Sightseeing

It rained overnight and everything is soaked through. The sun makes a brief appearance in the morning so we seize the opportunity to pack up the sodden tents and get the hell out of Apollo Bay. The Great Ocean Road is calling!

The rain is still coming down but the showers are isolated. Some sections of the road are bone dry yet other sections are slick with fresh rain. Every now and then it drizzles a fine mist that permeates even the wet weather gear. It's enough to make you miserable and cold but we decide to press on anyway.

The first goal for today is Cape Otway Lighthouse which is in the Cape Otway National Park. The ride through the park is... interesting. The roads are narrow and wet and covered in light green moss. Even Dave seems fazed by the riding conditions for once.

The lighthouse exhibit turns out to be worth the hassle. It was constructed in the mid-1800s, originally burning whale oil, later converted to kerosene, then converted to electric in the 1930s. Now it is has been replaced by an automatic solar-powered "lighthouse" in a separate building. We climb the old tower to take a closer look at the mechanism. The lenses weigh several tonnes but float on a bed of mercury so we're able to set the mechanism spinning with the lightest touch. The power source that turned the lenses used to be clockwork, similar to that found in a grandfather clock. It's very impressive.

The next stop is the Cape Otway Fly. It's a suspended steel walkway in the middle of a forest. At the highest point you are more than 100 feet above the ground. It's impressive from an engineering perspective but I can't help feel that it misses the point. It seems to put the forest in a cage, like those depressing zoo walks that take you past the neatly caged and labeled animals.

It's back to the last hilly section of the Great Ocean Road. This is supposedly the best bit and it might have been if it wasn't being resurfaced at the time. The steep and twisty downhill section is covered in loose gravel. Despite going well under the recommended speed the front wheel keeps sliding out at every corner. Argh.

The rest of the Great Ocean Road is highway quality so we just let the bikes loose. Dave wants to do the usual tourist thing and take photos at the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge. Unfortunately the sites are covered in people. There are buckets of cars and several coaches of foreign tourists. It probably doesn't help it's a Saturday and also a long weekend. I'm getting a bit fed up with crowds. I got enough of that in Mellbourne.

With all the sightseeing today we've covered barely any distance. Despite our best efforts to make up for lost ground we both run out of enthusiasm at Warrnambool.