Day 38: Farewell Victoria

Odo: 22395, Day's KM: 350.2, Trip KM: 11413

Bendigo to Spirit of Tasmania Melbourne via Marysville and Warburton.

The morning started early with Kunal off to work shortly after 6AM. I continued to rest until 7ish before packing up and leaving. It was great to catch up with Kunal again; the bass strait and geographical distances are a big barrier.

I stopped for breakfast to plan a route to Melbourne, which combined good riding roads with the other errands I had to do before boarding the Spirit. I came up with a route via Marysville and Warburton which had plenty of good roads combined with a schedule that didn't put pressure on me getting to the boat.

I stopped for lunch in Marysville, and was parked next to a massive bike. I'm told it weighs 385kg dry, which makes my bike look like a featherweight in comparison.

I nearly got to see how heavy it would be to pick up - it got very messy on the leaves on its departure. Fortunately the rider caught it in time.

Marysville suffered significant loss in the Black Saturday bushfires in February 2009. The scars on the landscape are still obvious and probably will be for some time. There are two types of trees - those that are completely dead and remain as white skeletons, and those that are still alive, often still sporting charred trunks, covered in tiny new branches almost like fur.

This photo demonstrates the two types of tree damage quite well.

The roads for 60 ish kilometres were very twisty and I had them virtually to myself. The scenery included the photos above, taken where I could safely pull over. As with many parts of this trip, there were sections of the road with amazing views that I couldn't hope to capture, and a photograph just wouldn't tell the story.

The road out of Marysville was one of those roads. The amazing, unique scenery and twisty roads on a beautiful day made for a brilliant ride. You are truly in the moment - days like this are why I ride.

Once I got towards the city, I collected my car parts, had a sticky beak at a couple of bike shops, and headed to the port. The Melbourne office of my work was near the ferry terminal, so I went and said hello to a few people before queuing for the ferry home.

I settled in for a nice dinner on the boat and to write this, most likely the second-last blog entry for this trip.

Day 37: Great Ocean Road Part 2

Odo: 22044, Day's KM: 518.8, Trip KM: 11062

Port Fairy to Bendigo via Great Ocean Road

I hit another milestone today: I doubled the mileage of the bike on this trip. Pretty good effort in my books.

I worked out the key to a good sleep is to have no real care what I'm doing the next day. I decided I wanted to be up early today to get to my destination in daylight and found myself up earlier waiting for my alarm to go off.

I managed to escape camp by 8, and spent the next two hours or so stopping at all the lookouts on the western end of the road that I had seen on the way through. The photos I took really don't do the views any justice. They really are amazing and I'd recommend anyone have a look in person.

Bay of islands

London Bridge

There are two people in this photo with full orange / reflective hi vis who went walking into the caves. I have no idea what they were doing down there. Hopefully not a search and rescue - it wouldn't be nice in there.

Twelve apostles.

After stopping off at about ten different viewing areas, I stopped pulling over and just observed from the bike.  I continued on through to Torquay, only stopping for fuel and rest stops. I had about the perfect run of the road today, hardly getting stuck behind anyone and when I did, they were usually travelling close to my speed and were letting people past at the first opportunity. I tried to wave to all as I passed to show my gratitude for their courtesy.

I got to Bendigo a bit after 5 and had a bit of a look around for a while before parking at my friend Kunal's house and walking in to town. I grabbed a drink at the pub and wrote my blog entry while waiting for Kunal to finish work before meeting him for a Thai meal in town and to catch up.

Day 36: Off with the fairies

Odo: 21525, Day's KM: 441.3, Trip KM: 10543

Warrnambool to Port Fairy via Mount Gambier

I had planned to get an early start this morning to have plenty of time to explore. Nice theory. In practice, I only just made it out of the camp ground by 10. I think I was repaying the late night at Leon's place. Nevertheless I did leave well rested today which is always good.

Both the bike and my stomach were desperately low on fuel and so the first item on the agenda was to resolve this issue. I'm sure getting efficient at the routine at service stations, often visiting at least two a day (today was 3). I headed to the highway for a fairly straight run to Mount Gambier, only stopping a couple of times for gear and photos, such as looking out into the bay at Portland.

I stopped at a cafe for lunch in Mount Gambier and had an absolutely delicious lamb pizza for lunch. I stopped to look at a crane truck before leaving the area (there is a lot of forestry operation in the area including heaps of plantation forest).

On the return towards Port Fairy, I took as many back roads as I could find. There were a few twisty sections, but mostly just straight roads. At least the scenery was different and there was practically no traffic at all (and any traffic I did come across was very considerate).

