Sunday 26 May 2013

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.

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