Loving Every Piece of Victoria

So a little while ago I arranged to have a week off to go and see Al in Winton for a mixed grill at the Tatts - then I wasn’t going anymore but decided to take the week off work and just relax at home… well I got sick of that by the Monday so after an appointment with Knebel Kitchens (yes really….) at lunchtime on Wednesday it was time to get on the road again.  I had been watching the weather forecast and with some route suggestions from Rosie in hand off I went - DESTINATION - THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD!!!

I finally got away about 3pm on Wednesday and toyed with the idea of taking some backroads south but in the end just slabbed it.  Stopped at Tarcutta for fuel and visor change then Glenrowan for fuel and dinner before pulling into Euroa for the night at about 9pm.  It was the Hume… nothing exciting at all. 

Thursday morning dawned fair and cool - suited up for a bit more of a slab - not far to Melbourne and I really had no idea where I was going - Melbourne is a little hard to navigate if you don’t know where you’re going, all the exits are just street names or numbers don’t tell you where they go?  Eventually I saw a sign that indicated which way to Geelong… sweet.  Fuelled up at Geelong and then followed the signs to the Great Ocean Road… hurrah!  Was about 11am when I was at Geelong. 

Was a fair bit of traffic heading down to Torquay and then into Angelsea but eventually it thinned out a fair bit and I wound my way around the hills and took in the scenery… it’s a completely different road in the dry! hurrah!  Still too much traffic for my liking, tourist buses suck arse and the trucks!  At least the trucks pull over and let you past… 

Anyway wound my way along through Apollo Bay and then I was in new territory, when Mamma Leen and I came through in 2007 we went up the Forrest Road to Colac.   Beautiful scenery through here in a completely different way from the rest of the road.  Still a fair bit of traffic unfortunately but that’s okay.  I felt like a rest so stopped at some lookout somewhere for a bit before continuing on.  I passed the first turn for Johanna and thought bugger but then I saw the second one so I went down there but before long it turned to dirt  ah well.  Went to Lavers Hill instead where I had a Mongrel (a hot dog with ham and cheese) and a good break before heading up to Colac.  This was a nice bit of road but there is a fair bit of road works going on at the moment, basically they just seem to be sealing the shoulder but there is a fair amount of loose gravel everywhere.  No matter, I just cruised then fuelled up at Colac before heading back to the coast on the Forrest to Skenes Creek road.  It’s not all that exciting into Forrest but after Forrest… bliss.  beautiful corners, beautiful scenery.  All to quickly I was back at the GOR.  I turned left and there was heaps less traffic now - fkn awesome.  Had an absolute ball from there to Lorne. 

GOR

At Lorne I found the caravan park - $25 to camp - youch - but set up my tent by the creek and it was lovely.  Had neighbours, a couple from Tassie with their caravan to one side and a couple from Batemans Bay in a Winnebago to the other.  Oh and the ducks.  Lots of ducks for company.  Talked with my neighbours for a bit, had a can of Jimmy while holding court with the ducks for a bit then wondered into town for some dinner before turning in for an early night (was cold!!!!!). 

Lorne

Woke up around 7am Friday morning - had thought to try and get back into Melbourne to try and find the KSRC ride that Mal was organising (glad I didn’t - he had moved it to Thursday lol) but decided it was too cold to get out of bed so stayed there for another hour.  Eventually dragged myself out of the tent and it was cold and foggy as.  Bugger.  so I hung around, held court for the ducks again (the ducks all just came and hung out with me) and eventually around 10am gave up on waiting for the fog to lift so set off up the hill heading for Deans Marsh.  Another spectactular bit of road!  Before long I was out of the fog and into beautiful bush and beautiful roads.  I even stopped to take some pictures!  Deans Marsh came along all to quickly and then into erm whichelsea?? for a bacon and egg roll and a map consult.

Deans Marsh

I had been thinking of cutting through Melbourne and then heading down to Wilson’s Promontory for the night.  But after texting with Seph the night before where he was trying to get me to do the black spur I changed my mind (women’s prerogative) and decided I WAS going to do the black spur.  So I looked at where it was and what freeway I might like to take to get there… fail I ended up on the M1(?) heading south east so took an exit and found where I was on my map roughly and made it up from there.  I eventually ended up in Lilydale which was right then onto Warburton where I got some fuel, not knowing how far it was around the spurs and not being bothered to do the maths to work it out. 

Reefton Spur = awesome.  Except for the bushfire damage :(  It’s not that I had forgotten that the fires happened I just didn’t make the connection that I was riding where they happened.  I didn’t really want to go and see but I was there.  So sad.  The road was really good except for some fine gravel here and there.  No traffic going my way and only two cars and four bikes coming the other way.  Perfect.  The end came all too soon and I stopped and took a couple of piccies.  Then I headed for Marysville and the fire damage just got worse and worse, I just felt like crying. 

I thought about stopping at Marysville but I didn’t, I just headed for Healesville and the black spur.

Yes, Mel finally rode the Black Spur.

