Day 36: Behold, The Great Ocean Road!

April 20th, 2011

Torquay to Grey River
Distance: 77km
Total distance: 1485km

Today I officially start riding the Great Ocean Road (GOR). It runs from Torquay to Warrnambool for 243km and its the most popular scenic drive in the country. Its also a very popular road for cyclists and I am very much looking forward for the next few days of riding along the GOR.

The noise from a family camper next door woke me up in the middle of the night. It was 3am and I know this because a female voice shouted “OMG, it’s 3AM already!”. About 10 minutes later it went quiet and I returned to my therapeutic sleep. I aimed to reach Lorne today, only about 50km away since my legs were feeling a bit sore from the long distance I did yesterday. So I took my time and started riding fairly late at 9am.

First thing I noticed was there were many roadies here riding the GOR. But I think most of them weren’t doing the entire stretch since they carry no bags. Nonetheless, I envied them for they seem to ride up the slope effortlessly. Previously when I encountered a touring cyclist while riding my hybrid bike, I always envied those cyclist, such irony! Anyway a couple of cyclists caught my attention today. It was a couple riding a tandem upright with a bob trailer. No panniers at all so I guess they are doing a short distance tour. But it is so rare to see a tandem on the road. They’re probably as hard to encounter as a recumbent.

Stopped by a few lookouts to enjoy the view. I’m glad to be riding in this direction since all the lookouts are on the left. At about 36km, I passed the popular GOR welcome arc. Even at this time of the year, and a weekday, you see tourist everywhere in each of the lookout and rest stops. Reached Lorne by lunchtime and decided to have a fulfilling pizza lunch at the seaside which was littered with surfers and people playing in the water. I can never understand why people would go into water at this cold weather. Anyway, since it was still early, I decided to call into Lorne info centre and asked for free campsites further down the GOR. They gave me 3 brochures, one of which have a complete list of free campsites at GOR. I planned on camping at Wye River which was only about 15km from Lorne.

Rode into Wye River but couldn’t locate the campsite. I only saw two caravan parks, so I asked a staff at a general store for the direction. It seems I missed it by 1km and I would also need to ride uphill for another 3km (dirt road mind you), well this sucks. I stood outside the store for a while wondering whether I should settle for that campsite or head down to Kennett River about 5km away but it’s a caravan park (no free camping there). A kind gentleman who earlier overheard our conversation suggested that I should go further down to Grey River where there’s a nice camping spot, which is about 9km away. He said camping is not allowed but I can camp there. What? Anyway, I’ll check out the campsite anyhow and off I went.

True enough, it’s a grassy picnic area marked with a no camping sign but it was getting dark and I don’t have much choices, since the next caravan park would be at least an hour’s ride away. Surveyed the area for a while and found a nice camping spot behind a row of trees that’s well hidden from the road. There’s a non-flushing toilet there too but there were zillions of mosquitoes. Another nice feature of the picnic area is the access to the rocky beach. I’m sitting in the tent now listening to the sound of strong waves hitting on the rocks. I reckon tonight will be a good sleep. Tomorrow I’ll be climbing the Lavers Hill. From what I gathered online, it’s not an easy climb but I will be rewarded with 20km worth of downhill after the climb. Looking forward to that!