AIR17 was a major motorcycle ride for members and friends of the IFMR, hosted by the Australian Chapter, and offered to the worldwide membership of the fellowship. 2 years in the planning, it ran 1st to 14th November 2017 and covered about 5,000kms, to/from Hornsby (Sydney) in an anticlockwise loop of South East Australia via Orange, Hay, Broken Hill, Port Augusta, Adelaide, Mt Gambier, Warrnambool, Ballarat, Sale, and Bega. Many riders did the whole route, and some did part. It coincided with our local chapter’s 2017 AGM in Ballarat on the weekend of 10-12th where AIR17 riders, other IFMRA members and local Rotarians and friends enjoyed dinner on the Saturday night.
We welcomed 21 international guests riding 15 motorcycles from afar as England(4), USA(7), Iceland(3), Norway(1), Germany(2), Belgium(2) and Taiwan(2). All these made the full route. Our Australian contingent was never less than 10 bikes, but at some points we were 25 or more making the total group at times up to 40+ bikes. Additional to that were 2 support vehicles with trailers driven by volunteers and a rental car driven by the wives of 2 US riders. Australian riders were a mixture from NSW, Victoria, WA, SA and Queensland, so many, like myself did a lot more kms than just the official ride. In my case I clocked 7,000kms in just under 3 weeks while others did more.
Along the way we raised more than $5,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service which is a charity IFMRA has supported for some years. We were enjoyed fellowship as we were hosted and fed and watered by Rotarians in Orange, Peterborough SA, Clare Val- ley, Adelaide and Ballarat. Every community we passed through benefited by significant spending through accommodation, food, drink, fuel etc and of course we spread the goodwill of Rotary as many asked who we were and what we were doing.
My particular journey started from home in far NE coast of NSW on the Saturday before the Wednesday ride out of Hornsby. I en- joyed a couple of days and a night solo trekking 900kms to Chatswood where I was generously hosted by Philip (Smithy) and Cathie at their home. When I first arrived about 4pm on Sunday, Smithy was out on his 3rd pickup from Sydney airport meeting flights and ferrying Internationals across town to their accommodation. He arrived home about 5, got changed and the 3 of use were quick- ly off to have dinner at Manly with the Germans! We enjoyed the won- derful company of Konstantine and Sophie from Germany (near Cologne). Konstantine had been the president for 3 previous years of the AGS chapter which stands for Austria Germany and Switzerland. AGS chapter alone has 400 members compared to whole of Australia with just over 100.
On Monday morning we left home very early to meet 7am flights at the airport of Bill from the US, and Cheese and Anita from Tai- wan. We ferried them across town through the awful Sydney traffic to Hornsby accommodation and then to the nearby Motor- cycle Rental offices to check in. At the motel we began to meet many others with whom over the next 2 weeks became close friends. Claus and Rob from SA turned up, together with the Mel- bournians – Frank, Tony and Bernie, Peter and Amara on their bikes and Laurie, Ross and Annette driving their cars with trailers which were our support vehicles for luggage and bike recovery transport.
After a late afternoon airport pickup, on Monday night we joined the others at the Bluegum Hotel for dinner and Claus addressed the predominantly International contingent about the journey we were about to undertake. A couple more Internationals and the rest of the Australians arrived over next 24 hours and joined us on Tuesday evening for another briefing by Claus and Smithy at the Bluegum.
At this point I’ll skip the blow by blow detail of the next 14 days and let you read my separate diary log posted on facebook along
the way. Suffice to say the first days ride heading north west from Sydney, through the Blue mountains and on to Orange via Bath- urst was a bit nerve racking and a shakedown as we got to know each other’s’ riding abilities, cope with the Sydney basin traffic, put into practice our group riding dynamics coming to grips with corner marking etc whilst the Internationals had a steeper learning curve of left hand side of the road driving and foreign environments. My biggest fear of nervous International riders struggling to cope was quickly put to rest when it became apparent they were experienced and indeed very competent riders. Over the next couple of days they quickly adapted to the new country and their rental bikes. It helped that all had a good grasp of our language.
