highlands road (surprisingly fairly clear of debris) and down into Yarck. A very pleasant time was spent chatting in the winter sun, hot steak pies being a popular choice for lunch. Another group of riders were already pulled in, with one asking if ownership of a BMW was compulsory for our group !

Vince then had the great idea to go home the way we had come – back up the escarpment from Yarck, and over Highlands Road down into Yea - although he did throw in a short section of dirt road for the adventure bikes ! At Yea we split up some more as we headed home.

Thanks to Vince for an enjoyable day out on good well-travelled roads (sunshine also helps).

Mike Fittall