Even in Winter -the GOR is a great ride.

Even in winter the Great Ocean Road is a great ride

The joy of a midweek ride in winter the road is pretty much empty. It allows the rider set up a rhythm on the road. Smooth riding over the damp road and around the tight corners.

With dark clouds foreboding Apollo Bay and its little fishing harbour is a welcome destination.

But it was soon into the Apollo Bay Eco Hostel and its welcoming warmth.

In Victoria that faces the Southern Ocean the weather doesn’t settle for long.

The next day was clear and calm. Perfect riding weather along a near perfect riding road.

There is a lookout at the back of Lorne there a fantastic view over the ocean.

On this day the sun was in the perfect spot to light rainbows in the spray of the breaking surf.

For me the best riding on the GOR finishes ar Airies Inlet. From the the villages but up against each other with only glimpses of the great Ocean over the houses and dunes.

The Airies Inlet Light House the last stop before heading home to Melbourne.

Hard to believe it was winter.

In Melbourne, I’m lucky enough to live by a little harbour and can take a walk on a summers day and admire the wooden boats.

Summer is finally in Victoria, Australia

On a clear warm spring day with a touch of summer in the air there is no better place to head the down the Great Ocean Road for a ride with a friend.

One of my favourite stops on the Great Ocean Road is Wye River, a beautiful beachside village.

The Wye General Store Cafe is a great spot for lunch and a cold beer on a hot day.

I should have gone for a swim in the Southern Ocean while there but the riding was just too good.

Mid week, little traffic, no wind and warm on this beautiful road. Perfect biking conditions.

So back home it was on the bicycle and down to Williamstown Beach, my local, for a dip.

The weather is still going to be volatile in Australia’s south east but summer is definitely in the air.

And on a warm evening Melbourne shows off her colours when you look across the bay from Williamstown.

An interlude in Victoria’s temperate rainforest.

Friends and followers its a while since I last posted. At that time I foreshadowed further tales of my forebears pioneering times in Western Australia

But the truth is that 8 months of travel on a motorbike much of it sleeping in a tent left me tired and a case of still itchy feet complicated my enthusiasm to write

The only remedy was getting back out into nature.

To the east of Melbourne the Grand Ridge Road is a winding 132 km ride across the the Strzelecki Ranges and a mix of sealed and unsealed road.

The road runs through rich farming land, old growth temperate rain forest and sadly, old forests that have been destroyed by clear felling.

At the eastern end, the road winds down into Yarram through the Tarra Bulga National Park

Here are some views of this beautiful forest.

Coming down of the mountains the forest is dryer and the wild flowers abound.

To the West of Melbourne is the Great Ocean Road and the Otway Ranges – a favourite haunt I have written of often.

But even on a day trip to a well known area there are new places to find and the waterfalls were at their best after the spring rains

The swimming hole at She oak falls was too inviting to resist

Unfortunately I got to Stevenson Falls late in the day and as it was too late for a dip on a day trip

But I had been enjoyed my time having a beer and a swim at Wye River.

A stop off at the beautiful harbour at the coastal village of Apollo Bay

The perfect end to any day trip is of course- A beautiful sunset.

Now I’ve had a little interlude, a couple of day trips and the batteries are starting to feel recharged I will get back to my families pioneering tale. After you are warned at the start of my blog it is a discontinuous narrative!!!

Desert gives way to Rainforest in the Bunya Mountains

The Bunya Mountains are west of Brisbane in Australia’s Great Dividing Range and house the world’s largest Bunya Pine forest.

The Bunya Pine is one of the few plants surviving from the Jurassic period -200 million years ago these magnificent trees developed and the Bunya Mountains is the place on the planet where they are still prolific.

What a place to camp for my last nights before reaching my destination.

I love the Bunya’s droopy branches and leaves.

To me they resemble giant rastas with their shaggy dreadlocks towering above the forest.

Walking in this beautiful cool rainforest wa such a contrast to the hot dry heat of the central Australia.

Walking amongst the trees

Walking through the trees.

Gardens on the ground

And in the trees in the shape of ferns and moss on the trees.

The gentle wallabies are in the camp grounds and on the trails.

At the northern end of the range at Mt Kiangarow, the forest is drier and grass trees prolific.

The view from Mt Kiangarow magnificent

By day

And at sunset.

That is just over 10,000km completed since I left Melbourne on 1 March 2021

What a ride:

Along the Great Ocean Road

Through the Coorong

Into the Flinders Ranges

Up the Oodnadatta Track

Immersed in the Red Centre

Across outback the Northern Territory and Queensland

Climb into the Bunya Mountains.

And now it’s the wedding on Saturday and I made it on time.

The Great Ocean Road and this time the 12 Apostles

The 12 Apostles are a group of sandstone islets of the coast of Victoria near Port Campbell

They are one of the highlight scenes along the Great Ocean Road, in Victoria, Australia

In my blog back in May I wrote of my last trip down this road.  It was the first days of  the Covid 19 lockdown easing of restrictions in Australia

I had just been released from Quarantine and keen to spreat my wings

The Great Ocean Road called but the lookouts to the 12 Apostles were closed

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Its deeper into winter now and the Great Ocean Road and the sea is battered by the winter storms

As restrictions have relaxed one has to pick a way through the traffic not just get lost in the road as it snakes along the cliff face

But the lookout is open and the majesty of this piece of coastline can be admired again

Just inland from here

There is the remnants of the logging history of the Otway Ranges

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An old wooden trestle bridge at Timboon

Timboon once a a logging village now a dairy area

Famous for Timboon Cheese and Ice Cream