Day 1 Great Ocean Road

Ok, so let's get the less appealing bits out of the way early on and then finish with the good stuff.
Last night's train trip from Sydney to Melbourne, probably scores about 5/10. The couchette and fold down beds are pretty comfy and the guy who shared the space with me was great company. The toilets and showers were spotlessly clean, if a little dated.
The train itself was pretty noisy and not as steady as modern rolling stock, but heh that's what you get with a 50 year old piece of kit.
Breakfast was a bowl of cornflakes, fruit juice and a hot drink. The crew were pretty pleasant dudes, but let's say organisation wasn't their special skill.
We rolled into Southern Cross Station about 20 minutes late, whereupon I re assembled my bike after a quick visit to the luggage van. Everything seemed in good order and the brakes hadn't jammed; so far so good.
Next it was a two hour wait for the train to Sherwood Park. I abandoned the last leg to Warrnambool as it added about 5km to the ride, all of it spent on the Princess Highway. The train left from Southern Cross, about 20 minutes after the scheduled time. The carriages looked like they were heritage listed and the engine was a bit of a clunker! I was eventually unleashed on the world a bit after 2pm.
The first 7 or 8km were spent riding on the shoulder along the Princess Highway. Lots of heavy vehicles, plenty of grit and worse on the shoulders and a couple of bridge that narrow and leave no space for a cyclist. Watch out for all of those hazards should you follow in my tracks.
Once you hit the Great Ocean Road, the traffic disappears. However I suspect that might be a little different at the height of summer. About 5km along the Great Ocean Road, I took a nice detour down Childers Cove Road, it seems to add nothing to the distance and I pretty much had the road to myself. Plug it into your GPS and you won't have any problems tracking down the detour. There's no ocean views, unless you take the Childers Cove Access Road, but the countryside is sublime. Even better, I was kicking along with ease at 25kmh complete with two decent sized panniers. The road surface is good and the wind was pretty much non existent.
I had originally planned to ride to Port Campbell, but I was a bit concerned about fading light at the end of the day and called it quits at Nirranda. It's a beautiful place, but it re defines the definition of a one horse town. The general store apparently closed in the 1980s due to lack of interest from the locals, so don't turn up here under resourced in the food department. I did and I'm paying the price!
I'm staying at a B n B called the Butterfly Farm. It's owned by a husband and wife who seem like they might have had some direct connections with the world of hippies back in the day. If you're an aficionado of Australian 70s rock music, you'll find the posters in the carport of some interest. Turns out the male half of the management team, is an ex member of Madder Lake. Check them out on Wiki if you don't know who I'm talking about.

If you're interested, I covered the 31km from Sherwood Park in about 75 minutes of riding time. With a drink break and a couple of gear adjustments, it took me about 90 minutes. No hills of any consequence makes it a pretty easy start to your tour.
I'm planning on an early start tomorrow, with a morning tea break at Port Campbell, which is about 30km away from Nirranda. The weather looks like it will be as good as today, so there should be some terrific views once I hit the coast.
The afternoon session might get a little challenging. Whatever the case maybe, it's going to be an 80-90km riding day, so today was every inch a soft warm up.
You can bet the road won't be this flat tomorrow