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Flowing Mu

Sunday, November 30, 2003

Cycling Adelaide to Melbourne Part 3

Great Ocean Road
The descent into Apollo Bay marked the end of the long hard days: we had pushed pretty hard through South Australia! As we then began to wind our way along the Great Ocean road we started to relax and enjoy the scenery, knowing we would have no trouble making it to Melbourne for the weekend. We timed our Great Ocean road experience well: smack in the middle of schoolies week! We were probably lucky not to get skittled by some boozed up teenager.

Great Ocean Road was great! Please excuse the understated tone and lack of detail, I have not really had time to detail everything we did on the trip!

Torquay
Torquay was the last stop before the ride to the train at Geelong. The holy ground of surfing in Oz was as commercial as you can get: all kinds of warehouse sales populated by young girls and their mothers on a shopping trip from Melbourne. We ate lunch at a funky cafe next to the offices of some of the big surf brands, with most of the customers sporting the latest gear and attitudes that signalled we really were getting close to the city. Unfortunately our camping spot was less than funky: in a sea of beautiful grass we were assigned a site that was 100% sand. Although it turned out to be a good vantage point to observe a heated, early morning, inter-generational debate about what is decent hour to go to sleep!

The surf museum was alright, especially cool was the shaper in a box: this guy shaping away, covered in foam, being peered at like a goldfish through a perspex window!

We also spent an afternoon lazing around on the grass near the sea, looking over the pine trees and curve of the bay and thinking about what we could eat. An afternoon cruise around revealed a number of good eateries, but we chose the elephant/hippo (????) where we had a few glasses of wine whilst waiting for........my wasabi risotto balls (???) I was incredibly enthusiastic about my meal ... declaring it to be the best I had ever eaten and profusely thanking the staff there. Surely all very amusing to Gabrielle, though we were surely both over 0.05 for the ride home!

Melbourne
Melbourne was very cool. We started off staying with Gabrielle's friend Dave. A classic moment was our quick trip to the beach that took hours! It was cool to visit Portsea, and there were a few waves to be had, but the lifesavers were pretty vigilant about swimming between the flags! A very different beach experience to Perth!

Gabrielle had to go home to work, but I stayed on, but not before we both went to meet John at his bookshop. It was a bit of an affort for Gabrielle and I to find the right part of Acland street, but well worth the walk to see John pottering around in his fancy bookshop wearing cargo shorts a t-shirt and thongs: very Melbourne.

Melbourne to ...Geraldton!?
The most vivid recollection from my time in Melbourne was my excursion wiht John to the Belgian Beer Garden next to the Deaf Institute, not far from the Botanic Gardens and St Kilda road. The afternoon was sunny, with just the amount of rain to make you think about taking shelter, but then deciding against it. The experience of watching my glass: cleaned, rinsed, filled, left to sit, foam scraped off, then given a final rinse off added immeasurably to the great taste of the dark and light varieties of Hoogaarden beer. (Note: the beer is the technically the same in the Freemason's Pub in Geraldton, but tastes very, very average in comparison to Melbourne.)

I think I had downed one each of the dark and light varieities of Hogaarden, before John's phone rang. It was Caroline to say that my mother had somehow managed to call her and had an urgent message: I had to call a person by the name of Kim Nardi in the next 20 minutes to secure a job with Fisheries in Geraldton!!! This was totally unexpected, as I had previously been sent a letter saying I didn't get the job!

I pondered the message for a minute: briefly discussing the pros and cons of the position with John over the dregs of my beer, before heading off to find a phone box, as John's phone was out of credit. Speeding off, half-cut, around the Melbourne streets in search of a phone, and wouldn't you know it the first TWO I found were broken! Hesitating at the beer garden to consider my options had taken some time, and now I was getting stressed out!! I finally found a phone and made the call. I immediately accepted when the offer was put to me and began to wildly underestimate how long it would take me to get from Melbourne to Geraldton and be ready to start work. Kim, on the other end of the phone, tried to stop me from making rash promises...but I still managed to say I would be there in just a few days. So, my Melbourne holiday got cut short, and I was off to Geraldton!!!! but, not before I few more beers and half a bottle of very, very expensive cleanskin wine that Caroline had been keeping for a special occassion!!! Ooopppsss.

