GOR!

Every Australian motorcyclist knows the term GOR - Great Ocean Road - one of the all-time must ride roads comprising of more than 350kms of Coastal road, Rainforest cuttings and spectacular views.

So it was on for the GOR this Saturday. Pumped.

We were not going to complete a full run - much less in fact - due to the ride being a single day trip and the  forecasted heat.........the forecast was right......

An early start was a must - get up, hit the road and get the first 1.5 hour slab to Torquay completed.


The sky was already looking scorched. It was 6:50am and I was about to throw a leg over the Ape and hit the black top: tail bag packed, full tank, empty bladder. Game on.





I swung past my buddies place for a pickup at ~7:15am - quick G'day - onto the next meeting point.....

The third rider joined us in Belmont on the outskirts of Geelong. 8:30am meet - done. We rolled into Torquay by 9am for a quick regroup and caffeine then onto the GOR!

Heading out of Torquay traffic was starting to build - the GOR is a key tourist location and of course I had forgotten this was a long weekend with a public Holiday on Monday, needless to say - traffic was shite!

Coming into Lorne is was evident that we were going to have to use some "special motorcycling technique" to find holes in the mindless procession of cages. The GOR is posted from 80kp/h to 100kp/h with the majority of the switchback corners somewhere between 30-40kp/h advisory speeds. Most of the vehicles we encountered were travelling in full-blown sightseeing mode - a mode with a max speed of 60kp/h and the unconventional practice of braking hard mid corner and refusing to use the "Slow vehicle" turnouts F#^King A$$hole B4stards....

Enough was enough. Time to get creative with some passing maneuvers.

Eventually we punched through and managed to string together a beautiful run into Apollo Bay

The black stuff was warm, sticky and twisty, encouraging the bike not to be upright for very long, flicking the nose in another direction and getting the butt-cheek off the seat......

Having made our way into Apollo bay and after seeing the horrendous traffic which was back building before continuing further down the GOR, the decision was made; back track - head inland into the Otways....

Not that the Otways are a bad thing. Oh no - quite the contrary!

We stitched our way through Skenes creek and the Otway National Park. A lovely road in the shade of the rainforest with very little traffic and a more moderate temperature, from here we continued out through Deans Marsh in the hunt for some rural fast sweepers.

Without the tree canopy the temperature starting rising. It was getting HOT - I mean really hot. Out here with zero breeze and no shade we started to feel the couple of hundred kilometres already travelled.

We had another break. Fill up with water, empty the bladder, you know, do your bit for the environment - water a tree eh?

<-- look in the backgroud of this pic....what an environmentalist!




From here we changed pace. We all engaged "Cracking on Mode" - this is a mode well-known to any seasoned rider - it means "over it for now.......crack on!" Through the fast rural sweepers and back roads of inland Western Victoria I think is fair enough to keep the average tempo to a moderate $1.50.......

As we stumbled across Ballan - heading for different location - we decided another short hiatus from the saddle was in order, quick bakery refuel for the humans; the bikes would have to wait for the final refuel point in Bacchus Marsh no more than 25kms away.

Making the final stop we refuel, shake hands - "safe home fellas.....see ya next time!"

The last slab homeward bound is when the aches of the day start to come on. You've been on a bike for 8 hours, ridden near as makes no difference ~500kms in 37 C heat - BUT!

You have the biggest shite eating grin on your face for the effort....


Riding really does enrich your life - it takes you to places which are not accessible in a cage. Not because you can't drive the route we took, you can. But I'll damn well guarantee you if you'd spent 8 hours driving it you'd be wanting to forget it, not savour it.

You can't get to where we were with 4 wheels - simple as that!

I did make it home, but by then I was slightly broken


Thank you gentleman for the ride, as always - a pleasure.....
Where next?


\BitSar