Phillip Island Adventures cont'd

Thursday 23 Feb

We had a fairly lazy start to the day then went for a ride through the eastern side of the island.  We looked for beach access amongst the holiday homes.  There was no real view through to the beach, there was a thick scrub.  I guess the inclement weather doesn’t encourage open access.  We finally found our way to the township of Rhyll.

We posed the Wing beside the water, then worked our way to Cape Woolamai to have a look at the surf.

Time was creeping on so we headed back to the main road.  We stopped at Panny’s Chocolate shop.  Inside it was wall to wall varieties of chocolate.  We opted for a hot chocolate drink by the window to watch the passing parade of motorcycles.The fee for the tour of the chocolate factory was $12 each with some samples at the end.  We opted for spending less and buying a block or three of chocolate.

It was time to head back to the house to see if our housemates had arrived.  Andrew and Sheryl had settled in and doing what most people do after being on the road for a few days – washing clothes and bikes.  The evening temperature was very pleasant so we sat outside and swapped stories.

Friday 24 Feb

I decided to ride my bike to the track, one to say that I had taken the CeeBee, and also to get some practice of riding on gravel road.  We picked up our pre-purchased tickets (saved $23.50 on gate prices) and made our way to the parking area near the corporate tents and Gardner Straight.   




From here we walked back to the traders' area.  Some of the manufacturers were there including a couple of the more exotic makes - Bimoto and Benelli.

 

We headed over to the historic bike pits for a look.

Love the air intake caps.

Nice Paintwork

One of the great things about World Superbikes is that we get to see up close everyone’s bikes and there are some special ones out there.

Saturday 25 Feb

We woke to the news that a friend who had been riding in Western Australia had hit a roo and was OK but in hospital.  A few phone calls later we were reassured that he was in good spirits and receiving the necessary care.  The news about his bike wasn't so good.

Out at the track we parked in our favourite morning spot.

Not too much later a red Rocket pulled up nearby.

This one's for you, Ian.








We settled in to watch the practice and qualifying.  The wind was blowing down Gardner Straight causing some very high speeds by the time the bikes reached Turn 1.  The wind effect was catching out a few riders, one didn't make the corner.  He rode through the kitty litter and across the paddock managing to wash off a lot of speed.  Because it was during qualifying the bikes were well spaced and he was able to feed the bike back onto the track without any real disruption.

The preliminary races started.  There was some good racing particularly down the pack.  As the sun moved around, so did we.  Facing into the sun isn't great for photography. We moved to a grassy knoll near the Hay Shed.  It from here that we saw the start of one of the support races.  The commentators announcement was one of amazement that all of the riders had made it through the hairpin at turn 4.  Being the first lap the riders were formed into a long snake with a few exchanging places.

Clint was working the camera.  I looked across the field to where I could see the end of the main straight.  The head of the motorcycle snake was making its way through Turn 2 Southern Loop when there was a motorcycle travelling a speed across the kitty litter and the grassy paddock.  Oh No he's missed the turn!  In the split second of processing this there was a niggling thought in the back of my brain "This isn't going to be good."  The rider was travelling too fast to safely rejoin the snake.  Next scene was a couple of green motorcycles cartwheeling down the track, dust and chaos.

Oh NO he's collided essentially 90 degrees to the snaking train of motorcycles.  As this all unfolded, we knew something was seriously wrong because the marshalls weren't picking up the downed motorcycles.  Not too much later it was obvious that it was almost certain that a rider had died.  The police were there taking measurements and photographs.  The sun was beating down.  We realised that the racing wouldn't be resuming too soon so we found a shady spot to wait for announcements.  Other folk were already leaving, perhaps they had been closer to the action and had better knowledge that there wouldn't be any more events.  The announcements weren't forthcoming with any news either of the riders or the remaining events.  Eventually, we got word that there wouldn't be any more events for the day.  We took our leave and headed back to the house a sad with the knowledge that someone wasn't going home to his family.

Sunday 26 Feb

We didn't worry too much about being out at the track first up.  The previous day's series of events had taken the shine off the weekend.  We worked our way around to one of our favourite photo spots and saw a couple of FarRider friends go by.  We followed them to the same grass knoll from the day before and spent the day cheering the riders and generally having a long overdue chat.

Our last full day at the Island saw the great weather finally give way to some rain during the night.  We started our packing in preparation for our departure.