The first 4 days travel from Sydney to Port Augusta were gruelling riding days with long distances and at times long straight roads where we were buffet- ed by winds, had some rain, and sometimes both. It started out hot but we got cold and then hot again as we approached PA. Cheese and Anita (Taiwan) on a Harley Electra glide experienced a flat tyre and despite all efforts to plug it, the bike ended up on a trailer from Hay plains until Adelaide. With selfless generosity, Dave from Clare Valley lent his bike for a couple of days to Cheese and Anita to enjoy the ride from Port Augusta to Adelaide while he rode in the support vehicle.
On morning 2, local Rotarians and IFMRA members Joanne and Colin together with members of the Orange Daybreak Rotary Club organised breakfast and gave us a great start to the day. A couple of members were interviewed by the local ABC news team giving some extra publicity to our ride.
In Broken Hill despite a long day’s ride most of the group made the extra journey out to the Silvertown; an historic fairly desolate site where several movies including Mad Max had been made and a classic Aussie outback pub loaded with memorabilia.
For lunch day 4, as we rode through their town, the Peter- borough SA Rotary club provided us with a sausage sizzle lunch
and great fellowship with their members in the park. It turns out Claus was born and brought up in Peterborough so it has a special place in his heart.
Day 5 was meant to be a rest day in Port Augusta, or so we were told. Some including yours truly did just that and caught up
on the washing and enjoyed a day away from the bike. Claus offered those who wanted it a ‘short relaxed’ run up into the Flinders Ranges: Parachlina for an Australian wildlife lunch and onto the Wilpena Pound for scenic flights over the Flinders Ranges. He may possibly have misjudged it a bit and 620kms later the by then very tired group arrived back after dark in the early evening to the motel. They were in surprisingly good spirits de- spite a long day.
The next day as we travelled PA to Adelaide through the picturesque Clare Valley, Dave’s home town Rotary Club of Clare put on lunch for us in their very impressive purpose built shed complete with both work/storage space for their projects and large meeting room complete with full kitchen. We were addressed by the local Mayor, a member of their club, and self-confessed biker and they presented us with a $1,000 donation specifically for the RFDS in honour of our ride.
Mawson Lakes in Adelaide (Claus’s home) was a 2 night stop over and this time nearly everyone stayed off the bike for a day. Some enjoyed a Smithy led bus tour of wineries in the Adelaide Hills, while other took the opportunity to get some new tyres and in my case fit a new Battery for the Beemer. On our first night in Adelaide, despite a long hot bike trip in, we were bussed into Adelaide Central and enjoyed a dinner with some members of the Rotary club of Adelaide. We were addressed by the Royal Flying Doc- tor Service and handed over our fines money tin for the trip thus far which was over $750. Day 8 and 9 saw us heading SE to Mt Gambier and then on to Warrnambool travelling through the great roads of the Adelaide Hills initial- ly and following the coast for large parts of the journey.
Day10 was always going to be special as we headed from Warrnambool to Ballarat along the iconic Great Ocean Road. Apart from the wonderful rugged coastline scenery we stopped to enjoy along the way, the road
from the 12 Apostles information centre to Apollo Bay, then onto Lorne before head- ing north to Deans Marsh. It was probably one of the best days ride I have ever done.
Weather was perfect, scenery spectacular and even the no- torious tourist traffic was not to bad.
Days 10 and 11 were in Ballarat. Saturday was a rest day and again most opted for that option, although some en- joyed the historic gold mining themed Sovereign Hill facility. Saturday night was our AGM and the bus took us the 20kms or so outside of Ballarat to a rural property with the biggest sheds full of motoring memorabilia and restored trucks, cars, working stationery engines and other mechanical paraphernalia I have ever seen that was owned by a private collector; all displayed and show- cased beautifully. Jim Allen and his Rotary Club of Ballarat East provided a veritable feast for the 100 or so in attendance.
