I’m experimenting with doing a report on our new website.

Yes, it is the very middle of winter and statistically our coldest week in Melbourne, so why no go out for an enjoyable ride?        

I ignored the fact that it was raining in Montrose on Sunday morning and decided to ride my old "Pan European" Honda anyway.  It was also quite cold, so I put full weather gear on including over gloves and pants.  That worked, and of course it was dry by the time I reached Lilydale and met up with Colin, Big Dave and Jeff who were also silly enough to join Pat's ride through the mountains in the middle of winter.

 Five of us set off along the Maroondah Hwy and we had wet roads and mainly sunshine through to Healesville.  The combination of water spray and sun glare made vision problematic.   I was glad my helmet had a built in sun visor and popped it up and down several times to deal with glare variations on the wet roads.   Through the Black Spur it got very misty, so it was good to be able retract the sun visor and be able to see the road surface and where I was going.   I would have loved to stop and take a photo of the combination of mist, road and trees, but that probably would have caused confusion.   We followed a modern Jeep over the Spur and the driver kept up a good pace which made it an enjoyable ride despite the wet road surface and heavy mist. 

We rode on at a good pace to Eildon

where we were met by Greg Rees who had popped over from Alexandra to say "G'day."  We enjoyed a nice “cuppa” break and chat in cool sunshine.

We then rode the innumerable bends to Jamieson and experienced dry roads,

some really wet roads, some bits where 4WDs had left muddy tracks on the bitumen after coming off dirt side tracks plus sun glare and even a rainbow.  Happily, there was very little traffic - basically none our way.  The most common vehicles were dirt bikes going the opposite way plus a few 4WDs.    We also found time to stop at the lookout above the Goulburn arm of Lake Eildon.    

All in all, it was a great ride which required lots of concentration on the variable grip road. 

We enjoyed lunch at the general store in Jamieson. 

 We then bid Pat farewell and rode home north, stopped briefly at Howqua Inlet

and rode on home via Mansfield and Bonnie Doon.  Some rain finally caught us at Molesworth.  I had dispensed with the over-mitts by then and the bike fairing did a good job keeping my gloves dry anyway.  Temperatures mainly hovered between 5 and 7 degrees through most of the ride before making it to 10 around Molesworth and Yea.

The right clothing and accessories really helped make it an enjoyable ride. 

Winter certainly won’t stop me riding around Melbourne and yes, there are some days where it may just not be worth it.        

Pat - thanks for putting the ride together, and thanks to all who came along and added to the camaraderie.

John Cook