bikes shoorams

Oh geez, I’ve gone and given away one of the best parts of today! For such a short day of riding (37km), there was a lot of awesomeness.  It all started with a plan, then I changed the plan, then I changed the plan again! The original plan was to ride from Apollo Bay to Lavers Hill. Not a long day distance-wise, but a fair amount of climbing. Then I noticed that from Lavers Hill to Port Campbell, my next stop, was almost all downhill, and still not a long day. I decided to combine the two days and go all the way to Port Campbell (about 97km). Ah, but then, I really wanted to go to the Otway Lighthouse. That was 24km roundtrip off route. Then I thought, why not go to the lighthouse, then stay at the caravan park near there, then go through Lavers Hill to Port Campbell tomorrow! So, that became the plan.  There, indeed, was a lot of climbing leaving Apollo Bay. The GOR turned inland. Here’s a look back at the bay. Continuing on up. I wanted to stop at Maits Rest, and have a walk...

Day two of the Great Ocean Road, and the sun has finally joined the party! It was overcast at first, but then Mr. Sun managed to break through. Sun is a comin’! Since I had a short day today, I took my time. Besides stopping to take photos, I also did a little walk to Sheoak Falls. It was 1.2km roundtrip away from the sound of the ocean for awhile. While I was walking along the trail, a kangaroo went bounding through the trees. I couldn’t get a photo. The Falls were nice. Not massive, but pretty nonetheless. The trail continued to Swallow Cave. Although there would have been a better view if I had gone around, I could see it wasn’t that big of a deal. That’s it to the left. I walked back to Tilmann. Just before I got back to the beginning, I saw this. Yep...a snake. It wasn’t terribly large. In fact it was rather small. However, I don’t like snakes regardless of the size. I stomped my feet (the vibration is supposed to scare them off). The snake just looked at me like it was waiting fo...

Somehow, this morning I managed to catch the 8:00 ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff (the Mornington Peninsula to the Bellarine Peninsula). That turned out to be a very good thing because today was almost as long as yesterday at 91kms. The ferry ride was 45 minutes.  Mercifully, not so much wind today. I didn’t spend any time in Queenscliff. I just wanted to get to the Great Ocean Road. I got onto the road that becomes GOR just outside of Torquay. As I was riding toward the town (and the ocean), I met a guy named Rodney who was riding from Geelong to Torquay to visit his parents for the day. We only chatted for a short time as he turned off shortly after he caught up to me.  It was nearly lunch by the time I arrived in Torquay, so I opted for Subway since it was right there (and it generally works well for me when I still have a lot of riding to do). I can’t exactly remember if this photo was just after Torquay, but it was my first real view (not counting the ferry) of the oce...

I was sad to leave Ian and Nat this morning. I’ve had such a great time with them! Thank you just doesn’t seem like enough words for all they have done for me. Nat and Ian will forever be in my heart! Yes, both Ian and Nat are tall, but not that much taller than me. We were standing on a slope. Ian had thought about maybe riding with me, but his bike was in pieces, and since he got back late last night, he hadn’t had time to put it back together. That was okay, I ended up riding with another Ian, but more on that in a moment. Getting out of Melbourne was not that difficult since I was basically on the same road for the first 15km. A dude did just about run into me when he jumped the traffic light before I had gotten through the intersection. I threw daggers at him with my eyes.  Although I was fairly quickly out of the suburbs of Melbourne (well, really, I don’t know how far they go), I was in fairly heavy traffic the entire day. For a not long enough time, I was on the Peninsula L...

For my final day in Melbourne, the weather was as forecasted—rain, rain, and more rain (okay, it wasn’t as bad as that, but it was raining). At least it wasn’t windy today. Ian is still in Brisbane (comes home late tonight—another reason why I wanted to stay until tomorrow, so I could see Ian again). Nat and I decided, despite the weather, we would drive up into the Dandelongs. The Dandelongs are the mountains just outside of Melbourne. As climbing goes, it’s a great bike ride. However, not in today’s weather.  We stopped at a viewpoint in Kalorama. This is what we could see. I think there is quite the view out there. We went up a little higher before starting to descend. The road wound down through the eucalyptus and gumtrees (and the clouds). Out of the Dandelongs, we stopped at a Woolworths so I could resupply my groceries for my departure tomorrow. As always, I got too much food. Since we were hungry, we next went to a Whole Foods (similar to the Whole Foods in the US, but not ...