Day two of our jaunt saw us riding from Bright after in glorious sunshine and on to Mount Hotham which was shrouded in low cloud that reduced visibility to around 15 meters in some sections.
Right up the top of Hotham we cruised past the Highway Patrol car pictured above. It pulled out quite quickly behind us and I started to worry. After a few minutes of tailing us the lights went on... Pete and I continued on for a little while looking for somewhere safe to pull over, Andy had done the smart thing and disappeared into the mist ahead.
I didn't think we'd been doing anything wrong, but the three bikes all have fairly noisy exhausts and I figured we were probably going to be given a talking to about the legality, or illegality as it were, of our exhaust systems.
I'm glad to say I was wrong.
After a bit of a yarn with Mick the friendly rock chucking plod we discovered that he was conducting a survey of riders that come through the area in an attempt to find out where the riders come from, why the come to Mount Hotham and why they keep falling off the roads up there. Apparently there had been two fatalities in the last two weeks up there, not good. Mick gave us a bunch of pamphlets and brochures on protective gear, choosing the right line for the corners and stats on accidents and risks associated with riding.
So why did I call Mick, our friendly Highway Patrol Officer, a rock chucker I hear you ask? Allow me to elaborate: While I was taking this photo Pete was having a bit more of a chat with Mick and noticed that his shirt was looking really grubby, I guess the constant attention Pete was showing Mick's uniform was enough for him to offer up an excuse for being such a grot. The reason he gave was that he got a bit bored waiting for bikes to show up yesterday so he decided to pick up a large rock and throw it over the edge of the hill to see how far it would roll... apparently all the kids are doing it these days. My question is: Why didn't he change his shirt from yesterday? Pete reckons that one was probably too stained with Coffee & Donuts from the day before...
The rest of the day cruised along smoothly, we managed to dodge more rain than we got caught in and only struck a small amount of hail about 30km out from Jindabyne on our return trip. We covered somewhere around 640km today and Andy dropped me home at a little before 8pm after a big day.
What an awesome weekend I've had with two good mates, but damn it's good to be home.
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