I set up camp at Port Fairy and went through the evening ritual of setting up camp and 'preparing' a camp dinner. I went for a walk down to the shore and found a park bench right near the shoreline, and sat and wrote this entry while listening to the waves crashing along the beach. The formation of waves is most interesting, but I need a better camera than my phone to capture it.

Interesting point of reflection: tonight will probably be the last time I set up my tent on this trip because I will probably be staying with a friend tomorrow night and I'm on the ferry home on Wednesday.

Day 35: Westward bound

Odo: 21084, Day's KM: 411.6, Trip KM: 10102

Somerville to Warrnambool via Melbourne CBD, Torquay and the Great Ocean Road

The morning started early - prior to 7am in fact. It wasn't even particularly light outside. The reason for the early start on a Sunday was so that Leon, Dora, and Django could head into the CBD to meet Darren and Hilary for breakfast.

I had caught up with Darren in Townsville, the day before he headed to Sale for a training course. Seeing as I had to cross the city anyway, Leon and I decided we should surprise him by having me turn up as well.

Before we left, Django had a sit on the bike (and posed for a photo)

When I rode past where Darren and Hilary were waiting, Darren saw the bike and guessed it would be me. He figured the bike and jacket looked the same and I was due in Melbourne around now so when I turned up with Leon it wasn't too much of a surprise.

We headed down Lygon St for breakfast and a catch up, which was a nice way to spend the morning. I worked out I have seen all my mainland uncles, aunties and cousins in the last 12 months, some more than once. Not a bad effort really.

we asked one of the waitresses at the cafe to take a group photo of us before we left:

After breakfast we all headed our separate ways. I did a highway run out to Torquay to tackle the Great Ocean Road in a westerly direction.

It was an overcast day so I didn't bother to take many photos, but I sussed out in passing a number of good vantage points for my return trip on Tuesday.  A couple that I did take are here:

The views in a number of places were absolutely amazing, and the roads were very good too. I didn't get stuck behind much traffic, and most got out of the way in the slow vehicle turnouts - this was most appreciated. It was an almost perfect run at the road.

The only notable exception was a P player in small hatchback who insisted on driving a maximum of 60 in the 80 zone and walking pace around corners, and refused to turn out. Not even a horn or lights in the turnout zones gave them a hint that the queue forming behind them would appreciate their absence. I finally got a straight enough stretch to pass and had a near perfect run the rest of the way.

Just before Warrnambool, it started to rain. As I didn't have wet weather gear on, I very quickly made a u turn back to the camp ground I had seen a couple of k's back. I was able to get camp set up with plenty of time before the rain started there and before my jeans had gotten too wet. I had a swim in their balmy pool before making dinner and settling in for the night.

Day 34: More family

Odo: 20672, Day's KM: 406.6, Trip KM: 9690

Orbost to Somerville, mostly along the A1

Today there are no photos for a few reasons: I was covering highway miles, I was covering some old ground, and I didn't see anything especially photo-worthy.

I got up around 8 and prepared to pack up camp. It had been a dewy night and so despite towelling off the tent it was still a bit damp. The usual, then. It got pretty cool overnight - probably down to 6ish. It was only 8.5 when I left site.

One of the older ladies at the camp ground decided I was must have been freezing overnight (she was in a caravan with an electric blanket) and came over to offer me a hot drink before they packed up their van. I didn't end up taking her up on the offer but it was appreciated nonetheless.

I stopped in Lakes Entrance again for breakfast and then headed towards Melbourne. I figured I had a long day of riding to make Torquay by 5pm, so after taking a few tourist drives along the highway, I reverted back to mile munching.

When I got to Sale, I gave my cousin Leon a call and arranged to catch up with him and his family in the afternoon. Django had changed a lot since I last saw him - he's now four and a half years old! He was full of beans when I arrived and didn't run out of energy until way past his bed time.

We all got chatting and playing with Django's toys, including a few Lego sets. I'm told the Lego was bought for Django but at times I'm not so sure... Lego seems to be bought by adult Justs under the guise of buying for their kids... Just ask Dylan and Melissa.

It was going to be a very short visit if i had to try to find a tent site elsewhere, especially in my original destination, Torquay.  With this in mind, Leon had offered me a mattress at his place.  I took him up on this offer and so stayed for dinner and a longer chat.

After a nice spag bol prepared by Dora, and with Django not asleep but at least in his room, Leon, Dora, and I sat down and played cards until late, then we too hit the hay.

Day 33: Michelin Man

Odo: 20266, Day's KM: 441.8, Trip KM: 9284

Bateman's Bay to Orbost

A combination of heater and fan did wonders for getting the last bits of my clothing dry again after yesterday's downpour. Even though all internals were dry I figured dry externals had to help.

