We spent the night at Victor Harbour, WOW! This place is a must see! The rain kept us in the pub for the night so we didn’t get to see the penguins, but hey, this pub has character with paintings of the locals adorning the walls.

30th October - Another wet and windy ride, we pulled up at Robe, another beautiful spot on the water. I went to Goal there but this one couldn’t hold me, ha ha. The motel had a heated swimming pool so I took advantage of that and later sampled the local seafood, lobster, prawns and oysters, and just a little wine…so I could give you all the thumbs up on what was on offer down this way of course, what I do for my friends!

31st October - This wet and windy weather just won’t go away. Between Robe and Never Never we passed a truck with big white turkey’s flying out the back of it. Not a pretty sight when they landed. Later we passed the electric wheel chair pink ribbon ride and a little further up the road I hit a storm of bee’s, this is turning into an endurance ride. We made it to Mt Gambier and went to see the blue lakes; they sure are worth a look, very beautiful. On to Warrnambool which has a great cheese factory as I’m a cheese lover I just had to visit, again checking out the attractions for all of you at home. Stopped at Mt Campbell for the night, that’s the start of the Great Ocean Road, I’ve driven it, and ridden it on my old sporty, and now I’ve ridden it on my new soft-tail, this time I took a helicopter flight over it and seeing it from the air is one of the highlights of my life.

1st November - Yet more rain and wind, caught a ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento. As I waited for some other HOGs to get off the next ferry I sat and had lunch at the café on the beach. We found an American motorcycle merchandise shop at Rosebud. Tony and his wife have some mad and crazy stuff in there. We pulled up at Rye for the night another heated pool to thaw out in…you beauty. A few of us played trivia at the pub and came 4th not so dumb after all, we won a few drinks.

2nd November - Arrived at Phillip Island, as usual for this trip, wet and windy. We all settled into our accommodation and met on site for registration, drinks and catch ups. Registration was well organised and the food was great. Partied with the band until late. 3rd November A great breakfast. The thunder ride was very well organized and a fantastic turn up. It ended on the esplanade at it was an amazing site, locals where out in full force as the rain held off for us. The gymkhana again was well run, lots of different games, loved the …drop the koala game. It was very wet and slippery and a few bikes were dropped, no one hurt, but lots of laughter. Dinner was good and everyone had a fun night with lots of laughing and dancing to the band. There were plenty of new and old faces and we all had a great time even if the weather was not in our favour.

3rd November - At 5.30am I left with Lofty to head home, what a trip from hell. 100 knot winds. Thru flash flooding for 35km, we were riding our bikes sideways to stay on the road. There was no place to pull up. It was a “worst ride” scenario for both of us. The cross winds were unbelievable. Feeling like a drowned rat, wet to the bones I stopped the night at Seymour to dry out.

4th November - I rode to Sydney and stayed at a mates Barred Bar…it’s a bar for people who have been banned from local pubs…I felt right at home…needless to say still wet and windy.

5th November - Thought the sun may have come out for the last little bit of my trip home but no…wet and windy all the way…so home to dump the gear and out again for a Melbourne Cup lunch. 4,639km trip

Thanks to Gay and everyone involved in running the Victorian State Rally at Phillip Island…A job well done!