IT'S A FINE LINE ...

Those of you who have read the previous post, perhaps (but not necessarily) are Australian and of a certain age might know the song I'm alluding to and will probably have twigged to the theme of this post. (For those of you who haven't twigged may have heard of Divinyls and Chrissy Amphlett; if not check this out.

While today's ride didn't involve school uniforms, fishnet stockings (although, now that I come to think of it, the waitress at Lavers Hill was wearing them!) or neon tubes and there was no physical abuse as far as I'm aware, we did tread a fine line between pleasure and pain, for perhaps the most rewarding day of our marathon from Perth.

Scenic Wonders

Neil, Di and I set off just three minutes before Collis's designated departure time of 7:30; presumably Jim, Jen and Jacquei made the cut off as they were all ready to go when we left. A nice warm up of about eight kilometres through coastal heath brought us back to the sea and our first scenic stop: the Loch Ard Gorge ...

Next up, only another four kilometres down the road is a must see in the form of the Twelve Apostles. We spent quite a lot of time there and between the three of us, made many photos  and videos. It was hard to work out what to include. Although my cheap little camera doesn't do that great of  a job with video it seemed the grandeur of the place demanded a bit of the old moving picture, so  here is what I got ...

Here are a couple of photos - also looking south - towards the bulk of the remaining features as the light changed with the sun waxing and waning ...

... and another looking north ...

The next 18 kilometres were through lovely rolling terrain along the coast, where we were entertained with many small groups of Crimson Rosellas swooping beside and across the road in front of us.  It was then into forest for a few kilometres before a quick descent to Gellibrand Lower and then we started our climb up Lavers Hill. The three of us were pretty chuffed to get up this, the biggest hill of the day in reasonable condition and in reasonable conditions. Although it was only eight degrees at the top of the hill, it wasn't windy and there was no rain. My feet were cold by the time I got to the top but I'm certainly not complaining: better that than soaking wet and cold! 

Collis had arranged for us to meet him at one of the great cafés in the township of Lavers Hill, which is about 50 kilometres from Port Campbell.  We had quite a long break and were spoiled again by Collis buying us morning tea, and were also treated to a wonderful display of more Crimson Parrots, along with King Parrots - first for us - and a bunch of other birds before setting off again on the fantastic descent out of the township. 

I got a photo of a couple of a couple of birds feeding on the ground ...

... and a whole bunch roosting in a tree ...

The descent from Lavers Hill was fantastic, with lots of swooping bends. I went ahead and found myself at a high saddle where I decided to stop and wait for Di and Neil ...

It looked like we had a gradual climb ahead of us, but that was incredibly deceptive. Pretty much as soon as we entered the trees you can see ahead we turned the corner and climbed steadily at 8 - 9 percent for longer than we would have liked after a quick descent in such cool conditions. Nonetheless, before long I arrived at a bit of a levelling off and waited for Di and then Neil ...

The road again pointed upwards and we continued at our own pace. After eventually topping out at about 350 metres above sea level we rolled along the undulating top towards the turnoff to Cape Otway and its historic and very important lighthouse, before plunging down towards the popular tourist destination of Apollo Bay, at just under 100 kilometres from where we started the day. Again, we were very pleased to have another break before tackling the last section of our day's ride.

Our route up to this point had been varied, challenging and rewarding. The last section would prove to be the icing on the cake. We had 28 kilometres to go, and it was along a road hugging the ocean the whole way. The three of us set off together but soon each settled into their own pace. Di stopped to shoot this short video ...

... while I took this one from the saddle ...

Neil also paused at least once to drink in the views. The three of us were all pretty tired but very happy to arrive in Wye River and went straight to a great little café for a hot chocolate and piece of Orange Semolina Cake to start getting some glycogen back into our muscles. Jim, Jen and Jacquei all arrived in good shape as we were putting up our tents. All of us were delighted with the day, and the four of us who have ridden all the way from Perth think today's ride was one of the picks of the journey. Di actually said that the last section was the most enjoyable 28 kilometres she's even done after having already ridden 100 for the day. The two of us think that today was perhaps the most rewarding of the trip, what with the scenery, the climbing, the birds and the swooping descents. We came close to crossing the line between pleasure and pain but managed to stay on the side of pleasure right to the finish. Let's hope neither of us get cramp during the night!

Here's a graphic showing today's ride. It's a bit inaccurate: we actually climbed 1850 metres and, with all our sightseeing detours, covered about 128 kilometres ...

And now it's to bed. I'll just have enough time to get my eight hours of kip before it's time to get up and do it all again tomorrow. We are closing in on our target: only two more days of riding and it'll all be over; tomorrow we cross the mouth of Port Phillip Bay before heading into Melbourne the following day.

Distance covered is now 4544 kilometres!