From: Neal Gowen <gowen@rsbs0.anu.edu.au>
Subject: Wombat Rally
X-Xxdate: Tue, 15 Sep 92 05:36:54 GMT
Organization: RSBS Australian National University
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d9
Distribution: aus
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 11:27:52 GMT

Well I think I have recovered now, so I'll let you know how it went.
The Wombat Rally is run by MRA NSW and is held at Araluen, 25k 
south of Braidwood which makes it a short ride from home in 
Canberra.  

About 15 to 20 of us left TJ's tyres in Braddon at 10.30am, half 
deciding to go direct thru Queanbeyan to pick up some more riders,
and the rest of us took the long way via the twisty Macks Reef 
Road to Bungendore.

I was glad it was only a short ride.  It was snowing on the hills 
behind home and the wind was blowing a gale.  On top of that
the old XJ900 was having diaboloical handling problems.  I had
fitted new steering head bearings and I think they were a bit 
over tight.  This, combined with the load of camping gear on the 
back made the front end shake its head horribly from 60 to 
80km/hr.  The only solution was to run at about 140 on the back
roads, which proved interesting but it ironed out the shakes.

We passed a couple of our friends from the first group about 15km
from Braidwood.  They had been stopped by the state's finest for
doing 121 in a 100 zone. Fair cop I suppose but it seems a car 
travelling at the same speed as them was not stopped.  The police
advised the car was only doing 108.  Gosh, my friends said. 8-)
So  $150 poorer they joined us at Braidwood for a cool-down 
(warm-up?) drink.

Left Braidwood for the final 25k down to Araluen with the wind
still blowing ha gale across the road.  The twisty Araluen
mountain is great fun although if you ever ride down it take care
on some of the corners because you can come unstuck very easily.
The rally site is in the Araluen camping area, set in a lovely
grassed area under large casuarina trees beside the  small river,
with the temperature was about 8 to 10 degrees warmer than home 
in the valley

 Riders arrived all day and I would guess there were at least 200
there. In the afternoon was the usual gyhmkana stuff with some 
pretty good riders in the slow race.  I still can't understand why 
the guy on the Paris-Dakar didn't win.
The afternoon drifted into night and everyone seemed to want to 
drink my port (or was it me).  The stories grew taller,  the tents 
became harder to find, even though it was a full moon.  Most people
crashed of to bed early  so it was a reasonably quiet sleep for most
of us.

I packed up early on Sunday and left just after the award 
presentations as I had a few things to do at home.

Would I recommend it as a rally?  Yes.  If you are after a "quieter"
style rally at a beautiful site with lots of good people the the
Wombat's for you.

Now next year I'm really going have to keep an eye on who 
actually drinks my port 8-)

Neal G.
_______________________________________________________
Neal Gowen (XJ900 and TY250B)   MRA #204 ;  Ulysses #2458
"Grow Old Disgracefully"
Australian National University
email:  gowen@rsbs0.anu.edu.au
voice:  61 6 249 2942 fax:  61 6 249 2603 
snail:   GPO Box 475 Canberra
______________________________________________________
Newsgroups: aus.motorcycles