The Great Ocean Road Part 1

The Great Ocean Road was a destination for us before leaving home so getting down here we were both very keen to see and ride it. The weather here in Aus has, to say the least been a bit colder than we would have likes but as we have found out the weather never stops us from doing what we want and as long as we dress for it, it doesn't really matter. (I guess that makes us real hard core bikers now)
So after spending a couple of nights in Ballarat we head south again to meet up with the coast.

The Grotto

Mark another GS rider who lives just outside of Melbourne, whom we had met in Laos and rode with for a few days, was going to meet us in Apollo Bay and ride back to Melbourne with us. From there he had offered to show us around for a few days and had also offered to put us up at his place while we looked around. I had mentioned to him that the bike needed a service and he said he would call the local guys and book us in, the problem came about when they said they could only fit us in if we got in there the next day and the bike had been running pretty bad for some time and the fuel we were getting through was conformation of that (we were down to 14 km per L from our usual 18km).

Wearing most of our clothes to keep warm

London Bridge
or what's left of it!

Well as we were going to be rushed and this was a real destination for us we decided to just stop and see a  couple of the sights then blast on to the city where Mark would be waiting for us at the BMW service centre.

He had said that as long as we left Apollo Bay by 3pm we would get there by 5.30 and the guys there would wait for us. 

On a nice sunny but cold day

Three o'clock came around and found us leaving Apollo Bay as planned but the GPS thought a short cut was in order and sent us up a gravel road, now under any other circumstance we would have rode the gravel road out to the highway and really enjoyed it as the scenery was spectacular, riding in the hills the only other mode of transport we say was a girl on a mountain bike. But as we pushed on I could see that this road was by far the slowest way to get into town so after 30 mins we turned around and headed back to the main road where we took the next left turn and speed along a nice black top road out to the highway. 

Always nice to ride with the sun on us

The Great Ocean Road needs some work

Now a little behind our schedule we got into heavy traffic as we made our way to the dealership and to cut a long story short we arrived a little late at about 6.15 but mark was there and the guys had stayed behind so we dropped of the bike and went back to Marks place  

We head over the bridge into Melbourne
as the sun sets behind us

The Great Ocean Road would have to wait for a few more days and on the positive side this meant I would get to ride most of it twice and some of it three times and that is something I didn't mind at all.