Now Tess, I know this is your favourite bit of road and it is a really nice bit of road… but the traffic!  Yuck.  So I headed down to Healesville and got stuck  behind lines of cars all over the place.  When I wasn’t stuck behind cars it was really nice.  So I got to Healesville eventually and then another map consult.  I had wanted to be back in Canberra Saturday arvo to go to a mate’s bbq for his birthday so I thought I would head back up the Black Spur (maybe there would be less traffic in the opposite direction?) and stop the night at Alexandra.  There was less traffic heading back up so had a fairly decent run (with a seriously scary moment when a dude on a 7 pulled out from behind a truck to overtake him on a corner and I thought he was gonna come right at me - but he pulled it back in - phew).  another moment coming around a corner to find a truck with two trailers doing about 20km/h.  Eeek.  Got into Alexandra just on sundown and rode around looking at the pubs (the caravan park was a fair way from food).  There was a dude on a bike outside the Shamrock Hotel so I pulled in there too.  $35.00 for a room and I’d have someone to have dinner with.  Introducing Theo on an ST1100 (I think) from Ballarat.  A hot shower and I was feeling human again so downstairs where the bourbon was calling and as soon as you finish and put your glass down the barman is there again offering a refill … ooops.  So a few bourbons were had and yes, I ate dinner even though i didn’t really want to by that stage lol.  Then a few games of pool with some of the local boys and suddenly it was 11:30 and I was druuuuuunk.  Ooops.  Up the stairs to bed where I put every available blanket on the bed and then tried to roast myself with the electric blanket lol.

Woke up feeling not too shabby about 7:15am, thought I’d have five more minutes and woke up at 9:15am.  Ooops.  Over a can of V I consulted the map to figure out where I was going.  I really didn’t want to slab it back and I had thought of going over Mansfield to Whitfield then onto Bright so I could do Tawonga Gap and Granya Gap and through Tumbarumba to home.  But I again changed my mind.  I instead headed back to the Black Spur lol (so now I have done it three times)!  Traffic was still pretty average even at 10am on a Saturday morning, though I had been expecting to see a lot more bikes, I saw hardly any.  Perhaps Melbournian riders like to sleep in??

I then headed for ummm Woori Yallock??? and I stopped outside a takeaway for a map consult and found my new favourite thing - battered and deep fried dim sim.  Yum.  OK so I was heading towards Noojee and then onto Moe.  On my map these roads looked kinda dull - it was just to be an alternative to going back to the freeway.  WRONG these roads were fkn awesome as well!  Twist twist wind wind through state forests.  Beautiful.  Through Noojee and then there was a sign saying 39km to Mt Baw Baw.  Sounds interesting but I didn’t have enough fuel to get up, back and into Moe, thought about heading back to Noojee for fuel but nah.  Road to Moe was nice too at the start, no warning signs though but I am getting better at reading corners without signs.

Got into Moe and to a roundabout with NFI where I was supposed to go from there, so I went straight and came to a 100 zone that can’t be right so uturn and left at the roundabout saw me in town but still no idea where to go.  Eventually I came to a T-intersection and there was a roundabout sign saying some town name and I was trying to think about whether it was a town in teh direction I wanted to go, then I was confronted with a one way sign so not able to actually get onto this roundabout then I think a car came over the crest or something I don’t know but then I was going dooooooown :(.  Ooops.  Hit the kill switch picked up the tank bag that had come off, took off my gloves and then there was a dude there who picked up my bike for me - thanks dude!  Put everything back on and a quick inspection of damage - nothing really so rolled down the footpath to a car park where I figured I earnt a smoke and a closer look at the bike.  Damage - bent clutch lever, scratches on the front fairing and the side fairing, small scratch on the tank, engine cover(?) and a small bit on the tail piece as well.  Nothing major at all.  So I consulted my map, down the road, uturn at the roundabout then I slabbed it to Traralgon for fuel and I also called my mate and said I wasn’t gonna make it back as I was a bit sore through the neck and shoulders now.  Was gonna just slab it north but instead took the backroad through Maffra and Heyfield and all that and saw a patrol car out here  not that I was doing anything wrong.  Anyway into Stratford then the Bengworden road to Bairnsdale where I stopped for a pie (at Jarrod’s bakery - after 3pm all their pies are $1!). 

Then through Bruthen and onto Orbost where I tried to get a room at the pub but apparently they were all booked out  so I pushed onto Cann River and it was dark and very hard to see and I was very paranoid about animals (only saw one though).  $50.00 saw me a room at the motel (I didn’t like the toilets at the pub at Cann river hahaha) including breakfast and the lady took pity on my and gave me a chocolate bar with my breakfast tray as well to cheer me up after my day (I told her how we fell over) which was reallly lovely!  Took my book over to the pub and had some dinner then back to my room where I read and then slept like the dead.

Had thought of riding up the coast to meet Tess & Co. at the bay but couldn’t really be arsed so just headed up the Cann River Road and straight home, got in about 1pm. 

Now I want to go and do it all again (except the moe lie down)!