Cycling Adelaide to Melbourne 2003 Part 2

[There is no 'Part 1' yet, as I haven't had time to write it all down!]

Short cuts
One ‘memorable' event was when we paused in a small town to decide the easiest way to get to the south and east, and the main coastal road. I genuinely thought the quickest way would be to cut diagonally across, rather than take the two straight (one south and one east) roads joined by a right angle turn. Convincing Gabrielle to take this route, it turned out to be fantastically scenic

The great views, however, were because of our rapid ascent up above the green plain. Riding up hills is not Gabrielle’s greatest source of joy. But, as a result of this shortcut, I know that she prefers Hills to ‘undulations'….

No too much further down the coastal road, Gabrielle pronounced that she was done, that she was stopping. With the criticism of my route still ringing in my ears I was very concerned: thinking she meant she was finished cycling for good! I tried to comfort her as we rolled into the shade and agreed to stop for lunch. I don't think it was until much later in the day that I realised she was only 'done' temporarily, as in she was ready to stop for food..

Windy plains
There is a great Aboriginal-owned youth hostel in the middle of nowhere with a native plant nursery out the back and some re-constructed aboriginal stone shelters. Just down the road is an estuary and some offshore islands rich with Aboriginal history. If I recall correctly, This area was also the location of the Aboriginals referred to in Jared Diamond's book (Guns, Germs and Steel) as starting to cultivate crops, having advanced fishing techniques, and the beginnings of a permanent settlement. I recall if was not too much further on to the volcano that you could ride down inside to the nature reserve. We avoided it because of the necessary up and downs on heavily laden bicycles.

It was windy riding along the coastal strip near the wind farm! Gabrielle was not happy! I tried to alert her to the fact that her red, billowing rainjacket may be slowing her down...


Otways and McDUFF's!
Through the Otways I was really surprised by the number of pine plantations, sheep and recently logged areas interspersed amongst remnants of native forest: I was expecting it to be almost entirely forested. Near the top of the Otways, we rode down into a valley off the side of the highway to do a walk through the forest. Apparently the area is the home of lots of fireflies at night. I thought the trip down and up was worth it, and we saw another cyclist there who I'm sure agreed! He was European, and was heavily laden with big ortleib panniers and a duffel bag on top of his rear rack..

Later in the evening, we pulled into the small town of Laver's Hill at the peak of the Otways where we took accomodation at the pub/fuel stop/caravan park, and bought some icecreams as rewards! We cooked dinner on the outside gas hotplates before going for a walk through town looking for a phone. This wander involved ducking our heads into the 'pub' on what we thought was a quiet Tuesday (?) night. Opening the door revealed a packed house, but a crowd that was barely discernible through the thickest cloud of smoke I have ever witnessed. We found a phone further up the road!!

Also further up the road was a little bakery called 'McDuffs' ( http://www.mcduffs.com.au/ ). In what was a sever misjudgement, we ate breakfast before visiting McDuffs. We were hoping to stock up on some food for morning tea and lunch, but upon walking inside ....We hasd come upon heaven: possible the coolest bakery on earth: a brightly decorated room complete with retro couches, bean bags and a fireplace. But the decor was nothing compared to the magnificent food. A mind-boggling array of alternative pies, fantastic breads and the biggest lamingtons and cookies you have ever seen!! The lamingtons were bigger than housebricks, and I have photographic evidence that the cookies were bigger than my head!


In terms of recommending things to other people, I think McDuffs tops my list; a big claim considering the number of copies of Robert M Pirsig's 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' and Edward de Bono's 'Lateral Thinking' I have thrust into people's hands!