I was awok­en at var­i­ous times dur­ing the night by the sound of cows moo­ing in the fields on the oppo­site bank of the Barham Riv­er. What nor­mal­ly might have been irri­tat­ing was actu­al­ly and per­verse­ly quite pleas­ant. I even­tu­al­ly rolled out of my sleep­ing bag just before 08:00, and imme­di­ate­ly packed up my gear, tent and bike and got moving.

I left Lavers Hill this morn­ing in heavy fog and light rain, but with good spir­its as I rolled eas­i­ly down the hill, savour­ing the ear­ly morn­ing smells of wet for­est, the ghost­ly gums fad­ing into and out of the fog, and gen­er­al­ly enjoy­ing being on my bike in the out­doors. At the bot­tom of the hill I stopped to take a pho­to of a kook­abur­ra on the side of the road, and as I checked my GPS to see what kind of inclines I had await­ing me today, I noticed some­thing ter­ri­ble: I was on the wrong road!

I spent yes­ter­day soak­ing and unwind­ing in the Deep Blue hot springs at War­rnam­bool with my part­ner Danielle, and it was a beau­ti­ful day of rest and relax­ation before tack­ling the Great Ocean Road.

Today start­ed off just as nice and calm, as we had a break­fast in the hotel’s restau­rant before check­ing out at 10:00, and rid­ing my bike up to Logan’s Beach to meet Danielle at the whale watch­ing look­out (she drove after drop­ping by the super­mar­ket to grab me a replace­ment lace for my shoes). Here we saw a South­ern Right Whale moth­er and new­born calf frol­ick­ing in the shal­low surf.