Fortunately for me, it didn't rain very much at all today, only a little in the morning.  The roads were wet until I got to Bega for lunch, which made all but one bit of the pre-lunch segment pretty boring.

As I was heading back along the highway towards Melbourne, I kept veering off on tourist drives or other roads to try and find something more interesting than the A1. A number of these roads were quite good.

The *ahem* fun started when I got to Moruya Heads ventured down Pedro Point Road. The first kilometre or so was standard gravel road. Very suddenly this changed into rutted slush, which sent the bike everywhere (and I'm not entirely sure how I kept it upright - I'll go with the excellent handling of the GS and the knobbly tyres with plenty of tread, as opposed to skill). I was probably doing 40km/h at the time. I just tried to keep as straight as reasonable and avoid any ruts without sudden movement.

Then, while still doing around 40, the road became covered in puddles. I didn't think much of it aside from I should probably stand up. Even so, I hit the first one. The bike needed every bit of its suspension travel to make it back out. Later investigation of the fork revealed less than an inch of travel remaining so it probably went close to the shock's bump stop (forks and shock are separate on my bike). Turns out these puddles were deeper than they looked.

I fairly quickly stopped after this, decided that the road far exceeded my skill level, particularly on such a big heavy bike and given I was travelling alone, and turned around and made it safely out. I'm sure the bike was quite capable, but I wasn't. I need some practice off road on a much lighter bike I think.

At lunch time, I had finally escaped the rain, and the weather for the afternoon looked good. I had put on every bit of clothing / protective gear I could this morning so I was feeling a bit like the Michelin Man, so the opportunity to remove a few layers was much appreciated. I travelled on the A1 until I got to Orbost, at which point I decided I would set up camp for the night.

The run between Bega and Orbost on the A1 was really quite good. Enough twisty bits to keep me interested, no roadworks, and almost no traffic. I think I caught no-one and saw only 3 oncoming vehicles over nearly half an hour!

I did stop and take a couple of photos from a lookout in Eden.

My plan is to head to Torquay (near Geelong) tomorrow and prepare to travel the great ocean road between Sunday and Tuesday, perhaps with a day trip elsewhere on the Monday.

Day 32: Marge, the rains are 'ere!

Odo: 19824, Day's KM: 449.8, Trip KM: 8842

Sydney to Bateman's Bay via Canberra

Today is one of those days that I miss my car. I'm holed up in Bateman's Bay in the cheapest cabin wotif could find me. It's been cold, windy, and very wet, and I had no desire to try to make camp in a downpour.

I left Tim and Lauren's place at around 9:30, and was immediately faced with the challenge of navigating out of Sydney at a horrible speed. Any motorcyclist who has ridden in rain knows the speed - it's too slow to have enough airflow to demist your visor, but too fast to leave the visor all the way open without getting rain all over your face (and in my case my glasses). Ironically this was only the second-worst visibility I experienced today, but more on that later.

The first stop was a lookout over Lake George on the Federal Highway.

If you look closely at the horizon, and the blog photo is in a good enough resolution, you'll notice many wind turbines. Surprise surprise then that the lookout was cold and windy. I was still recovering from wind chill at around 110km/h for 2+ hours on wet bike gear in single digit temperatures. As such, the following selfie was the best I could manage.

Trying to look at the screen directly in front of the sun and with lots of wind around isn't easy. And the balaclava was staying on too - it at least provided a bit of protection.

I arrived in Canberra after 1 and decided to at least have a quick look at something vaguely touristy before leaving. The first thing I saw was Parliament House.

Done. Have seen it. Looks like all the photos except with many tourists milling about :p

I will have to come back again to see more, but probably not this trip. One place I would like to see is the mint.

I figured that the coast ought to be warmer than Canberra so I headed easy. I was right, it is warmer. Also wetter. It was getting dark as I arrived into Batemans Bay and it was very wet so I decided that a cabin was the way to go. I booked one on wotif and set about finding it.

Note to self: a fogged visor with rain on both sides and rain and foggy glasses are a nightmare in the dark in traffic with lights everywhere. The experience pretty horrible - second only to the moments where the bike got twitchy on wet corners, or where a deeper-than-usual puddle on the freeway got my attention very quickly through subtle yet frightening handlebar movement. I can think of many ways to describe this feeling - Ricky has a pretty good one that I won't repeat here.

The cabin is a most appreciated luxury tonight given the weather. For a bonus, ABC2 aired Spicks and Specks, shortly followed by Scrapheap Challenge and then the Warehouse Comedy Festival. Certainly a very good way to finish off an otherwise below par day.