Apr 21: Spending My Last Kilometers of The GOR Following the Brown Signs

Today was my last day on the Great Ocean Road. There was still a lot to see. First I want to back up a bit to last night. The caravan park ended up being pretty full by the evening. I went to bed later than usual. I was asleep when the sounds of people laughing started invading my dreams. The noise ended up waking me up. I don’t know who it was, but it seemed like a large group of people walking back and forth laughing and talking really loudly. I looked at my clock and saw it was 1:45. Sheesh! Finally, Jen’s husband next door to my site yelled for them to “Shut up or there’ll be trouble!” The group kept talking, but moved on. Then, a short bit later they were back being almost as loud as before. Someone else yelled for them to go to bed. Well, by then I was pretty fully awake. I decided since it would be awhile before I would go back to sleep, and I hadn’t been able to upload my posts (too many people using the WiFi), I would go ahead and try again. The WiFi works so much better in the middle of the night! Anyway, things quieted down, my blog was up to date, and I went back to sleep. I still got up about 7:00, even though I felt I could have slept a little longer. My neighbors and I talked about the noise. Jen’s husband wanted to go make a bunch of noise in front of who he thought had been making the noise. Certainly, no one was trying to be quiet in the morning!

While I was eating my breakfast, I talked to a family from Border Town, South Australia. I will be staying in that town. They told me where they live. I may stop and say hi. They are a family with 6 kids, but the youngest is around 14. Kylie told me a bit about another place I will go through on the Nullarbor. It’s the aboriginal land of Yalata (like a Reservation). I know I need a permit to stay there, but Kylie said I wouldn’t want to stay there as it would be very noisy at night. We’ll see...

I left Port Campbell, and climbed one of the few hills I had today. It took me to a lookout where I could look down on where I had camped.

Port Campbell

The day was more overcast than it has been the last few days. The wind was somewhat in my favor. Before long I was at my first brown sign of the day...The Arch. I parked Tilmann and walked to the lookout.

Look! It’s an arch! 

It is more of the sandstone like the 12 Apostles. As I was walking back, I heard a guy comment, “You know what’s great? There’s not 4000 Asians.” His wife admonished him, but it was true. There were not many people, and no tour buses. 

The next brown sign was just a short distance down the road. This one was London Bridge. 

It used to be connected to the mainland. London Bridge has, indeed, fallen down.

Back on Tilmann, I headed just a couple more kilometers to the next brown sign. This one was for the Grotto. I was beginning to spend more time walking to the lookouts than riding! Still, they were worth it.

The Grotto.

I was seeing the same people at each lookout. They commented on how fast I was going. The wind was in my favor, and the road was either downhill or flat. They started saying, “See you at the next one!” The final brown sign was for the Bay of Islands. I think it was as impressive as the 12 Apostles. 
At one point in time, these were all connected to the mainland. At some point in the future, they will be gone.

From the Bay of Islands, the Great Ocean Road headed inland. It was the last views of the Coast. As I was riding along, I saw a cyclist coming toward me. She crossed the road to say hi. Her name was Kara, and she was riding for two weeks from Adelaide to Melbourne. She was staying in backpackers, so not carrying much weight. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand, but is from Ireland. We had a good chat, and I took this photo.

I went through a town called Nullawarre which has the distinction of being the last town on the Great Ocean Road (or the first). I stopped at a picnic place and fixed myself some lunch. The rest of the way to Warrnambool was uneventful except that it rained for a brief time as I was going through Allensford. I didn’t bother with my raingear because I knew I was going to be doing laundry anyway. Besides, it stopped, and by the time I got to Warrnambool, I was dry. 

Warrnambool is the 5th largest city in Victoria with 28,000 people. I tried to put in the address of the holiday park I planned to stay in, but it wouldn’t come up. But, I was able to see the road it was on on the map, so I was headed there. But, first I saw a Woolworths and stopped to restock some groceries. Back on the road, I saw a sign for the Warrnambool Holiday Park. I figured it was as good as the other. What I didn’t realize until after I registered and rolled to my campsite, is that it is right on the Princes Hwy. (at least my campsite is). Me thinks it will be another noisy night. Good thing I have earplugs!

That’s the highway (a dual carriage way) behind my tent.