Blog #7

 Blog 7

Before I start Blog seven, there are a few random events and sights that I failed to include in previous blogs and here are some, in no particular order. 

First thing is roadkill. We compare everything with Tasmania where the roadkill has to be seen to be believed. Little furry animals litter the roads there and on the only occasion I actually counted, we cycled past 56 furry corpses in 80km between Devonport ferry and Cradle mountain.

Not so on the mainland where roadkill tends to be significantly larger but very much less frequent. The two interesting animals that we have seen were a tiger snake, not in itself rare but this one was very boldly, brightly and colourfully striped. Most of the ones I’ve seen in the past, you could barely distinguish their stripes. Secondly, a rarely seen tortoise. This one, flattened on the road, got me thinking about what the difference is between tortoise and turtle. Is a tortoise, a turtle that can’t swim or is a turtle a tortoise that can swim. Anyone knows the answer, let me know.

A couple of animal tales that we’ve heard on this trip include one told by a Rotarian just returned from Tasmania, where he had been through the airport in Launceston and his bag didn’t appear on the carousel. He spied it in one corner of the airport luggage area and went to retrieve it but was stopped by security who explained that the sniffer dog had crapped on his bag. They offered to wash it for him. 

The other story concerns sulphur crested cockatoos, which are very common. In fact only yesterday, in Lorne, we saw a family having a picnic and there were a flock of them, just like seagulls, trying to pinch their food. The difference is that cockatoos have extremely powerful beaks and this story really concerns a  neighbour of one of our Rotary hosts. He had a pet sulphur crest and was just tickling its chest through the cage when something spooked the bird and it almost amputated the man’s index finger (a job later completed by a surgeon).

One of the 55 wrecks commemorated along this stretch of coast.

It was originally conceived as a way of employing returning servicemen from the First World War so it is said to be the world’s longest war memorial. First conceived in 1918 and eventually completed in 1932, was a huge engineering feat by and is now a major tourist road. Joyce and I first came across it over 20 years ago when we cycled with Bicycle Victoria and we stopped in the area of the Twelve Apostles, those spectacular sea stacks of the coast, and were entertained by lecture from a local historian. He told us about the wreck of the Loch Ard sailing ship was lost in 1878 with loss of all but two passengers and crew. much of the  cargo was washed ashore, including a crate containing a very large ceramic Minton Peacock destined for the Melbourne exhibition of 1880. It survived intact and is now in the Flagstaff Museum in Warrnambool. What struck a chord with Joyce and I was the fact that on our wedding night in 1977 we stayed in the Peacock Hotel in Rowsley, Derbyshire. This was a hotel dating back to the mid 1600s, and it was where Izaak Walton had written his seminal book ‘The Compleat Angler’ in 1653 and where, in reception, stood the identical twin of the shipwrecked Minton peacock.

Nice warm fire in the Apollo Bay pub

OK, having got all that off my chest, I can resume the Blog, which resumed in Apollo Bay on Sunday, April 21. We breakfasted in the B&B and then headed out along the Great Ocean Road. This trip filled me with trepidation because we had heard a lot of bad things about cyclists on the GOR, which is very busy during the tourist season. The road is narrow, tortuous, sometimes steep and usually has no shoulder.  Caravans are the main danger, with a surfeit of inattentive and incompetent drivers. Luckily, traffic was light and there was no problem. We made very good progress in sunshine with the wind behind us but a slightly unsettling feature was the occasional whiff of the swinging 60s from passing motorbikes and cars. The sweet smell of cannabis.

The road is justifiably famous for its extraordinary views down the coast, and we passed a few very small settlements such as Skeins Creek and then Wye River which gained notoriety a few years back when a severe bushfire burnt out a few houses. It was easy to see why it would be a problem because the houses there were built high up an impossibly steep, heavily wooded slope. We couldn’t see any obvious access roads to these properties so it must’ve been a nightmare for the firefighters.

Probably/possibly Aireys Inlet along GOR. Phil’s photography failing to do it justice. So, nothing new there!

 It was only less than 50 km to our next destination, Lorne, where we had booked into a ‘surf apartment’, up a steep hill with no view of the sea. There appeared to be no one on site to manage the apartments and everything was controlled electronically, so that the access code we had been sent by email didn’t become current until exactly 2 pm.  The apartment was about a mile from the centre of the town. 

Beautiful walk into Lorne

A lovely walk, but quite steep, and we decided that we would walk in, have a look around and then have a very early meal in the restaurant to save us from returning to the room. We wandered along the foreshore, stopped for a drink in a beachside bar and watched people still swimming in the sea without wet suits as it went dusk. It was cold and there was a significant breeze - the Wim Hof Academy? 

 We went to a restaurant and ate a lovely Greek meal before returning to our room and having our usual early night.

On Monday, we had a 90 km ride to Geelong and we had the name and phone number of a Rotarian who lived in Anglesea and had offered us morning coffee as we passed through, so we dropped in on Michael at his house overlooking sea to enjoy hospitality and a chat before the final push to Geelong. The Google Maps route we followed was designed for Olympic athletes rather than elderly plonkers. The hills were brutally steep and twice we were reduced to pushing the bike up hills which featured annually on the route of the Cadel Evans Classic. We would have been better placed to cycle up them if we had shed 20 kg of luggage. 

Our host, Lesley, proved to be most hospitable and drove us to the meeting in the evening which was to be held in a marquee behind the Bowls club. This filled Joyce with dread because she assumed it would be freezing and she is not, we’re not carrying much clothing even lots and she rarely ventures out without a puffer jacket. However, this bar key was heated by a couple of them large gas fires and it was quite cosy so we had a good meeting and they pledged a generous amount of money to the cause.

Gary Newton

 

Always daunting to have in the audience someone whose knowledge of the subject far exceeds one’s own but he could not have been more supportive. Thank you, Gary!

Also at this meeting we were privileged to have Gary Newton, who had been quite severely affected by polio as a baby and walks only with the aid of calipers and elbow crutches. He is the chairman of Rotary Polio Plus committee and he kindly agreed to deliver a short address to the meeting.

We must be doing something right as we had donations of over $5000 from local Rotary Clubs on the night.

Returning home with Lesley in the evening, she brought out some maps and between us we planned a route through the city centre for the following morning, avoiding as much as possible the heavy morning traffic.

Phil & Joyce

Donate at: raise.rotary.org/joyce+phil/challenge