Rides around Melbourne (Monday 24th & Tuesday 25th August '98) 

Map of rideClick for map of ride

Monday 24th August '98
Eventually we left my sister's place at about 11:00am.  We got petrol in Melbourne (Odometer reading 25886 kms) before we arrived in Geelong at about 12:50pm.  After having a pizza slice to keep us going we went to Torquay where we spent FAR TOO LONG looking in the surf wear factory outlets.  Finally we made it to the Great Ocean Road.

Junko at Torquay Junko on the Great Ocean Road
(Click image with border for a larger image)

We arrived at Angelsea at about 4:00pm and with the intention of being back in Melbourne by 7:00pm, we continued a little further than Lorne before turning back.  Some sections of the Great Ocean Road were nice to ride on, but I was disappointed that we didn't have time to go further.  At Lorne we took the "back road" up the range to Deans Marsh, which proved to be cold.  As I was following a car up the range I noticed that the centre of the road looked slippery (green mossy stuff), so I stayed in the clean sections of the road (in car tyre's paths).  The car was travelling a little slower than I had hoped, but the road was narrow with no safe places for 2 bikes to pass.  As I checked my mirrors I noticed that Junko was further behind that before.  We made it to Deans Marsh  where Junko told me that her bike was slipping everywhere and she though she was going to crash badly.  I explained that the road's centre was slippery so I kept off it.  She hadn't noticed it.  From Deans Marsh we went through Winchelsea and made it to Geelong as the night closed in, at about 6:40pm (Odometer reading 26130 kms).
Behind schedule we arrived at my friend's place in Fitzroy at about 8:00pm (instead of 7:00pm).

Mario, Andrew, Grant and Junko

We had dinner and a chat then arrived back at my sister's place a bit before midnight (before the BMW turned into a pumpkin).

Tuesday 25th August '98
Junko went to Ballarat with me on the back of the BMW, so both her and the GPz had a rest.
We set out from Donvale (Odometer reading 26236 kms) in overcast conditions but it didn't rain.  The wind between Melton and Bacchus Marsh was incredibly strong.  If it had become any worse I probably would have had to have stopped, but, as it was, I was able to ride on passed Baccus Marsh where it subsided.
Once at Ballarat we both tried to thaw out from the cold ride.  After visiting a friend we went to Sovereign Hill to have our photos taken.  We arrived at about 3:15pm and had a quick look around before it closed at 5:00pm.

Junko and I at Sovereign Hill
(Click for a larger image)

The ride back wasn't too bad.  I stopped at Baccus Marsh for petrol at about 6:10 where I saw a car on a trailer fill up with fuel?  "He must get good economy" I thought to myself.  Fortunately the wind had died off and we arrived back at Donvale at about 7:30 not as cold as I though we would have been.

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This page was updated on Wednesday 25th November 1998