June 11th - Naracoorte Caves

Naracoorte Caves are Southern Austalia's only world heritage listed site.
They are located about 15km outside the town, and guided tours are available
for all the main caves. By the last tour i didn't really care where
staligtites or staligmiites grew from.

Also figure out today, that SA has a different timezone to victoria - 30mins
difference FYI. I discovered this by being late for one of the tours, or was i
early.



Back in town, most of the other people in the backpackers are working as fruit pickers down here for the year. Its the queens birthday bank holiday weekend here, so most don't have to work tomorrow. There was some good craic with a couple of slabs of beer and a massive open fire in the back yard of the hostel, any thing that wasn't bolted to the ground was fair game for the fire.

June 10th - Mt Gambier to Naracoorte

Distance	Time	Overall Total
104 km	4h	763 km

Bit of a chilly night in Mt Gambier, but got a cool photo of the morning
fog over the town.



And the auld triangle, went dingle dangle.. The bike is ready for the escape.



Not much happening on the road today, just farm land country side with the odd vineyard now and again. The first 50lm to penolq took about 2hours, but picked up a neat tail wind after lunch and did the final 50km in 1.5 hours.

Crashed in the local back packers in naracoorte. Am planning to take tomorrow off. World cup kick-off for england. Prize for the best comment "What crime would I get sent to jail for?"

June 9th - Portland to Mt Gambier

Distance	Time	Overall Total
105 km	5h	659 km

Pulled out of Portland at around 10, heading for Mt Gambier. The route cuts through forestry land. So had some scary moments, when triple trailer logging trucks zooming past.


The dark forces of mount boom are on the march again, they have destroyed the edges of fangorn forest. Will O'Connell save middle earth..



Just after this photo, i'm touring along down hill at about 35kmph. When i notice these 2 emu bird things, running along the other side of the road. So of course, have to race them.. 40kmph no hassel to them, i still reckon i can go quicker. Well a truck appears coming against our little drag race. I'm cool, thinking the emu's will turn right into the forest.. oh no, with about 100m between the truck and me, the two emu's make a massive left turn, and skip right across the road. I would have been the pin, in a game of truck emu bowling. Still reckon i was winning the race.

Loads of dead kangeroo's on the road side, the first couple surpised me, but after a while the smell gave them away. Goodbye Victoria, Hello Southern Australia.



Arrive in Mt Gambier, to find half of austalria has moved to this town for the bank holiday weekend. The usual lines of "did u not have a booking"? Well no.. Anyway, many people will have predicted this but i am staying in the local jail, but not at her majesties leisure. The old town jail has been converted to a hostel after it closed in 1995. I still reckon some of the inmates are hanging around, given the cut of them (kinda like that alien 2 movie).



So I'm determined to escape, so my brilliant plan was to trick the govener into giving me a key.. smart, I'm not a thick as i look. As phil linnot wrote "Tonight, there's going to be a jail break.." rock!!

June 8th - Warrnambool to Portland

Distance	Time	Overall Total
125.74 km	5h 30min	554 km

Left Warnnambool, with clean laundry and a fixed the rear wheel (25 bucks).

Stopped in the "irish" town of Port Fairy. Fecking dub's, there everywhere.



Not much happening today, just cutting along through farm land. Hit the major town of portland. Its a big port and an aluminium plant, thats about as nice as i can be. well thats a bit harsh, nice chicken kiev and chips in the local hotel.

Did a side trip to cape nelson, to try and find some high point to the day. Schon.

June 6th - Lavers Hill to Warrnambool

Distance	Time	Overall Total
118 km	5h 30min	449 km

Stayed in the Lavern Hill Roadside Tavern. I do believe that this was the first and last, build your own hotel from flat pack wood beams and corrigated iron.



Got cracking at about 8am, and nearly froze to death on the decent from the lavern hills plateau.



After about 35 km, we hit the coast again near princetown, and the twelve apostles. Will let the images do the talking, and replace the 1000 words that i couldn't be bother writing. Just to say in summary, cool.





Having had no breakfast, i stopped in Port Campbell (50km) for an early lunch. The final 70km into warrnambool, initally runs along the coast, past the Bay of Martyrs and then turns inland. I got into a good rythem and made some good progress, making the this leg in about 3 hours.

June 5th - Lorne to Lavers Hill

Distance	Time	Overall Total
96 km	5h	331 km

I stayed at the Lorne YHA Hostel, which has to have had the best setting of any
place so far. Had the company of some cockatoos as i was having my breakfast this morning.



Just remember that you need specialist training to photograph cockatoos, on the off chance that they attack.



Got going at 9 heading for apollo bay, the road on this section is cut into
the cliff face in places, and offers some amazing views of coast.



Stopped in apollo bay [45km] at 11, for an early lunch and rested for an hour.
The next section to Lavers Hill was always going to be tough. The road rises
through the Otway National Park, and then drops and levels out in the Aire
river valley. The final climb to Lavers Hill rises 500m over 10km, which seems
simple on paper, but for every climb of 20 meters, theres a drop of 10 meters,
so for a simple 500 meter climb, the actual accent needed on the bike is about
1000 meters!!



The back wheel on the bike is now feeling the pressure of the extra bag weight,
what started as a small buckle had grown, and now there are two broken spokes.
On the final climb, i had to loosen the rear brakes to allow the wheel to travel
more easily. Will have to get this fixed in Warrnambool, when i take a rest day
on Wednesday.

Having finally made it up the climb to Lvers Hill, i then actually cycled right
through the village. The term blink and you'll miss it takes on a new form.

June 4th - Torquay to Lorne

Distance	Time	Overall Total
60 km	3h	235 km

Stayed in the Bells Beach Backpackers, torquay overnight. Great weather this morning, with a cool breeze, blue sky and sunshine.



Took a small detour outside torquay to Bells Beach. This turned out to a complete pain in the ass, as there where three massive steep hills to climb to get to the coast. If find a fairly non-descript surf beach. Had to come out over the same set of triple hills on the way back to the main road. Note to self - no more side tour from now on.



The road from torquay cuts inland with a constant rise towards angelsea. The great ocean road officially starts outside this town, and the road runs along the coast. There are some tough hills to climb as the road winds around various headlands.



Got into lorne about lunch time. The weather started to turn for the worse, i was feeling a bit wrecked, so decided to take a 1/2 days and booked into the Lorne YHA hostel. Just chilled around the town for the Rest of the afternoon.