Great Ocean Road! Day 0
We'll were back now but it doesn't mean I can't blog it does it?
So we've been planning this road trip for ages and now its finally happening! Cycling the Great Ocean Road from Warrnambool to Geelong, 280km over 6 days. Hilly at times but hopefully with the prevailing westerly at our backs. I took a couple of days off before we left but even so we ended up in a rush at the final moment to pack everything up. I insisted on going for a bike ride with Joh's Dad on this Good Friday morning, saying it was my last chance for a fast ride before riding with Joh on tour. I think a few scratches of the head but nobody suspected I only did that to ask his permission to marry :-) Which I did, going up the steepest hill on our climb, he didn't have the breath to refuse!
So after the ride and breakfast at her parents' place, johjohjoh and I got back about midday. Joh got started on the packing while I made some last minute modifications to the bikes. Then I helped pack, we went through a checklist we found on the net, I quickly made up mark 2 of the camp stove out of cat food tins, we left some stuff behind and we were away!
18km to my parent's place near the airport. From there we zipped out to get bike boxes... well I realised as soon as we got there that I forgot something! So I cajoled my sister into coming with me, we picked up bike boxes in the ute from the airport, and went back across town to my place to pick up the ring! Pulled that off and then the family dinner could begin :-) We packed everything for the plane to avoid rushing around in the morning, particularly since we'd never packed bikes into cardboard boxes before. And here's the tip: this is a good thing to do before your family gets drunk and starts "helping" and giving advice :-)
OK, the next day I'm going to call Day 0.5 because we didn't do any cycling! Airport formalities were relatively painless, we had breakfast in the Qantas lounge and so began a day of travelling. In Melbourne, the bike boxes went straight onto the skybus which goes to Southern Cross Station. We felt a little guilty holding up the queue for the bus but otherwise it would have filled up! At the station, we got the bike boxes to the luggage stores and had a couple of hours to have a quick peak at Melbourne.
Southern Cross Station
The train to Warrnambool was more than 3 hours long, and our neighbours on the train, a couple of late teenage boys, talked footy the whole journey. AFL through to districts football, you know you're really in Victoria when that happens ... they are completely obsessed! At the end of journey we got our bikes out and assembled them on the platform. The boxes went into a skip and we went up the road to the pub to check in about 11pm to our accommodation, and went down to the bar for a well earned drink.
Joh's putting our mascots on the pillow. Very important to have a mascot!
So we've been planning this road trip for ages and now its finally happening! Cycling the Great Ocean Road from Warrnambool to Geelong, 280km over 6 days. Hilly at times but hopefully with the prevailing westerly at our backs. I took a couple of days off before we left but even so we ended up in a rush at the final moment to pack everything up. I insisted on going for a bike ride with Joh's Dad on this Good Friday morning, saying it was my last chance for a fast ride before riding with Joh on tour. I think a few scratches of the head but nobody suspected I only did that to ask his permission to marry :-) Which I did, going up the steepest hill on our climb, he didn't have the breath to refuse!
So after the ride and breakfast at her parents' place, johjohjoh and I got back about midday. Joh got started on the packing while I made some last minute modifications to the bikes. Then I helped pack, we went through a checklist we found on the net, I quickly made up mark 2 of the camp stove out of cat food tins, we left some stuff behind and we were away!
18km to my parent's place near the airport. From there we zipped out to get bike boxes... well I realised as soon as we got there that I forgot something! So I cajoled my sister into coming with me, we picked up bike boxes in the ute from the airport, and went back across town to my place to pick up the ring! Pulled that off and then the family dinner could begin :-) We packed everything for the plane to avoid rushing around in the morning, particularly since we'd never packed bikes into cardboard boxes before. And here's the tip: this is a good thing to do before your family gets drunk and starts "helping" and giving advice :-)
OK, the next day I'm going to call Day 0.5 because we didn't do any cycling! Airport formalities were relatively painless, we had breakfast in the Qantas lounge and so began a day of travelling. In Melbourne, the bike boxes went straight onto the skybus which goes to Southern Cross Station. We felt a little guilty holding up the queue for the bus but otherwise it would have filled up! At the station, we got the bike boxes to the luggage stores and had a couple of hours to have a quick peak at Melbourne.
Southern Cross Station
The train to Warrnambool was more than 3 hours long, and our neighbours on the train, a couple of late teenage boys, talked footy the whole journey. AFL through to districts football, you know you're really in Victoria when that happens ... they are completely obsessed! At the end of journey we got our bikes out and assembled them on the platform. The boxes went into a skip and we went up the road to the pub to check in about 11pm to our accommodation, and went down to the bar for a well earned drink.
Joh's putting our mascots on the pillow. Very important to have a mascot!