Woody’s ride to Buxton

It was a cold and foggy morning when I set out on my first ride as leader. So, it was a small but dedicated band that assembled in the usual meeting point.
That suited me because less people equals less pressure.

First to arrive was Birky, who had a verbal stoush with a guy in a 4-wheel drive while fuelling up. I was preparing to race across to break up the ‘heated debate’, fortunately, after insults were traded, it was all over before any punches were thrown.

The fog seemed to be getting thicker as we headed up the Westernport Highway and suddenly encountered two lanes of stationary traffic due to a two-car smash at the entrance to the dog showgrounds. One of the cars appeared to be a beach buggy, which seemed strange on such a morning.

After some nifty lane filtering, we made our way up through Clematis, Emerald and Cockatoo, as the sky cleared to a beautiful, chilly day. Morning coffee break was had at the bakery in Gembrook, where I won an award on my first ride.

We blasted our way up through Hoddles Creek and sauntered along the Warburton Highway to sample the delights of the Reefton Spur.

I got a bit excited at that stage and overshot the left turn to Reefton. Fortunately, I was far enough ahead to correct my mistake and turn around before the others arrived, but not quick enough to cover up for my error.

Thanks to the fab 4 who participated, I wonder if I will win an award for leading the smallest group of the year!

We had the road to ourselves all the way up to the Woods Point turn-off, and made the most of it.

We observed a white sports car that was abandoned after hitting a tree head on. On our way down the other side, we ran into some slow traffic but, at that point, I was content to sit back and take in the scenery, my appetite for twisties was all but satisfied … and so, on to Buxton to satisfy a different kind of hunger.

In the afternoon, the first course was, as you might expect, the Black Spur.

I was fortunate to have the slow cars pull off to the side and let me through, but my followers were not so lucky, After that, I had a lot of fun chasing the faster cars through the twisties.

This was followed by the main course; the road from Healesville to Launching Place that featured an interesting section of dirt road, which we negotiated unscathed. Then we returned to the Hoddles Creek-Gembook Road. We paused in Gembrook for me to answer the call of nature. Then on to Pakenham, where we split into two groups heading home into the sunset.

Thanks to Wayne for doing an excellent job as TEC.

Cheers, Woody