No donuts were harmed

When we lived in Canada it was a long-running joke that cops ate a lot of donuts.  So when 2,000 cops turned up near the Carillon yesterday it would seem that a lot of sugared  pastry was going to get eaten.

Stepping back, on our walk yesterday morning Wendouree Drive was closed off at Blundell's Cottage due to a special event.  A bloke was there turning back punters.  As we passed, a group of punters turned up on motorbikes and the bloke - whose seemed to be on several spectra  possibly including the rainbow - told them to go away and enter from Kings Avenue.

The bikers explained that they had tried but that was closed.  Spectruman stuck to his guns and they turned round: very unusual behaviour for bikies even though none of them appeared to be patched.

A bit further along a bunch of people were hanging around a memorial so I went and asked what was going on.  My informant was very pleasant and kept calling me "Sir".  As he explained that it was a Police Remembrance Ride I noticed he was wearing an AFP cap.  This was a service for ACT Police and in the afternoon there would be a national event featuring 2000 cops on motorbikes from all over.  As he wasn't part of the afternoon event he wasn't sure of details but thought they'd be riding down Kings Avenue at 3pm.

I left the apartment at about 2:30 and passed through Floriade (a separate post will be done on that) getting near Police Memorial about 2:55.  I heard a radio call that "They've just left Epic." and a nice SES lady told me they would be riding along Parkes Way so I went up there to take some photos.  Here are a few early arrivals.

 Suddenly the nice SES lady turned up.  She'd found out they weren't coming along Parkes Way at all but down Kings Avenue!  So I thanked her and took myself off.  The lads (and a few laddesses) were gathering at the Memorial

 The ride had an escort of uniformed cops - presumably AFP

 Here are some images of the main ride which was very impressive.  They were still arriving as I left at about 3:30, so I think the estimate of 2,000 bikes was not an exaggeration.

 Good to see the Union was on the job.

 This is the turn into Wendouree Drive.

 They needed a lot of room to park the bikes.

There were all sorts of bikes with a slight emphasis on Harleys and possibly BMW enduros as second favourite,  I saw one Peter Fonda tribute bike but missed that.  Here are a couple of exotics.

In addition to the lack of donut concessions there seemed to be no portaloos so a queue was forming.

 A few people were wearing colours but it seemed to be either generic Harley Davidson jackets or this club: presumably a Police group.  No-one admitted to being a member of the Rebels or Commancheros.

 The crowd gathering at the Memorial.

A most interesting event which seemed to have very little publicity.  Quite a few people were wearing armbands with a logo "Wall to Wall 10".  On asking I was told that the ride is known as wall to wall as it goes from a Memorial Wall in the Domain to this one.  It was the 10th year.