(Report by John Cook)

Brian led a great ride exploring bits of Gippsland today.  I generally knew roughly where I was, but we rode some roads and routes I’ve never previously used.   The combination of farmland (aroma was thrown in too) bush and roads was great.  It was a damp cold morning to start with and my Raynaud’s syndrome was causing issues for my fingers by the time I arrived at the Officer start point.  I mean, who brings out heated gloves in summer?  Happily, it was a dry ride after that, and a combination of heated grips and rising temperatures fixed that little issue for me.  

Once briefings and greetings were completed, we rode south and then east, passed a very busy Lardner Park and used some delightful little back roads through to  Buln Buln (I can’t even pronounce that, but a local had joined us today and rode past his home) and used even more roads I wasn’t familiar with before arriving at Willow Grove first at the amenities block (what is it about “senior” motorcyclists?)  ) and then a cuppa break. 

Now I don’t wish to criticise Brian’s navigation, but we started much further west, had our morning break well east of our destination and still arrived at our destination from the west again!   Yes, there was much shorter route, but that just isn’t the point.  After our break we headed south through more lovely farm country and at one stage we had a highway patrol car in the middle of our group.  Happily, the driver ignored our corner marker and turned off.  In amongst all that I realised we did one road in both directions and after some more truly enjoyable riding we arrived at Neerim South via Jindivick.  Lunch was a simple take away affair enjoyed over a chat. 

A local police member stopped and admired the luggage system on Gary’s BMW – purely a social discussion.  Once finished, the majority headed west towards Melbourne with Brian.  Vaughan and I decided we needed to check out the trestle bridge at Noojee on our way home to the eastern suburbs.   

As soon we left, we had a couple of minor rain squalls as we rode north into the Great Divide.  Despite that we had a great ride home through the mountains.  Brian – Thanks for another great and well researched ride.  Samuel thanks for doing TEC duty again.  Thanks also to all who came along.  The group got along at a good clip with riders well spaced out.  Cheers  John Cook