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July 8 - 11, 2001. |
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| A Big Call For An Old Ducati. |
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| By Peter Andrews, © 2001. |
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Perhaps
one of the most important things about owning a near 30 year
old Ducati GT 750 is that you need to take it for a decent ride
every now and then to charge the battery. As I understand it,
blinkers were not a requirement when this bike rolled off the
production line in 1972. But it has them now and despite installing
an alternator that pumps out more than the standard, town riding
is just not enough.
Back in the Shed, January 2000.
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| Being one of the last to leave Sydney Tourers' Winter Rally site on Sunday July 8, 2001 and in no hurry get home, I rode on to Goulburn. Being a full time uni student on holidays, lying in the back of my mind was the thought of making a left turn when I arrived at the Hume Highway. |
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With
an old friend down south in Geelong I hadn't seen for a while,
it was a good reason to head south. But it was also getting cold
and every inch of the sky for 360 degrees to the horizon was
blotted out with rain threatening clouds. What to hell I thought
and called up my friend in Geelong, to check on the weather down
there. It was much the same as it was in Goulburn so then I checked
out a 4 day forecast printout, obtained from the net the day
before. Ultimately, I turned left pointing the handlebars towards
Victoria.
Just north of Melbourne.
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| By Gundagai it was worth it. The clouds had broke up to allow the sun to shine over the rolling, rocky and tree dotted hills of the upper Murrumbidgee. I regret now not stopping to get a photo of the Tumblong Tavern as well as the above scene. The light and colours were really out of this world. But by Albury, the clouds were back as they curled around the bottom of the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains. |
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With the amount
of water lying around, it seemed that I was fortunate to have
just missed out on getting caught in a heavy shower. It had been
a hell of a long time since I had made a trek down the Hume,
as two days down the Princes Highway along the coast has always
been the preferred option.
Just getting out of the
fog of Melbourne on the way home. The sun didn't hang around too long.
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Much
of the Hume now is just a bloody long freeway with mega roadhouses
and expensive plastic food. But the country it passes through
can still present some pleasant and startling surprises. Who
would have thought a full size ocean going submarine would be
sitting in a park, hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest
ocean at Holbrook.
The retired HMAS Otway at Holbrook, southern NSW. This shot was taken on an earlier quick overnight trip down the Hume in 1997.
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Apart from the
scenery around Gundagai and the submarine at Holbrook, another
delight was the twilight between Albury and Wangaratta over the
northwestern plains. With rain clouds hanging around, the colours
surging through the gaps and under the clouds were breathtaking
to say the least.
Downtown Geelong.
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As
for the rest of the ride down, the rain finally caught up with
me again for 20 minutes after Wangaratta and some moisture eventually
found its way into the points ignition system. When the bike
started to play up as a result, the rain had cleared so I just
pushed on with the theory that hopefully, heat from the engine
would dry the points out which after 5 or so minutes, it happened.
Corio Bay and the You Yangs.
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After further
stops at Seymour, the northern outskirts of Melbourne and another
near the Westgate Bridge, it was then 50 kilometres of road works
to eventually arrive at Geelong, sometime after 11pm.
Downtown Geelong again.
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With the only main stop on the way back at
the Australian Cafe in Holbrook for a real hamburger, the ride
was completed in 11 hours and 45 minutes. The bike went great
for both lengthy runs, quite good considering its age and some
other factors such as it could do with a new set of carbies.
Holbrook on the way home.
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Peter Andrews ©2001. All Rights Reserved. |
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