My hotel with my own private jetty. Just have to get a boat I suppose
Steelo just realised I did not take any photos of the light bar mount for you. Will get some tomorrow.
Today got off to a bit of a slow start. Had a bit of a sore head after getting on the piss last night with a few locals and a guy from Kazakhstan, sat on the balcony till the early hours consuming way too much liquor. Anyway ride up Mount Hotham was awesome. Got to the summit just as the clouds were rolling in so pushed on. Just before Omeo I found the road to Cassilis as suggested by micklle (thanks mate). Excellent ride through to Swift Creek then follow the Great Alpine Highway again for another 90 km of twisties. turned off towards Nowa Nowa then onto another minor road back towards Lakes Entrance. Finally onto Bairnsdale then Painesville where I am staying the night
Sign at start of climb
Road was mostly in very good condition without much traffic at all
Road goes around to right and follows the cutting.
The summit. Could imagine it would be fairly busy in the ski season.
mickle's road...
Had a stop along the way and had some lunch. Soup and crackers.
Lookout at Lakes entrance.
Lakes entrance is way over on the right there.
Paynesville.
View from my hotel room tonight.
Thanks guys. Tend to be a bit of a happy snapper when it comes to photos but every now and then a good one comes out. Today was a long one, not much distance, about 300 or so kms, but it took me nearly ten hours. So much to see and always seemed to be stopping. Anyway a couple of photos of today which basically was Paynesville, Sale, Loch Sport, Seaspray, Giffard, Yarrum then a whole lot of back roads through towns I cannot remember their names to the ferry at Sorrento. In Barwon Heads tonight.
Marlay Point Lake Wellington
Do not think I have ever seen Pelicans sit in a tree before. The nesting box is a bit small...
Swing Bridge. Oldest in Australia
90 Mile Beach
Waiting for the ferry Sorrento to Queenscliff across the mouth of Port Phillip Bay.
On the ferry. Not too sure what they would do to tie the bike down if it was a rough day. Thankfully today was smooth as...
Hog63 did pass a few guys coming the other way along the A440 about mid afternoon. This wasn't you by any chance was it? Talking of the A440 what a rough POS that is. After an hour on this I felt like I was the first prize getting passed around at the Gay mardi gras. My arse was pounding from the continuous small but sharp bumps. May have to look into some new suspension soon.
Steelo some photos of the light bar. As I said I am not much of a photographer. When I get home I am taking it off to get powdercoated so will take some better ones then if you need. Basically just a couple of flat plates mounted under the bolts that hold the indicator/driving lamps assemblies on.
A frontal of the windscreen. As I said not much of a photographer I cant even tell when my finger is over the lense.
Had a total shit of a day today. Weather forecast was for high winds along the west coast of Vic. Thought about maybe heading inland for the trip home but the weather in the morning was absolutely perfect. This was not to last...
Got as far as the Chocolate factory just past Torquay, where I had a shopping list from her at home and definite instructions not to come home if I did not get it fulfilled, before the heavens opened up and every penguin in Antarctica farted simultaneously. It was raining horizontally the wind was so bad. This is where I made my first mistake for the day. The Bells Beach Surfing Classic was on today so I thought what the hell with this much wind there is bound to be some good waves. Turned off the highway onto the road to Bells only to get stuck in a 5km long queue to get into the event. F this I thought, did a U turn and headed back to the main road.
Consoled myself with the fact that sitting on the beach in my full riding gear and helmet was probably the only was I was going to stay dry but could imagine the looks all the other cool kids would have given me.
From here on it only went downhill, got blown all over the road and all the way across the road a couple of times. Came very close to sideswiping an oncoming car driven by an Asian gentlemen when a gust of wind picked the me and the bike up and pushed me across into his lane. The look on his face as he saw me coming was feckin hilarious, mind you the look on my face was probably the same! Slow bumper to bumper traffic, road works where I had to wait for nearly an hour while a road crew trite to dislodge and overhanging boulder from the cliff above the road, Wide load doing 20km/h with nowhere to overtake and a driver who wasn't interested in using the pull-outs when he got to them. In fact all in all I think the worst day on the road I have had in a long time.
Got to the turnoff to Simpson and Cobden and thought F it this is enough for me so headed north and eventually west towards Hamilton where I got in at about 7pm. I really must learn how to use the GPS a bit better as I ended up on a few dirt roads and a lot of minor roads when I could not remember the name of the next town and had to stop to read the map all the time.
OK now my computer is playing up. Just the way to finish a shifty day. I guess you have to have one this from time to time to make you appreciate to good days.
In the car park of the chocolate factory I saw this car open with no one around. Considering there are sign everywhere to keep your car locked I thought the were being very trusting.
Then I realised they had a guard dog in there.
Bit of a cliché I know, but you just have to do it.
The sun came out from time to time and this was just great timing to get a photo of the Grand Pacific Hotel. I just love these old places.
While waiting for the roadwork I look out to sea to see this. Now if I could just swim out there I could get two pots of gold.
I quite like the rainforest part of the GOR. Just as scenic as the ocean part.
From here it was all shut rain and wind non stop for the rest of the day. So no photos of some very interesting inland scenery.
Great pics of the trip WW. Thanks for photos of the screen (I see it's 3 pieces!) and the light bar.
Steelo, yes three pieces, not real happy with the look of the wind deflector on the bottom, I must get around to making a new one sometime. Spent a lot of time working out what size gap between the inner and outer screen worked best so I could have the lowest possible screen but still not get any buffeting. Deflector was a bit of an afterthought to be honest. Had tried putting a lip on the top of the screen but this did not really help.
