Dams Ride Sunday January 30^th, 2005

Yamaha YZF1000R	Trevor Harris (Leader)	Honda CBR929	Ian Payne (Rear)
Yamaha YZF1000R	Peter Parissis (3^rd ride)	Honda CBR929	Ben Warden
Yamaha R6	Joel Haley	Honda CBR954	Paul Southwell
Aprillia RSV1000R	Ken Wright	Honda CBR1100XX	Peter Feistl
	8 bikes	8 people

Berwick was the start point for the second Dams Ride. The forecast was for a fine day of around 24° which was a nice change after the rain on Saturday. I arrived to find the day was warming up and getting a bit muggy. Most of the people were already there, parked behind the petrol station. I give them a choice of Short or Not So Short ride: Not So Short is chosen. Note that this is written by the person that led the ride, so I’m going by what I saw plus the tales told during the stops…

Out onto the road, a U-turn at the lights and we head north on Harkaway Road. Until I took the wrong road at a roundabout and led the group along a nice road with expensive homes and a dead end. A quick check of the Melway and I had us back on track in two easy turns. The first leg was to the Cardinia Reservoir only a few km away if we went straight there, but I wasn’t going the direct route. Right into Boundary Road and off to Beaconsfield Upper with the 40km/h speed limit; at one point we passed within 1 km of where we would eventually stop to view the first dam. On through the Toomuc valley, now in 100 km/h territory and things were getting more lively. One right turn and a few more km brought us to Pakenham where we turned left onto the Princess Highway. For nearly 400 metres.

Another left and up the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup road towards Pakenham Upper and Cockatoo. I passed one of many Mitsubishi Magnas and followed another into Paternoster Road. This is a reasonably narrow road with a good number of corners that can be used to exercise the sides of the tyres. This brought us out onto the Beaconsfield-Emerald road where I headed north towards Emerald, home of Chris and Maries Plant Place. Left at the roundabout, through the shops (with the inattentive dickhead car driver, so I was told). Another left put us onto Wellington Road where we went past Aura Vale Lake and soon after into the Cardinia Reservoir Park. This first official stop by the spillway was to get an idea of how full the lake wasn’t, and how much higher it needed to be to be full (a fair bit). It was definitely getting hot and muggy now.

Out the top gate and up 500 metres of unsealed road. This put us back onto a road we had already been on today, and I wondered how long it would take for the group to work that one out… Around the Lake on the Beaconsfield-Emerald Road once more, back up to Emerald and morning tea time. I lucked into having all the parking spots in front of the bakery empty, having expected the place to be full of gardening nuts buying up large at the Plant Place. While we had coffee and cake (a rough way to spend the time) some of the group saw a car drive past with a wallet on the roof. Sadly, it didn’t go in the direction we were to go and so we missed out on the chance of getting a ‘free lunch’. Ian left the ride here – seven remained. Ken took up rear rider duties.

Next planned stop: Silvan Reservoir. This part just ‘followed the road’ or more specifically the C404 and C406 signs. This area can be described as very outer suburban, with 60/80 km/h speed limits and moderate amounts of traffic. And so there was nothing much to report, except that the speed limit through the more interesting roads is only 60 km/h, when it is obvious that we could go a lot quicker if we weren’t so law-abiding. We pulled into the top carpark, which gives a view over the lake. Another happy snap or five by Ben and it’s onwards to Warburton for petrol.

Of course I did’t go the direct route, but lead us to the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup road where we go north to the Warburton Highway. Just when they thought we were going to stay on the highway I headed right into Lusatia Park Rd, a nice curvy piece of sealed road. This led to the Gembrook-Launching Place road, another nice road. Back up to the Warbie Highway and this time I just follow through to Warburton. Petrol on the far side for most, and it was here that Ben, Ken and Paul left the ride – four remained.

Only one road to follow to get to the Upper Yarra Dam, and so I followed it, with Joel now doing rear rider duties. Soon enough we were there, and this time I stopped at the main dam itself. The spillway looks like a place suitable for filming a TV show for extreme idiots, if they could be convinced to go down on skateboards, bicycles, rollerblades…

Lunch was to be in Marysville so we headed down to the junction and up. This was Peter Parissis’s first Reefton ride and he was asked to take it easy and try to not have a 100% ride/crash ratio. Joel took the lead, with myself and Peter F following, and Peter Parissis behind. We were passed about half way up by three bikes and saw a couple of small groups heading down. There was almost no non-bike traffic seen, in fact none at all going our way. We were still together as a group at the top so the customary regroup wasn’t needed. Past Lake Mountain, onto Marysville and into the bakery for a late lunch, as it was now around 2:20 pm.

Eat. Talk. Learn from the tales of the others. And off again, with us trying to get our gear on and leave before the bus that pulled up outside the bakery did. We found that we were not quick enough as the bus left straight away. We caught it not far into the Black Spur, with a moderate trail of cars behind it. I got past OK, but it sounded like it wasn’t so easy for the other three. Get to the Healesville end and we pull over and check out the Maroondah Dam.

This was to be the break-up point and the other three said the they would follow me back to Yarra Glen, where Joel would carry on to Montrose, and the final three would carry on to Eltham. Through Healesville and onto the Old Healesville Rd. We waved goodbye to Joel at the Christmas Hills turnoff while Peter Parissis and I waited for Peter Feistl. Seems he managed to let a very squashy bug hit his sunglasses and make it rather hard to see, so he thought it prudent to pull over and clean them.

Christmas Hills plus two followers equals a visit to another dam – Sugarloaf. Why? Because it was there. Five dams for the day; that’s one more than the first Dams Ride back in September.

Thanks to me for leading and doing the write-up (how can this happen?), Ian/Ken/Joel for rear riding, and the others for making this an enjoyable day. And I’d like to congratulate Peter Parissis for making it through a Club ride and staying upright.

Dam Facts:

Reservoir	Built	Capacity (Ml)	% Full
Cardinia	1973	287,000	70.3
Silvan	1932	40,000	87.1
Upper Yarra	1957	200,000	60.9
Maroondah	1927	22,000	94.3
Sugarloaf	1981	96,000	95.4

Ride Stats:

Distance: Club Ride = 280ish km; Home/Home = 371km.

Riding time = 4hours and 52 minutes. Average speed = 76 km/h.

Trevor Harris (YZF1000R)