Day 2 - An epic 93km ride

Ok so I knew this would be big, but probably wasn't aware of just quite how big it would be. I headed out at 830 this morning, as planned and made good speed along the way. Between Niranda south and Peterborough I came across the first big site of the day. The Bay of Islands is not really what the name implies but rather a bunch of rocky outcrops sitting just off the coast. Not too far down the road is the Bay of Martyrs. What's with all this religious nomenclature! Anyway, both places are absolutely worth visiting and a bit less popular than some of the other spots.
I had a rather amusing encounter with a woman at the Bay of Martyrs lookout. She told me that she had seen me travelling along the road at a good clip and that when she met me I was older than she expected given the way I was hooning down the bitumen. Possibly a backhanded compliment, but I'll take it anyway.

So now it was onwards and upwards to The Grotto and London Bridge. It was pretty early in the morning so I had the places pretty much to myself. I last came through here during winter in the late 1980s and I was much smarter back then, I drove a car rather than riding a bike! From what I read, the lookouts are packed to the rafters in summer and there's traffic jams on the road, just to make it even less attractive. I would have thought that in the space of 35 years, people might have discovered that this place is paradise in winter. Often really good weather and even more importantly, no people, or not enough to cause you grief at any rate. If you're thinking of coming this way, take that tip and make your visit in low season. You won't regret the decision.

Next stop was Port Campbell for a quick morning tea break and to top up on supplies. Port Campbell is a nice enough little town with a good supermarket, a few other shops and at least one pub. I had my tea break and bought a sandwich for the road at the Grassroots Deli Cafe in the main street. Lovely staff and great food. Now it was time to head for the big one, the Twelve Apostles, where I would meet my travelling buddies. This section was still easy riding and the drivers were generally well behaved apart from one revhead in a Tesla. When you buy a car from Elon Musk, I guess you're destiny in lifer is to so really stupid things.
I swung into the carpark to be greeted by Vanessa and Sandy, my riding mates for the next few days. We knew we had a long afternoon ahead, so made a quick visit to the Apostles. I had passed on Loch Ard Gorge, to make up a bit of time, but you can't really ride all of this distance and not check out the Twelve Apostles. The weather was stupendous and the views to the rocky outcrops spectacular as the pictures below confirm. Make the most of these shots as the afternoon was to prove grueling and the camera didn't get too much work.

It was a quick ride along the Great Ocean Road which provided a false sense of security about what lay ahead. After some brief climbing there was even a sharp descent which really made me oblivious to what was coming my way. It's worthwhile noting that there's a few localities marked on the map at this point, but don't get your hopes up that these places might have supplies. They are literally spots of the map and someone a long time ago decided to give them a name. There's even a place called Gellibrand Lower and another called Lower Gellibrand. That's strange enough in itself, but there doesn't actually seem to be a place called Gellibrand, so God knows why we need to have two variations of Lower Gellibrand. In short, don't worry too much about the place names, just remember you're pretty much on your own in this part of the world.
The really bad news is that climbing the Otway Range doesn't start gradually, in fact it's intense and remains that way for quite a while. Your ultimate goal will probably be Lavers Hill, so give yourself anything between 90 and 120 minutes from when you start climbing to when you arrive. To make matters worse, the township itself is unsurprisingly located on top of a hill, so the last 2kms or so will test your legs just a little more. The cafe there sells some good pastries, but the deep fried food was pretty unappetising. To be fair, we arrived right on closing time and the 'all day menu' looked ok. There's also a nice restaurant across the road attached to a winery, that gets great reviews. Unfortunately we were out of luck with our time of arrival, so I'll just have to accept it's as good as the reviews say.
Below is a screengrab of the profile going up Lavers Hill which will give you some idea of what to expect. I would love to say that I enjoyed every minute of this beast of a climb, but that would be a lie. It's painful from the very beginning and gets worse the further you go, but there is a real sense of achievement when you get to the top. Although I guess that depends on your definition of achievement. Some people might think it's just madness.

Anyway our day wasn't quite yet over, we had an 11km, largely downhill ride to get to our accommodation in Johanna. By the way, it seems there's nothing in Johanna, so don't come here with plans for a slap up meal and drinks at the pub. There's absolutely nothing happening, which was probably a good thing after our day on the road.
If you're thinking of having a go at riding the Great Ocean Road, it's actually a great experience, even the climb to Laver's Hill. At this time of the year, there's not much traffic and the road surface is generally conducive to good riding. The tarmac is well maintained and the high grip sections, that Australian rural roadmakers love, are not so grippy as to make riding too much of a chore. The shoulders are generally limited and often in poor condition, although it looks like the civic fathers and mothers are doing their best, albeit at a leisurely pace, to improve that situation. Get yourself conditioned on the bike before you set out and make sure you have plenty of provisions as shops are few and far between when you're covering big distances on a bike.
Tomorrow should be a much less chalenging day, with a leisurely 45km ride to Apollo Bay, although it will involve some climbing over the Otways, although the maps suggest it's not quite as punishing as today.