Stray Tag-a-long Tales: Pea Soup!

Last night Tim made a speech and presentation to Simone for all the hard work and effort she had put into the logistics of this entire trip. Simone and Barry had done all the hard yards beforehand with reconnaissance of roads, stops and rest places and it is a credit to Simone that this trip has worked so well. I was on the understanding that this was the "Tim Trip" but found out last night is was a conglomeration of both Tim and Simone over the past few years planning and organizing (after a few ales, I might add) to get this trip off the map face and onto the bikes, so to speak.

Our start to the morning. Believe it or not there is a truck and car going down hill just in front of us!

With only the last few days of riding drawing to an end, we wake to what was to be the worry of my entire time this trip; a cold morning with a slight breeze coming from the south. I had predicted that this day was to be the coldest and was VERY concerned about hypothermia if not all riders looked out for each other and stayed together! Confusion and bad judgement calls were not wanted.
Alas all this came true as Maureen who was the forward scout, reported about 10 kms down the road there was a blanketing fog, with visibility down to about 20 mts in front of her! "Keep the riders back there" was the call. So we did, with riders heading into Subway for a cup of coffee. Much to my surprise about 15 minutes later bikes are coming out again! Why? We had heard nothing about how the fog had improved and Truckees had already been complaining about "why are there 'bloody' bike riders out on a day like this?" over the UHF. (I must admit, I was with them on this as not only did they appear to be endangering themselves, but I also felt the support cars were at risk, with the visibility down to a few metres: rotating amber lights, after-all, can only do so much).
Sally and David went on to try and find Maureen and stopped at a truck stop, where Maureen had been but has since gone from! The further we went the fog only became worse as David and Sally who had just past Jesse, stopped him and 'made' him give up riding as it was now apparent this fog was not going anywhere for a long time and truckees were talking amongst themselves about getting the "police out"!
The call went off "all riders to stop when safe and get off the road". Paul and I had been called on as the front group of riders (Col, 'Lande, Mandy and 'Cowboy') were still on the road when the back group had finally succumbed to the conditions. To catch this group, let alone to see them was a feat in itself - I could certainly see why everyone wanted them off the road.
We made the truck-stop with Dave and Sally, even though we almost passed it in the fog, with riders disembarking and making their way into the caravan. Temperature at this stage was 3.3C feeling like -0.8C! At least this group was in a warm, dry place with Sally making hot tea for all, unfortunately the other group was stranded back about 3 kms with only the support car of Tim's.
We sat there for an more than an hour, waiting for the weather to improve - it didn't and next minute we see the back group (well 4 of them) come up along side us. Simone and Barry had a friend who happened along to the rescue,

at least getting some of them out of harm's way, by taking them into Wallen 3 kms away. Then she came back and rescued John (who had already chosen not the ride due to his shoulder) taking him home. Lucky John!
The decision was now made - all riders were to put bikes in trailers and be ferried to Wallen for a warm-up and drinks. Thank goodness someone had some commonsense (a very underrated attribute these days).

After waiting another hour - now 10 a.m. the second play-of-the-day was decided - to train it into Spencer Street. Too many hours were now lost in the day to try and make it up and the fog, although lifting by now was still extremely cold.
The support crew then went on their way arriving in Wantirna Caravan Park just before lunchtime. The riders after venturing into and around Melbourne have now arrived via the bike tracks at 3:30pm. Amen! for a seriously nasty day in Victoria.