(Report by John Cook, copied from Facebook)

Home from another great Odyssey weekend.

Did everything go perfectly? – No, but Ulyssean camaraderie shone through.

About a dozen of us started from Lilydale on Friday morning and discovered that a Jaguar E type (don’t think I’ve ever seen so many) group had chosen our start point for the start of their weekend excursion. I am sharing some photos as they were great to see. We also encountered each other several times along the way as their route to Euroa mirrored ours and we even met them later as far north as Goorambat.

We left Lilydale at 10.00 AM, left the highway and checked out some old buildings and the airfield and took back roads around Yarra Glen towards Steels Creek where Brian and Peter peeled off to explore some roads lacking bitumen. We enjoyed a “good run” past Glenburn and took the “Murrindindi loop” before stopping at Yea to meet with others who had come across from the north and west of Melbourne.

We then took a diversion and few km of smooth gravel to visit the Cheviot Tunnel before riding on via Gobur and Creightons Creek to Euroa where we enjoyed lunch at a café in the main street. Then it was fuel and a simple “blatt” up the freeway to Benalla where we turned north and visited some “silo art” at Goorambat, Devenish and St James.

I must mention two comments made during the visit to the art. “Why are we in a church (while visiting Sophia of Goorambat) if we’re so intent on growing old disgracefully?” and from a person doing the ride for the second year in a row, “The art hasn’t changed much.”

 We then rode east through the Warby Ranges before arriving in Wangaratta to get on with some Ulyssean camaraderie with others who had come by a variety of methods including a ferry from Tasmania and V line trains.

The Odyssey festivities started with a BBQ at the Caravan Park, which was very enjoyable and I enjoyed catching up with people from far and wide. On Saturday morning most of us enjoyed breakfast at a café as part of the monthly VBC (Victoria Breakfast Club).

Some of us then set off on a planned ride when things went awry - I’d prefer to call it an opportunity to learn. Put simply, there was confusion about the time and location of the ride start point – and,,. and,, That was far from perfect as we had members from other branches. Once under way, we rode out and checked the old dredge at Eldorado and then on via Beechworth and up into the hills around Stanley which provide some fantastic scenery and roads. Unfortunately, a member had an “off” just south of Stanley and that put a big dampener on the day as we had to call an ambulance. Several of us stopped and addressed the situation and advised the ride leader and others of the incident. Ambulance and police attendance was good. I later (at hospital) observed the member have plaster put on his right ankle. Happily, his bike (though damaged) was rideable, and we managed to get it to a relatively secure location. The following morning a member returned with a trailer attended and got it to an even more secure location. I believe that is Ulyssean camaraderie at its best.

The Saturday evening gathering at the local RSL was well attended and I will not report the details of all the conversations. We had a good size group of riders from the “Mornington Wanderers”, members from the Grampian and beyond, plus other branches.

A much smaller group of us rode back towards Melbourne on Sunday with a breakfast stop at Milawa and a ride through Tatong before a more conventional route home.

(Full lot of photos in Facebook post)