20th December 2005 (Port Campbell, VIC) STOP NO: 344 & 345

TOTAL RAISED TODAY: $133.80

Final Collection Total: $107,159.85 - Days on the Road: 566 - Total KM travelled: 67,219 - Number of towns visited: 408 - NSW Total: $42,763.40 - QLD Total: $32,560.70 - NT Total: $1,345.15 - WA Total: $5,479.95 - SA Total: $4,612.80 - VIC Total: $10,283.00 - ACT Total: $10,089.90 - Garry was exited about today as we would be travelling on the Great Ocean Road and he had been waiting for ages for this. He went off to pay the bill while Doreen put some final items in Martha and then we put all our gear on to get on our way. Jenni and Jeff the motel owners had asked us to stop on the way out so they could take a photo and while we were stopped Jeff refunded the money we had paid for the nights stay to help us out. We were very surprised and of course grateful especially when they said they would come and visit us next year when they were on the Gold Coast for a meeting. They were a lovely couple and made our stay very pleasant. If you are ever in Warrnambool you should stay with them at the Mahogany Motel. Off we went headed for Port Campbell and it was a long morning! We knew there would be some great sight seeing spots along the way but didn`t really recognise how many until we started stopping constantly, about every kilometre or so. The scenery was lovely of course with Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, The Grotto London Bridge and The Arch between Warrnambool and Port Campbell. By the time we had walked between 300 metres and 750 metres to each lookout and up and down the many steps at the Grotto we were pretty pooped by the time we reached Port Campbell and just wanted to sit and have a drink. It had been a lovely morning but there were now a few clouds gathering and we were hoping that the day would stay fine as we still had the Twelve Apostles to see yet. We had our coffee and then Doreen did a quick run around the few shops in Port Campbell. Everyone was very generous and we collected $133.80 which was a wonderful effort from the tiny town. Many of the people had seen us in the paper this morning as the Warrnambool paper was delivered here as well so that helped. We had planned to be in Apollo Bay by 12.30pm but we were still at Port Campbell at 1pm so it was obvious we were going to be late but there were no plans so we just took our time. Our next stop was to view Loch Ard Gorge which involved quite a bit of walking to see the Blowhole, Thunder Cave and the gorge. We were both feeling it a little especially Garry who had been having back problems for the past few days anyway even without all this walking. Doreen could see he was struggling quite a bit by the way he was walking but he was determined to keep going. Not long after Loch Ard Gorge we reached the Twelve Apostles which was now sadly down to eight after the recent collapse of one of them. Not sure when the other three fell down but recall seeing this latest one on the news a few months back. We were very surprised to find a big tourist information building at this stop and an underpass to walk under the road to the viewing areas on the other side. There were heaps of people there and the car park was almost full. It was quite amazing to see so many people in one spot on what had previously been quite a quiet ride. Again it was quite a walk and Doreen didn`t think Garry was going to be able to continue but he did make it without complaint but she knew he was in pain. We also discovered that our camera had a spot on it which must be on the inside lense or something because it wouldn`t go away regardless of how hard we tried to clean the outside lense. We were both hoping it didn`t ruin all of our photos. We continued on to Apollo Bay, by now running very late and were surprised when we found ourselves riding on a winding road through dense forest, not on the ocean front. No one had ever explained to us that this was part of the Great Ocean Road. We must also comment that the road condition wasn`t too great in many parts with dips and potholes so bike riders particularly would have to take extra care travelling on this section. The views were beautiful though and it reminded us of Tamborine Mountain back home. We finally arrived in Apollo Bay at about 4.30pm completely exhausted and when Doreen got off the trike she experienced terrible pain in her right toes for some strange reason. It went away after a few minutes but hurt like hell at the time. Unfortunately as we were on the trike all the time we had to walk in our bike boots which weren`t the most comfortable shoes for the amount of walking we did today. We were both too tired to fundraise and it was really too late anyway so we found somewhere to stay and both crashed, just wanting to lie down for a while and then have a cuppa as we felt really dehydrated. We had a very quiet night, both just lying around watching television except for the bath we had to try to relieve our sore muscles. It was unusual to have a bath tub so we were both pleased to find one in the bathroom today. Apollo Bay was a very pretty town with some unusual accommodation, some of which was high in the mountains overlooking the ocean but we expect that it would be very expensive in peak season to stay here.

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