Last week our club held its AGM at Albany, 450 odd klm from Perth. This is a National function and members came from all over Aus to attend. There were about 3000+ bikes in attendance with close to 5000 members attending.
I rode the Swing for the trip leaving Perth Friday 10a.m. with 2 other members as travelling companions. Along the way we added and subtracted extras It was a pleasant enough day with the temp registering around the 40C mark. We took about 6 hours riding time as we had a relatively inexperienced lady rider with on no less than a Triumph "Bonnie".
The Swing handled it with ease and I managed to stow 3 days worth of gear aboard.
Saturday we attended the Grand Parade, leaving from Marine Tce and around the base of Mt Clarence back to the main drag of Albany and then to the official opening with all the hoo haa associated with a big event.
Unfortunately the event was overshadowed by a member dropping his Kwakka while out touring and starting a major bush fire in the process about 5 miles from the event. Luckily he was not seriously injured and only suffered a broken shoulder. the bike was burnt and completely gutted.
Saturday PM I did a little bit of touring and watched the fire from a lookout on Mt Melville and then the waterfront. Some members and other tourists were stranded on the peninsula and had to be ferried back to Albany, leaving their bikes and cars behind as the police set up roadblocks to prevent futher tragedy. The night ended with a few beers and chatting with friends while listening to a beautiful rainstorm which helped extinguish the blaze .
Sunday was return to Perth day so we set off around 8am towards Denmark for breakfast and then back to Mt Barker for the return run. Wow what a weekend.

Now that is something new... here in my state we close schools and shut down government offices with the forecast of snow... Yall shut down a whole peninsula for a little grass fire... glad the rider wasn't hurt badly, although a broken shoulder sounds real bad to an old guy like me.