Towong Rear Rider Perspective

Following is easy, so I would like to pay homage to our great leader; Ben Warden, for creating four seamless days of exhilarating riding.

Victoria has been blessed with plenty of rain, and wow, didn’t she blossom. Riding through the countryside had my senses filled with the beauty of Mother Nature, in all her glory. Sure the ride up to Towong was a little wet, but the scenery definitely made up for it. Spectacular!

Unfortunately, our dear Pina had a high-side on the way up, damaging her beautiful CBR600. It happened on a gradual left-hand bend, probably due to diesel or some other substance on the road. Henry also had a little slip at the same time, but managed to just “catch it”.

I arrived on the scene to see Henry waving the traffic to slow down and to inform us of an oiled track. A few of the boys were dragging Pina’s bike from the mud. Scuffed up body work, broken front brake lever, damaged throttle, indicators and engine side cover. Almost rideable, but not quite.

Pina had hurt her knee, but she is tough, and made nothing of it.

The bike was left at the nearest town, Tallangatta, to be trailered home by Cindy Lee’s boyfriend Steve, who just happened to have a bike trailer at the Corryong Pub where we ate on the second night. Cindy and Steve (and Raj) were riding around with another group, doing much the same as we were, albeit at a lesser pace. With the help of Paul Southwell’s spare tie-downs, a plan was hatched, seeing the bike delivered to Melbourne on Tuesday and moved to C&C Engineering on Wednesday care of Misho. Incredibly, Steve was born and bred in Tallangatta. …Ed.)

Pina spent the rest of the weekend riding with her partner, Misho the Great. Amongst the passers-by were the BMW crew we came across the entire weekend.

Towong saw us stay at a lovely little bed and breakfast consisting of two cottages and a house, built by a fellow by the name of Ron Vise, our host. An interesting construction of pine logs with cathedral ceilings, the internals varnished. And there was under-cover parking for all of the bikes. And what a fantastic view over the Murray River valley to Mt Kosciusko and surrounding mountains. A truly idyllic location for us to stay.

Sarah, Ron’s wife, cooked for us on two of the three nights. Not bad, not bad at all. Ron and Sarah were just great. I truly enjoyed my stay there. Thankyou Ron and Sarah.

My highlight of the trip was the ride up to Charlotte Pass to see Mount Kosciusko from across the valley via the viewing platform. Then the ride back down to Jindabyne through the places that the Snowy River Hydro-electric Scheme was built for. Once again, breathtaking views and fantastic roads. Luckily for us, Charlotte Pass became treacherous towards the end of the day with some black ice across the road. Ben received a text from Mark Copeland saying that he and Marc Marais had crashed a couple of 100 metres from the finish at about 5 pm. They were now in Jindabyne Medical Centre checking out Marc’s knee – suspected anterior cruciate ligament damage. Luckily, we had been through prior to lunch when the road temperature was hottest and the river across the road was not ice, just water.

Our ride home was dry; the roads were diverse, and the riding was just fantastic. As the rear rider, I would like to report that all Club members followed the Corner Marking System well and respected my role, and the rules of the Club. The mixture of roads, bikes, and members must be exactly what this great club represents.

Thankyou Ben, and all Club members, for lots of laughs, and a great, memorable Melbourne Cup weekend away at Towong.

John Rousseaux