In spite of it being a much cooler day today than we've been graced with for many of our other cruises, we still had 5 starters find the meeting point well before the 10:30 departure time.
Ben & Louise sporting a freshly lowered suspension and new tyres were already at the "pre-meet-meeting point" as I rolled in.
I went off to find a coffee and returning about 5 minutes later discovered that Gavin & Kevin had arrived.
Not expecting any other "pre-start" starters we made our way onto Eastlink and drove the 20 minutes or so to the official meeting point for the cruise, being Heidelberg Park. As we rolled into the carpark just on 10:00am, I noticed Parry had tagged onto the end of us three.
Some surprises with the HOLK featuring a new front bar (I still say that's a nice job Parry!)
About 10 minutes later Ian & Fumie arrived, so now we were 5 cars.
We left just on 10:30, not expecting any more starters, and drove the three minutes back to the Nursery where Cam works Sundays.
We rolled into the carpark (filling it with Mighty Boys) and proceeded to find and meet Cam. (6 Mighty Boys in the carpark!)
Locating Cam we introduced ourselves, talked Mighty Boys for about 10 minutes, then got itchy right-feet... So we were off.
The run down Burke Road through Camberwell was fun - a string of 5 Mighty Boys able to fit between the parked cars and those languishing in the middle lane - we passed heaps of cars and got lots of stares...
As we turned onto Princes Highway sixteen drops heralded the onset of rain that never came.
The day was overcast, but stayed dry.
The run along Princes Highway and onto Wellington Road was uneventful, but we did pull into a servo for a few minutes in Rowville to effect a quick loo-stop for some and chockie-top-up for others.
Back on the road we made our way up into the hills and found Clematis then Emerald, before heading out towards Cockatoo and turning off to head through Yellingbo to Woori Yallock.
We didn't stop in Worri for lunch - we pressed on to Healesville and had a most enjoyable meal in the Beechworth Bakery there.
After lunch we made our way out of Healesville and toward Yarra Glen.
The country road was proving to be most enjoyable, even as we flew past the flashing sign advising of the Traffic Lights...
(WTF?)
A few corners further along we found ourselves unceremoniously dumped onto the end of a queue of cars creeping along about 5 or 6 cars at a time, through some roadworks - no workers to be seen anywhere.
Well, Ben & Louise waited with us for several minutes then bailed - pulling a three-point turn and heading back the way we came (they were actually travelling AWAY from home at this point) - no probs, fair call.
After waiting two more cycles to get through the road block, we decided to double-up across the lane so we would all get through the next cycle, and then were on our way again.
At Yarra Glen, Gavin & Kevin peeled off and headed home whilst the remaining three of us headed for the Christmas Hills and Watson's Creek.
At Eltham, we lost Parry as we turned right, he went left, homeward bound, and then there were two...
Ian and I completed the loop arriving back at the starting point about 3:15pm.
We called the others "pikers"
and then left to make our own way home.
All in all, another very pleasant day out!
Cheers
Thanks for coming along guys!
- Oh well.
but i cant make it
It was a good run, rain held off all day, and im sorry we pulled the pin early but i remembered we had a chook to roast for tea so we figured now was a good time to head back ( takes a long time to cook when youve got to catch it from the field, then pluck it, etc