The last 2 days

Yesterday….

Left the caravan at about 8:30 heading for Anglesea. On getting to Geelong (on the way) after about an hour on the road, it started to rain. I was going past a Westfield parking lot and decided it would be dry. I didn’t like getting a tcket from the machines because I didn’t want to pay for a spot in a 90% empty 50% completed parking station but thats life I guess. I walked past an officeworks, then went back for a look. $60 later I had some new noise cancelling headphones to replace the ones that eloped with my sunglasses. I have no proof that happened but they both went missing together.

I called the others and found they were heading to Torquay so I jumped back on the bike, passed neatly between the boom gate and the wall (while wearing an evil grin) and headed out (in the rain again to the next stop).

In Torquay, we all met up and went to the surf museum. It was small but interesting enough to make it worth visiting. After that, we went to Bells beach. Last week, there was a huge swell and was supposed to be very impressive. This week, it was ‘normal’ which still looked pretty impressive to me. It was cold and windy (theres a huge low pressure thingy in the southern ocean).

It was then on to Anglesea for the night with no internet access.

This morning I left (with Libby on the back of the bike) at about 8:30. We started the Great Ocean Road. The road, for those who haven’t done it, consists of…

a) some windy bits near the ocean
b) some bits no where near the ocean
c) some bits through farms and mountains
d) some straight bits near the ocean
e) the bits you expect (where the good views are that are on the postcards)

The first bits, could have been really nice. Bike people call them twisties. Due to the recent rain, very low sun and lots of cloud, the roads were slippry and we had to go quite slowly. On getting to Lorne, It started raining again. When I was looking into this trip I was told it rained about 2/3rds of the time. I didn’t realise it was 20 mins out of every 30 mins though. Libby decided (mainly due to the rain and wind) that she was going to go back into the car. She had decided to ride all along the Great Ocean Road with me but you know girls, they change their minds a lot.

Anyway, when we met the car, she re-decided (changed her mind again!) to stay with the bike so we took off to progress along the road. About 3km into this leg, she changed her mind again and I stopped, met up with the car and I was on my own again. We all headed (well I went on and the others were somewhere behind me) towards Otway Fly. Its a rainforest tree top walk (you know, one of those gantry thingys). It was very nice (it stopped raining for most of it) but the walk from the bottom back up to the top was a little hard. I’m glad that I’m slightly less fat than before.

After the walk (read hike) I took off again heading for the 12 apostles (one of the goals for this trip). About 20 mins into this leg (back down the mountain) it strted raining more heavily so I put on the wet weather pants (bright yellow). It then slowly got worse.

You see, the wind was still there (gusting to 100kph according to the weather reports), the wind was coming from the southern ocean (and was freezing. ok about 6 degrees but still cold enough for me) and it was still raining. The riding started to really suck. Riders know that when its rainy/windy every time you turn your head to check for traffc, you have a chance of water going down your back so you try to minimise this sort of movement. Safety however demands that you still look around so you inevitably get a damp jacket and then proceed to damp underwear.

On arriving at the 12 apostles it was, as mentioned, cold, windy and rainy. I had visions of taking some cool HDR images during this trip but on parking in the car park, decided to not even get the proper camera out. IT was so windy and rainy, I decided to walk the 300m to the lookout with my helmet still on. Now, you should picture what sort of idiot I looked like doing this. Everyone was struggling with umbrellas and raincoats in the wind (the rain was going sideways) while trying to keep scarves,beanies in place (it was cold). Heres me, walking along quite sealed to the elements (I didn’t have to look for cars to no more dribbles here!) and I met someone coming the other way in bike gear, wearing a helmet, like me at least 200m from the nearest vehicle. See, its not just me thats silly.

Anyway, we chatted about bikes etc and I proceeded to get some photos (and some video) that should be below. The first one is a video. click on it to view on flickr.

Anyway, the photos are crap (water on the lens) and It was too cold/windy/rainy to get more. At least I have seen them now.

After getting back on the bike (still in poring rain)  and leaving the car park, the rain eased. I saw the others with the van just turning in while I was leaving. I have found out that they had a gap in the rain and had a chance of getting some better shots. Bugger.

The last 100km or so was crappy. I just wanted to get here (Warnambool) to be warm and dry and out of the wind. I was travelling a little quick during the last parts to get here so I’m glad I managed to avoid any official interest.

Tomorrow, we are going to another kind of theme park. Its a period seaside village that should teach us all about shipping and ship wrecks. At night, theres another sound/light show (like we saw at soverign hill) all about shipwrecks.

If the weather is good and I feel like a ride, I may go back to get some photos.

I think it should be renamed the ‘pretty good ocean road’.

Heres another photo of my in a Lorne cafe drinking a coffee. (taken by Libby)

I haven’t shaved in a week and am starting to get fluffy. I have never let face fur go over 2 weeks before but will leave it 5 weeks this time. Lets see how pitiful it is at the end of the trip.