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.
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