I was sitting in my hotel room around midnight when I heard it...

Kinja'd!!! "Nauraushaun" (nauraushaun12)
11/18/2016 at 20:52 • Filed to: None

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...a chorus of engines, smashing through town one after the other.

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I jumped to the obvious answer: motorbikes. I got mad. Nestled between the Black Spur and the road up Lake Mountain (see last photo), driving meccas both, the town of Marysville attracts more than its share of motorbikes. Experience (and bias) tells me that speeding through a small town at night is deeply ingrained in the lore of the motorcyclist, as much as making more noise than everybody else on the road, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and indeed speeding everywhere all of the time.

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The fabled Black Spur

But after hearing just how many there were I couldn’t resist hopping up for a look out the window. I was wrong, they were cars. Japanese cars.

This gives me mixed feelings. I love Japanese cars, and I do like the idea of tackling these roads in the dead of night when nobody else is using them. Perhaps I could run out and join the crew, a flurry of turbos and small engines revving high, paired with young eager drivers willing to push their machines harder than the gentlemen in the Porsche group in town this morning.

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Aforementioned Porsche group

But I’ve been to internet-organized meets at night, I’ve seen a whole other side of the Australian car culture. People who find quiet neighbourhoods to do skids in, secure in the knowledge that they can move to another spot before the police find them. People for whom a car is not something to be cherished, but a tool for turning fuel and rubber into speed and adrenaline. I’m unfamiliar with the area - as are they most likely - the speed limits in this state are brutally enforced and the wildlife is unpredictable (roos, yo).

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Poor photo of a top road: Lake Mountain.

Maybe the people aren’t those. Maybe they’re having good-natured fun with all risks considered. Maybe nobody will die. But I don’t think it’s for me, not tonight.

Made me think, though.


DISCUSSION (4)


Kinja'd!!! shop-teacher > Nauraushaun
11/18/2016 at 20:52

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Nah. Only dangerous bastards go bombing down windy unfamiliar roads in the dark. You don’t want a part in that.


Kinja'd!!! Nauraushaun > shop-teacher
11/18/2016 at 20:52

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That was the conclusion I came to. You can get away with it if you’re careful, these guys didn’t seem careful


Kinja'd!!! victor > Nauraushaun
11/18/2016 at 20:52

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I’ll be driving on the great ocean road in 1 week. I heard there’s some nice roads in that area. Unfortunately, I have wife, kid in tow...and I rented a Pajero, prado, or whatever hertz special I get.


Kinja'd!!! Nauraushaun > victor
11/18/2016 at 20:52

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Hey that’s awesome! You should do some Googling, try to find those roads. I think there are some motorcyclist sites out there that are active in posting good roads. Something like this !

The other thing with the Great Ocean Road is the traffic. There are turn-out lanes for things like caravans, but the damn caravan drivers just don’t use them! Maybe not such an issue if you’re in a Pajero.

I recommend the trip all the way down the GOR to the 12 Apostles. They’re a good sight, but the road is the real treat. After Apollo Bay it turns inland, twisting tightly through forests then over open countryside and back to the coast for the Apostles.

I’ll never forget my first trip down there in my first Z in 2010, and the subsequent race back to Apollo Bay to make a family dinner. Also took the route on the way back from Adelaide last year at nighttime in my later Z - don’t do that. The Apostles at night was great, but the road was a death sentence. Lots of wildlife, and the ‘roos are most active at dawn/dusk.

Great part of the world.