Monday 27 Feb

The rain stayed around.  The last of the packing was done and the bikes moved under the outside shelter to be loaded.  In the midst of all our preparations, we cleaned and tidied the house.  It's a good feeling to leave the place as clean if not cleaner than it was when we arrived.  We really appreciate the opportunity of having a comfortable place to stay.

Can't avoid it anymore.  Onto the bikes and into the rain.  We found ourselves on the highway heading for Dandenong when both lanes of traffic were just crawling.  There was at least another 20kms of this before the assigned turnoff.  We would hardly move a bikes' length at a time.  This is not good.  Feeling very vulnerable and getting wetter by the minute, the Narre Warren turn off beckoned.  Ok, this isn't so bad, we should be able to keep the kilometres rolling.  This track took us through Healesville and Black Spur country.  The rain was persistent - it was either raining or raining harder. There wasn't a chance to dry out.  We tippy-toed our way through the twisting roads, streams of water flushing a mud slurry from the unsealed driveways onto the road.  Water was starting to pool at the roadside threatening to flood the road.  Have I said thank you for the new tyres?  I'm pretty sure Clint was wishing he had new tyres on the Wing, too.

Our AD-1 ride strides that we bought from Aerostich were working a treat our lower halves were dry.  Clint was protected from most of the rain by the screen on the Wing.  For me, I had to have the visor popped open just slightly to manage the fog.  This let rain in.  It was raining inside my helmet, flowing past the chin, down my neck and wetting my t-shirt.  This with the loose neck of my jackets allowing the rain in too, I was getting rather wet.  My feet were squelching inside favourite old motorcycle boots.

Once we were out of the twisty sections the road straightens up and in other circumstances would be a temptation to let the bike have its head.  We passed a guy in a bus shelter, his Multstrada nearby and a Subaru Forester with red and blue party lights.  Oh dear!  Next little town along was a fuel stop and pit stop for me, too much water everywhere lol.  By the time we were ready to get going, the fellow on the Multistrada had pulled up and had a chat.  Seems he gave into the temptation to give the bike its head and was caught.  I knew I was wet, but this guy took the cake.  He was wringing out his gloves with water pouring out.  He squatted down and the water poured out of his riding suit.  Hope he didn't have too much further to go.

Eventually we found our way to the Hume Highway to take us north.  We finally rode through the rain and were able to put down some dry highway kms.  We pulled in to the Glenrowan McDonalds for a break and a bite to eat.   I was getting tired due to the Frogg Toggs jacket billowing up and parachute-like dragging at me.  Decision made, remove the Frogg Toggs and put on the plastic jacket liner I carried under the seat.  Although I was still wet, it would act as a wind break rather than a wind sock.  Refreshed and more comfortable, we pushed on to Cootamundra for our night's rest.

We spread out our gear in our tiny room and dried it as best we could hopeful that tomorrow would be a dry ride.

Tuesday 28 Feb

Gear stowed, bikes unwrapped and packed and we were away under dry skies.  Yay!!  Our track took us through Young, Cowra and Blaney to Bathurst.  This would be my first time to ride around the famous mountain track.  We took the first turn off that runs up the back of the mountain to Reid Park.  We poked around the viewing areas for a bit and realised the track was shut to tourists due to an event.

Oh well this is as close as I got to riding around the race track.

We pulled up in town at a neat cafe for brunch.  The sign said Tuesdays 2 for 1 breakfast.  Our selection was poached eggs with grilled haloumi and asparagus with coffee.  Yummm!

One more stop in town this time to fill our bikes' tummies and we were away.  Time to follow Clint's favourite route between the highways.  As we rode, towns were ticked off the list, Mudgee, Coolah, Gunnedah, Warialda, Texas.  By the time we were at Texas, it was getting on to late afternoon - great for travelling the Texas-Stanthorpe road.  This is great riding, corners, hills, causeways, great views lit from the setting sun.  Too soon we rejoined the highway into Stanthorpe.  Another fuel stop for the bikes and us.  We had a chat about the temptation of being so close to home and pushing on when tired.  We agreed that we would pull up and stop for the night if we were too tired.  Remember! Rule No. 1!

Another run down Cunningham's Gap.  We were taking it easy behind a truck when the road presented an overtaking lane - very interesting relying on reflective markers and no line marking to show lane positions.

I've felt it before and we've talked about it, the last hour of the ride, tiredness starts to seep in and gnaw away.  Now more than ever, dig deep and focus.  Alert again for the traffic of inner Brisbane and home.  My first 1,200km in 16 hours - very satisfying and very tired.