Five club members met at the Shell servo at the Plus Petrol servo in Diamond Creek Road Greensborough all well on time and ready to go. As on all Eddie’s rides we left on the button at 9 and headed down through Diamond Creek, Hurstbridge and St Andrews before the very winding climb up to Kinglake. The road surface on this very winding hill climb has now been improved and makes spirited bike riding a more pleasant affair. However still no safety barriers except for a narrow straight section near the top.
Once when riding up this road I was confronted head on by a rather large Harley rider who veered from his side of the road on a really tight left-hander. The only option I had was to dodge blindly over to the wrong side while fully expecting to meet another Harley head on as they usually ride in groups.  Luckily he was on his own, the road was clear and I was able to quickly get back to the left. As for the wobbly Harley rider I just got a rear view mirror glance of him recovering from going over the unguarded edge of an almost sheer drop by about nats leg. Happy days!

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On reaching the top at Kinglake we headed along the Mnt Slide road towards Toolangi and then turned north on the Melba Highway. There’s a lot of work going on now on the Melba as this is the main route for the controversial pipeline from the Goulburn River at Killingworth, north of Yea to the Sugarloaf Reservoir. Hundreds of 1.5m pipes are now laying in paddocks along the highway. Not sure yet if the pipe line will be buried or lay on pillars.

At Glenburn we turned left for Flowerdale and then over to Strath Creek before riding up and over the steep hill climb through the Murchison Gap and on to Broadford via Tyaak for our morning coffee stop. When up the Murchison Gap you can turn onto the unsealed Murchison Road for a few metres and have a look at the spectacular view over ‘a thousand hills.’

From Broadford we rode out the back way and headed north up to Puckapunyal then west along the army prohibited area, crossed the Northern Highway at Tooborac and rode over to Emu Flat. What’s at Emu Flat you may ask? Nothing except for a few remote properties, excellent bike roads and rocks, rocks and more rocks. Some of the rock formations out this way are quite spectacular and made a good spot for some photo shots. I intend to return for further exploring along the many gravel roads I spotted in this area. Then a loop run over to Pyalong, down the Northern Highway for a couple of kays before heading south along the picturesque Mnt William valley to Lancefield via Goldie North for lunch.

After lunch a couple of us had a fuel top up and then Ed led us on the final leg down to Romsey, left over to Wallan and down the Epping/Wallan road before riding over to Yarrambat via Mernda and South Morang.
Ed and Bill came back to my place for a cuppa after yet another well planned and interesting midweek ride.
My total kays around 200 plus.

 Reg Hammond

Participants:

John Best  Suzuki Bandit  1250                    2008
Tom Myers  Yamaha  FZ6                              2008
Ed Sleightholm  Triumph Bonneville T100  2008
Reg Hammond  Honda Transalp 650           2006
Bill Weedon  Honda ST1300                         2003