End of the day GVBR

Just had to post this considering it's been maybe 20 years since I was in Yackandandah.

Last time I visited Yack I think I was returning from a weekend on the Murray, either the Norton Owners rally at Tintaldra or one of those other rowdy affairs in Walwa, I can't remember exactly which. Motorcycle rallies in the 1990s really went off.... Well the Norton Owners Rally was always a bit more refined ;).

Anyway I dug up and scanned an old photo from the day. The image is of me standing beside the original Fat Boy and my 250 Virago outside the Yackandandah Motor Garage. I compared it with a photo I took while there two weeks ago and as you can see the paint has aged and the building is no longer being used as a service station, the bowser has been removed. Actually it's now an art gallery with the most amazing ironwork I've ever seen!

Now and Then shot. That's what 20 years of weather can do

Sometimes I reminisce about those days when I zoomed around the country on a motorbike, there was such a feeling of freedom and power, it was really magic to cruise through the high country of Victoria and along the Murray Valley. These days though I'm really getting into riding my  bicycle and taking it all a bit slower. More natural, more sweat, more effort, less speed. Same country, different pace. I thought it fitting that the garage has done away with fosil fuels and been transformed into something more creative... I hope I have too.

Ride

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Something very strange has happened

Storm water drain... to cross or not to cross?

It had been raining all day and the sky was Dark when I left work. The women in the office I work were all concerned that it might be dangerous out there, I'd get soaked, the roads are flooded! etc... etc... "Yes I know! Isn't it great!"
It was pouring rain! I mounted my bike and rolled out onto the highway which was swamped with a river of water two feet deep. Cars splashed torrents of dirty water from the road as they passed me, lights were on people had pulled over, emergency vehicles were all over the place. It was pandemonium. Peak hour traffic and all the major roads looked more like streams.  There was a hint of apocalypse in the air, the Imperial arches of Gold on Bagot Rd had even taken a battering, red and yellow perspex had crashed to the ground! 
There was flooding on the Stuart Highway, Bagot Rd and Mc Millans Rd. Rapid Creek had completely engulfed McMillans and I was forced to double back and cross a fast flowing open drain to get home. What a joy! There's nothing quite like a monsoonal downpour to wake you up!

Shed water

Crumbling empire

Rapid Creek... where's the bank?

On days like this I love to Ride!