All Pleasure No Pain On The Great Ocean Road

Port Fairy to Port Campbell

Today was one of those days that you wish wouldn't end. Gorgeous cycling terrain with some great scenery and a few other interesting things to capture our attention along the way. Here's how it unfolded, although not entirely in order.

I'm jumping ahead to our arrival in Warrnambool - which is just about 28 kilometres from our starting point this morning - because of its iconic status in Australia cycling history. The Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic is second only to the famous Liège-Bastogne-Liège Classic as the world's oldest one day bike race, and - until the route changed - was the world's longest one-day race at 266 kilometres. 

With Kathy back in Melbourne, Collis was shouting us all morning tea at McCafé. I'd had a pretty filling breakfast so I just had a coffee. Collis had picked this spot because it is directly across from the monument to that great bike race and took us across for a photo before we continued on our way ...

Neil, Di, Doug, Jim, Jacquei and Jen

I really appreciated this touch as I love all that cycling history stuff. Actually, it's a completely different dimension, but I thought I might just pop in this photo I took of another great cycling monument, the Fausto Coppi memorial on top of the Passo Pordoi in the Dolomites ...

Hail Fausto, Hail!

Dianne and I were hiking in the Dolomites back in 2010 and I was delighted to discover this memorial. There were scads of cyclists around the place and, although we were having a great time ourselves, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of envy for all these people who'd ridden their bikes up the 30 or so bends to get to the top of the pass. I'm still hoping that I'll be able to do that myself someday.  

Anyway, I digress. It's time to go back to the start of the day. I think I mentioned in the most recent post the accommodation Neil had selected happened, by pure coincidence, to be just around the corner from the YHA where Di and I were staying. We arranged to set off together and ride via what looked like being a pleasant alternative start. Instead of heading straight out onto the Princes Highway we went this way ...

Cycling behind the sand dunes

... which provided us with six or seven kilometres of quiet riding past a lagoon, a golf course and a tiny, grass airstrip. A blissful start, which set the tone for the day.

Just as we were approaching the junction with the highway I saw Jim, Jen and Jacquei going by. It wasn't long before we joined them and played tag-team through to Warrnambool. 

After morning tea and that great photo opportunity we split into two groups when Jacquei missed a light. Jim and Jen waited for her and, despite Neil, Di and I cruising along slowly in anticipation that they'd soon rejoin us, we didn't see them again until lunch. 

Being Sunday morning, there was a relatively quiet stretch of 12 kilometres along the highway before we exited onto the Great Ocean Road ...

Turn here for the Great Ocean Road

... where the blissful riding recommenced. By this time I'd got Cat Stevens' Wild World into my head, which was kind of sweet. I've no idea how it got there, but it must have been some subliminal association or other - perhaps the mellow riding conditions?

It was shortly after getting off the highway that we passed the interesting sight of a whole slew of foxes hanging from a farmer's fence ...

It might seem a bit gross or sadistic for me to include this video, but I'll explain. Foxes were introduced to Australia back in colonial times for landed gentry to hunt. Of course, this stupid, selfish action has led to the utter decimation of ground-nesting birds and small marsupials. They also cost farmers by taking baby lambs and pretty much anything that they can get their teeth into, so one can understand farmers trying to get rid of them. Foxes are smart, and I reckon they'd probably steer clear of this paddock. Apparently, Jim did a count when he came past later and he reckons there were 54 carcasses strung up.

A little further on again, we stopped for a nature call, and were entertained by a bunch of corellas carrying on in the trees above us.  I tried to  video them but only got a short clip of a couple before they flew off ...

Very soon we were rejoined the sea at the scenic Bay of Islands. Although not enjoying clear blue skies, we were very lucky with the conditions given the time of year. Here's a look at what we got to see ...

It was a great spot for Collis to have picked for lunch. The three "J's" arrived just as we were finishing our lunch and on we rode to Peterborough, just a few kilometres along the road. I paused to take this photo of a few fishermen taking advantage of the favourable conditions ...

Fishermen at Peterborough

This section of road had many obligatory stops. The next was the Bay of Martyrs ...

... and then it was on to the Grotto ...

Shaping a Grotto

I took this panorama from the top of the descent into The Grotto ...

The Grotto from on high

... and this one from down almost at sea level ...

The Grotto close up and personal

... neither of which does justice to the ambience of the place.

The last significant stop that we made was at The Arch, where I put together this panorama ...

The Arch

By this time we weren't far from Port Campbell, our destination for the day. A fun bit of gentle rollercoaster riding brought us into the town. Although on paper the journey should have come out at 93 kilometres, a bit of touring around Port Fairy and in and out of our sightseeing detours along the way brought us up to just over 100 kilometres for the day. Here's what the route looks like on Google Maps ...

Port Fairy to Port Campbell

There had been a short, sharp shower overnight, leaving lots of puddles in the streets of Port Fairy and the road was a bit wet in places as far as Warrnambool. Overall though conditions were great: less headwind than we'd been expecting and only a very brief passing shower. Yes, as you can tell from the photo of us in Warrnambool, it was cool but we were very comfortable cruising along gently in our warm clothes. I was chuffed to see that the work I'd done yesterday cleaning up the bikes and, in particular our drive trains wasn't undone by a dirty day. This is what my drive train looked like after our 100 kilometres of riding ...

Happiness is a clean, crisply shifting drivetrain!

We've got what looks like another special day of cycling ahead tomorrow, but you'll have to wait another 24 hours to read about it.

Distance covered since leaving Perth: 4414 kilometres