ALBANY VINTAGE & CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE CLUB
June 2005 Club News
Coastal Ride | Great Gravel Ride | Ladies Ride | Manjimup | Northcliffe | Tuning Day | Calendar
Mt Barker - Rocky Gully - Manjimup - Walpole - Denmark - Albany
We were down on numbers a little, but not on enthusiasm for the 450km
ride. There was a good variety of bikes and for a change BMW’s were a
minority with 3 Triumphs (2 of the newer variety and one the older), 3
Kawasakis, then Honda, Guzzi, Ducati, Yamaha and only me and Max
holding up the BMW logo.
Lyn and Peter (almost) on their new Ducati Multistrada 1000
Peter and Lyn were on their new
Ducati Multistrada 1000 and Robin and
Chris on their new ZZR1200. There were more bikes at the start
including the Bond’s and Bostock’s sidecars (who turned off to Walpole,
down the Denbarker Road), Jack on his Honda Civic Trike - not sure
where he went, Chris and Raelene just riding to Mt Barker for coffee
and a guy from the Ducati Club on an old 900SS who came as far as
Barker before continuing onto Perth.
The Muir Highway has had a bit of work done on it over the past few
years and it doesn’t seem as bumpy, also the narrow sections at the
Manjimup end are only 5kms and 12kms long - a big improvement.
After much discussion at the Amity carpark as to whether the Rocky
Gully Shop and Servo would be open we were pleased to see they were
(not Sunday afternoons though). Jim managed to catch us up at the Gully
as well on his Honda Shadow.
Next stop was the Bird Lookout on Lake Muir. It’s very well done and
worth a look if you’re headed that way. The previous Thursday and
Friday was when all the heavy rain had fallen
- even so there was very little water in the lake. We passed a dead emu
chick on the road, which must have been a recent
kill as the family were hanging around.
Julie parked in the bus bay
A strange site was a table top ute with two huge greyhounds on the
back
together with an enormous roo leg for them to tuck into. Manjimup
arrived and after fuelling up we headed over to the tourist
bureau where there is a cafe and hopefully somewhere to sit for us who
had taken our lunch.
There was a sheltered bench in between the mens and ladies toilets
which we took advantage of. Julie had decided on a cup of coffee from
the shop which she wanted to
drink outside - they obviously observed that Julie was riding a Triumph
and made her put a deposit on the cup and saucer!
Julie was also the centre of attention (I won’t mention topping the
Triumph up with oil) by parking in the bus bay. This was fine until
just time to go and a large bus looms - aha, caught out - not that the
driver minded but it was good for a laugh.
The ride from Manjimup to Walpole was as usual, great, must be one
of
the best 100 kilometres in WA.
An ice-cream break in Walpole topped off the day before heading home