GSR300

 

Southern Cross Station, bike split ready for goods van.

Some of the wonderful goods on offer at the ....

Koroit Op shop. Sadly I couldn't buy anything as I was scared of carrying any extra weight over the Otway hills.

What it says on the tin. This building looked abandoned and neglected, but the rest of the town was pretty go ahead with new buildings under construction.

Display after my own heart outside Koroit.

Martin on the Port Fairy to Port Campbell leg...

which I completed quite well: Start time was 5am.

Bike parking outside Yatzies Laver's Hill

Not many better ways to wait it out than with a glass of wine next to a fire. Sarah, Leigh, Charlie, James, Otway Junction restaurant and pub

Using the camera's self timer at Yahtzies,

where we all gathered waiting to be picked up after the ride was called off due to bad weather. Thanks for the fire and warm food, a lifesaver Yatzies!

Loading bikes onto cars outside Yatzies

My trike broken up to load in a car.

Anglesea Wednesday morning

Wednesday midday: part of the long way home: waiting to board a train (which wasn't the right train anyway) at ....

Wyndham Vale station

After fixing my bike from the trial run GSR 300 on the weekend, I headed back to Port Fairy on Monday, once again by train.  I was a bit more relaxed about the trip this time, and visited the pretty town of Koroit and its nearby rail trail. As well I had dinner with Rosalie and Keith who live in Port Fairy. I was able to check in with the Audax riders and organisers in the afternoon. There was talk of some "weather coming through" so a 5am start time was agreed on.

I stayed at the youth hostel again, it was quite quiet this time and a good place to stay. Early in the morning we were off, and it was a windy ride to Port Campbell for lunch, and I managed to keep up with most of the riders. It was windy, and speeds were 20 - 30kph depending on the wind. Pumped up the tyres about halfway along, I think that helped things a bit. After Princetown the hills and rain started.

Initially the wind just blew us up some of the hills but later it lashed us with rain. I had shorts on but stayed warm enough under the fairing. The rain persisted and by 1:30, James had rung to say the ride was being called off. He had been on the ride route between Laver's Hill and Ferguson and found it particularly treacherous, and he and organizer Peter agreed that going on would just be inviting accidents and hypothermia.  

So I limped on into Laver's hill, and dried off and refueled in front of a fire at Yatzies cafe. Peter took a couple of others back to Anglesea with him by car, and they returned with their cars to get us out of the Otways. Meanwhile the pub and restaurant over the road had opened and we were able to warm up over there before loading up cars for the trip back to cabins awaiting us at Anglesea.

Stayed there nice and snug through a stormy night - thanks to Bruce and James for sharing their cabin. In the morning I rode from Anglesea to Waurn Ponds station for what should have been a routine trip back - but buses were replacing trains at the station due to some track faults - and the bus I got on went quite circuitously to Wyndham Vate station. There we had to get on and off a train before finally catching one back to Melbourne. I managed to leave my camera on a train, but I reported it to Southern Cross Lost Property and ended up being able to retrieve it in the afternoon. Woohoo!

It was a fun but challenging few days, and between repairing my bike after the test ride, and being rained on and finding out more about good cycling clothing in the actual ride I learnt a lot.

Thanks to Bruce, Peter, James and all the other Audax riders for their help and support.

Within a day or so of arriving in Melbourne, we were in coronavirus lockdown again, and I was glad to have gotten some exercise and travel under my belt before it started.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Camera with the label that helped return it to me. Thanks Vline!