Friday, March 22, 2013

Apollo Bay to Lorne

Friday 22nd March 2013

I actually had a rest day  yesterday, the first since leaving Adelaide  nearly 2 weeks ago. The reason being that the weather yesterday was pretty dodgy. Very high winds, and frequent showers throughout the day. I hate cycling in the rain, and the Great Ocean Rd is narrow and winding and would not be very safe in the wet. Plus, Apollo Bay was an agreeable enough  place to spend a day relaxing.

There was very heavy rainfall throughout Thursday night, but by the morning it had stopped and although the sky remained overcast, there was just enough blue showing to encourage me to set off for Lorne, today's destination. Fortunately it remained dry for the whole journey.

The Apollo Bay - Lorne section of the Great Ocean Road is the most spectacular section of the entire journey, where the route is carved into the cliffs as they plunge into the sea.




At various points along the road, sculpture plaques tell the history of the road and how it came to be built by returned WW1 soldiers:


A short walking track after about 30kms led to the Shoak Falls, at this time of the year there isn't much water flowing over them but they are still quite attractive:

I arrived in Lorne, a busy town and a very popular holiday destination, around 1400:




 After lunch, I then went for a scenic walk along a well marked route up to Teddy's Lookout:


The walk returned to Lorne via an old tramway route through dense forest; there was once a tramline there to carry timber to the pierhead:


The walk ended back in Lorne, arriving on the beach, where there were lots of surfers in action:


Distance today just 46kms, total so far 1267kms.

Here's a link to the updated map

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