Having just taken a week and a half annual leave, I was looking to get out on the bike for a bit of a ride. A friend suggested The Great Ocean Road. Well the weather forecast was for a fairly fine day, getting windier in the afternoon. Didn't sound too bad, so I packed my gear and left the house. After a quick air and fuel stop I made a quick run down to Williamstown.
At about 9.30 I left Melbourne along the Princess Freeway (M1). The road was very unexciting and quite uninteresting.
Sometime later I arrived in Geelong and topped up the tank. Also purchased a bag of chips and a couple of bottles of water. Getting out of Geelong I succeeded in taking a wrong turn and getting lost briefly. I found the M1 again and continued until the Torquay turn-off.
At Torquay I stopped for a couple of minutes at a lookout and war memorial.
Leaving Torquay after a short 10 km stretch the road finally got interesting and I was on the Great Ocean Road! The road has some great twisties and hairpins, and is awesome fun on a bike. The road was relatively quiet and I made good progress, staying away from the scattered traffic. Actually most of it seemed to be going the other way.
Around 12.30 I arrived in Lorne. I stopped and bought a Jam doughnut and a pizza slice for lunch. That was a good 15 minute break I guess. Here's a photograph from just outside Lorne.
After lunch I headed out towards Apollo Bay. Unfortunately the weather was deteriorating and the road seemed to be covered in tree debris. I decided to call it a day and head home. I spent a disproportionately short time on the Great Ocean Road in comparison to the time spent getting there, due to turning back early.
On the way back I stopped breifly a couple of times to take a few photographs (the ones you can see here).
Despite the early conclusion, it was my first solo ride outside of Melbourne and my first country ride since my Anzac day accident (when I was on my learners, some three months back.) The few hairpins and twisties I did get were very enjoyable, and something I haven't had much recent practice at either.
The ride home got progressively worse as I headed back up the M1 to Melbourne. Near the end my butt was aching and the poor bike was lurching around due to sudden wind gusts. I arrived in my drive at about 3.15.
All in all, a good short ride (about 270 kms round-trip) and looking forward to taking a longer run that way in the coming months; especially as the weather improves!