Indian Rally
This year’s rally was held at Camp Jungai in the Rubicon Valley situated between Taggerty and Thornton, Central Victoria, with 20 Indian Motocycles and 31 people in attendance. With everyone arriving Friday night the stories soon started flowing, as did the drinks. Gathered around the BBQ that night everyone pitched in to cook whilst the ladies prepared some amazing salads and finished off with delicious sweets. Saturday morning saw the sun shining and everyone keen to hit the road. Morning briefing was given by Maurice Dunston at 8.30am letting the group know the route we were taking and fuel stops along the way. First stop was Alexandra for coffee at the local café. The bikes managed to draw a considerable crowd with families, couples and admirers keen to ask the riders questions, sit on their bikes, and take photos. After leaving Alexandra, we headed down the Whanregarwen Road through Molesworth, Yarck and onto Euroa where we stopped at Sevens Creek Park for lunch.
With bikes and riders refueled we set off for Strathbogie, back through Merton were we stopped to regroup under the shade of a giant tree. The temperature was on the rise and everyone was feeling the heat, but the bikes kept purring along. We headed back to camp riding through Alexandra and onto the Skyline Road, which runs around the hills with spectacular views of Lake Eildon. Alan and Geraldine Fagan skillfully cooked dinner on Saturday night.
Sunday started at a slower pace, bacon and eggs wafting through the camp with coffee on high rotation. We rode to Eildon, were we stopped for morning tea, then onto Jamieson for lunch taking the Eildon-Jamieson Rd, which begins and ends outside each town with about 60 kilometres of constant cornering, extraordinary scenery, dense forest, and sometimes granite cliff face up to the road shoulders. For almost the journey to Jamison the bike is in a left-right-left motion as the road uncoils over the mountains. One of the best road rides in Victoria, but not for the faint hearted! After regrouping half way near the Big River Campsite we eventually made it to the ‘Scenic Lookout’ over Jamieson for the annual bike lineup photo shoot.
Water and rest was definitely needed as the day was heating up. We had lunch on the banks of the Jamieson River in the park. On the way back to camp, which was the same road in reverse, riders stopped at the Thornton Pub for a few soothing ales after the rigors of the ride through the twists and turns in temperature around 38 degrees.
The evening meal was a little more relaxed with BBQ and salads. Monday morning saw the loading of bikes back onto their trailers, vans and utes. We all said our goodbyes and are looking forward to our next riding adventure.
The weekend was a resounding success with no breakdowns, amazing food and beautiful weather to top the whole event off. After a difficult 2020 it was fantastic to start the year off with a wonderful group of people. A comment heard over the weekend more than once was “It doesn’t get any better than this!” If you take anything away from this rally it would be the generosity, humour, kindness, knowledge and laughter of a great bunch just enjoying life and doing what they love, riding their Indian Motocycle in the best country in the world, Australia.