After a moving tribute to the late Robin Nuttall OAM given in the presence of his wife and family, Secretary Smithy conducted the AGM formalities which really only saw one change to the 17-18 board ie electing President Doug Cole. He suitably feigned his surprise, but of course accepted the position and thanked outgoing President Jim for all his efforts. A presentation about his
Cambodian Project by Bill Ivory, was followed by yet another long and vigorous Sergeant and cross fines session. Formalities over, it was time to clear the tables and crank over the massive diesel stationery engines whist the ladies adjourned to the house to see the wedding dress collection.
Day 12 saw us farewell Claus and Rob who were heading back to Adelaide and left the remaining 3 days of the trip under ride leadership of Smithy.
Our last 3 days were long riding days well over 400kms each and with increased road traffic than the earlier part of the trip. The last day was especially exhausting but nonetheless exhilarating as we conquered Sydney completely south to north across the harbour bridge in afternoon peak hour. Not for the faint hearted; and the fact we had no incidents is testament to good leadership, good riding skills, and a lot of good luck!
Some of the Australian contingency started peeling off and heading for home after Ballarat and in Sale and Bega, but we maintained a group size of 25 bikes for the run through Sydney on the last day. Actually, the last 3 days riding arguably saw some better scenery and more consistently winding roads than the first week. None however were disappointed about the straighter open in- land spaces because that is simply the variety of landscape in Australia and I believe you need to experience it all to understand our country’s great diversity and distances.
Those who made the final trip into Hornsby enjoyed a wonderful last evening celebratory dinner at the now familiar Blue Gum Hotel. Lots of laughs, tremendous displays of good- will, with heartfelt thanks from each of the Internationals with both promises to re- turn to Oz, and invitations extended to visit them in their home countries.
My personal journey did of course not end quite then and first thing Wednesday, Davo, Peter and I headed north up the M1 with Sydney positioned where it is best viewed, reflected in a rear vision mirror. Peter headed for Port Macquarie to get the Harley serviced, while Davo and I peeled off after Newcastle for a fantastic ride along Buckets Way west to Gloucester, then up to New England tableland via Thunderbolts way to Walcha and over- night at Uralla. We the headed up the New England Hwy to Tenterfield, then East along the Bruxner to Casino, Kyogle and home to Murwillumbah. I farewelled Davo the next morning and he headed home to Bundaberg. These roads winding across the Great Divide from Sydney to Brisbane are must do’s and never fail to satisfy. On my return, I will admit to parking up the Beemer and having no desire to ride her for the next few weeks.
AIR17 was a tremendous experience and we must thank those behind it, especially Claus Weber and Philip Smith who did the lions share of the organisational workload. However the Melbourne contingent Frank, Tony, Bernie, Peter, Amara, Laurie, Ross and Annette also did a major job providing logistics and support vehicles, tail end Charlie services, and Sergeant at Arms. Frank organised donated first aid kits and wet weather gear for any requiring it. Trevor of Australian Motorcycle Rentals (aka Garners) did a first-class job preparing and supplying the rental bikes for our Internationals and all of the accommodation booking services for most of the group.
In hindsight we were generally lucky with great weather conditions. We were
also fortunate to have no significant incidents with the bikes and no injuries which given that we were a large group, with many skill levels, and did so many kms on mixed and varied roads including the notorious Sydney traffic; I find I simply amazing.
To be honest not everything was perfect about AIR17 and the IFMRA committee will be doing a debrief with a view to improvements for next time. Many of the daily distances travelled were large and cumulatively we did a lot of riding, perhaps too much. Notwithstanding any of this, as a group and in true Rotary fashion we saw the positives and individuals willingly volunteered assistance by rising to the occasion as required. Everyone was empathetic, helpful and friendly to each other.
The take home for me was the comradery and true friendships that developed along the way. Anybody following the AIR17 Whatsapp group for the 2 months since we completed the trip can see that. The vigorous Sergeant sessions most nights was in- dicative of just how we relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company and were prepared to have a good old Aussie laugh at our- selves. As a bonus we also raised over $5,000 for the RFDS from the generosity of many.
AIR17 typifies exactly what the International Fellowship of Motor- cycling Rotarians exists for. Thanks to all who participated and until next time….