Chilly this morning when I went out for a run. Ran up a hill to the domain in Mt Gambier, then turned and walked back, as I can’t risk running down hill with zero fitness, and I wanted to take some photos of the houses which were and interesting mix of styles. Mostly they were very nice old houses that were villas made of stone blocks, very nice, and some formal gardens, very nice. Coffee and some crackers then we were of to the lotto shop to pick up the big cheque. Amazingly the Lotto tickets were not winners, so we had to cancel the Helicopter that we had booked to finish the trip with and just carry on, on the bikes, I can’t believe it, it didn’t win.
Today we could have been in New Zealand, firstly riding through Pine Forestry in rolling country, then golden beaches, then into lush green paddocks with stock in them, progressed onto dairy country that looked like the Waikato, then into tight twisting country with rough roads covered in leaves. We rode through Nelson, and then stopped at Portland for some breakfast of a big fry up and good coffee. Carried on to Warrnambool where we stopped and fuelled up, and had another coffee as it was cold and I was very drowsy. The weather is not as bad as yesterday but it is still pretty cold and the occasional shower is coming through. While in the Café, I got on the Internet and booked some accommodation in Sydney for the last three days of the trip when we will be packing up the bikes and catching our breath.
Headed back into the weather and got onto the Great Ocean Road. The GPS was a bit confused initially and kept sending us off on the wrong road so I ignored Karen for a while and followed the signs until she started talking sense again. Eventually we came out onto the coast road. We stopped at the first lookout, London Bridge. This is a rock arch, that used to be two rock arches, but in 1990 the main arch collapsed, so London Bridge really did fall down. Two tourists were on the wrong side of the arch when it collapsed, and ended up stranded for several hours before being rescued from the resulting island. We stopped at the Arch for a look also, the weather was dramatic, strong wind, huge crashing waves and occasional rain clouds dropping showers every now and again.
We went along the coast to the Twelve Apostles. Now this is a fully geared up attraction. It reminded me of the Punakaiki Rocks in a way but a bit more up market. It was absolutely swarming with tourists. I do not know where they all came from as the road is not busy at all, there must be some other route that the tourist buses come in on. We walked through the underpass and down the concrete paths to the first look out and elbowed my way through the crud to have a look at the view. It was like a frenzy of camera activity, everyone was snapping away and posing in front of the view with cameras firing. There was competitive spirit to the camera activity and rising to the challenge I pulled out my little and started firing away, randomly firing in any direction that the tourist were firing at. After a while I realise d that they were taking photos of the rock pillars that make the twelve apostles.
There was a Japanese man with a big SLR camera with a massive lens on it looking determined and firing like the gigabytes would never end. I thought, “That man has short lens syndrome!” Sensing some fun I went up to him with my little German Camera with its little lens (both made in Japan) and stood beside him looking quizzically at the rock, cocked my head from one side to the other, held up my hands with my fingers making a frame as I squinted my eyes through the imaginary frame, then with a look of revelation and urgency on my face grabbed up my camera with panicking and fumbling hands and started firing away as fast as I could in the direction of the rock. Click, click, click,….click, click, click, click,clickety click. He looked shocked that I had seen something that he hadn’t and picked up his big camera and started firing away Zvit, Zvit, Zvit, Zvit, Focusing his lense, Zvit Zvit Zvit, zooming in and Zooming out Zvit, zvit,zvitzvit,…..zvit zvit zvit. Click Click Clickity click, Zvit Zvit Zvit, Clickity Click, ZVIT, ZVIT ZVIT ZVIT ZVIT! He was getting angry, and still didn’t know what I was taking photos of. I was moving my camera from one side to the other Click, click, clickity click. ZVIT ZVIT ZVIT ZVITZVITZVITZVIT! Then I stopped, looked up, and started firing away straight up in the air with a real sense of urgency, click click clickity click. He looked up and rubbed his eyes then started firing away Zvit Zvit…..zvit zvit. He looked a bit unsure but couldn’t believe he might miss a once in a lifetime shot. Click click clickity click, Zvit zvit zvit. Clickity click, Vzit zvit zvit,…ZVIT ZVIT ZVIT! I quickly put the camera down and grabbed out my video camera from my bag. Click, snap whirr whirr whirr went the video pointed straight up in the air. He looked shocked. What could be so good to take so many photos and now video. He squinted and rubbed his eyes again then started firing away again still not knowing what he was shotting at, Zvit zvit zvit, … zvit zvit zvit. Whirr whirr whirr, then Click snap I put down the video, and grabbed my little camera again Click click clickity click. Zvit Zvit, click click Zvit zvit ZVIT ZVIT ZVITZVITZVITZIVT! Click. Then I put my camera down and said to him, “nice blue sky”, and walked off. Zvit as he involuntarily squeezed his camera. Fun with the tourists.
Slippery roads followed over the next hour or so as we headed along the road towards Apollo Bay. Nice winding road that would be great on a dry day but today is not a dry day and the combination of wet road, rough road and a lot of leaf and decayed leaf on the road made it very slippery so it was a matter of taking it very easy. This is the first stretch of road that I have seen a sign that has a motorbike on it with a slippery road cartoon. We went very carefully along the way and you could feel the road was greasy with the back wheel being a bit loose on engine braking. The light was fading also at about 4.30 and we pulled into Apollo Bay so thought we should stop here.
We rode into the town and there were a number of motel options and Dad was keen on one on the main street called Iluka which means “by the water” in Aboriginal language. We booked in and took our bikes around the back to go into the garage. There was a beautiful Honda Chopper in the garage and the Greek owner of the motel and restaurant came out to show us. He was very proud of his bike, and told us that it cost $65 000, and had an accessory exhaust put on which cost another $5000, plus other bits making it worth about $75 000 apparently. It is a limited edition bike with only 10 being sold in Australia and a total of only 100 being made, so he thinks it will be a collector’s item and intends to keep it for his grandson so that he can sell it in the future. Very family oriented, I think he should ride it and get some enjoyment, then give it to his grandson.
We had a very nice meal of Lamb Chops for Dad and a Lamb Curry for me, followed by a Greek dessert of Almond Filo pastry and Filo and custard for Dad. Nice. Forecast is for Gale Force wind on the coast tomorrow, so will make a plan in the morning about weather to ride anywhere or not. A gale might be a good excuse for a day off the riding.
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