An early rise — most unusual for me — and out and onto the bike for some much-needed hill climbing. Shivering in the cool air I was regretting leaving my warm jersey back at home, definitely not a morning for the short sleeves! An eye watering descent down Richardson boulevard to the main coast road, over the river and commence climbing up the Dean’s Marsh road.

It always seems to take me about half an hour to climb the hill to Benwerrin, sometimes a little more. I’d forgotton that the Edge GPS doesn’t like the forests and so it kept losing signal and cutting out — 24 minutes to the top is much faster than I’ve ever done and way above my current fitness! I hadn’t even glanced at the ordinary clock either, not wanting to know just how early it really was.

From Benwerrin its a left turn onto the dirt road, then follow it along through the forest about ten kilometres rising and falling and watching out for wallabies that come crashing out of the bush. Another left turn and south for a few kilometres, then rejoin the bitumen at Erskine falls for a screaming ten kilometre descent down through the forest back into Lorne. A great ride, and at this time of the day hardly any traffic at all — only three idiots on the road, all 4WDs, all came flying around blind bends head-on at me on the wrong side of the road….

Lorne seemed nearly deserted when I got back to the main street, it was bizarre to see it so empty of cars, a dozen motorbikes outside the Arab, riders with coffees sitting around at the tables. I kept going around to Kafe Kaos for a table and a coffee of my own, enjoyed it so much that I had another, sitting in the morning sun and feeling gently tired in the legs. While I was sitting there between coffees Jo rode past, the early morning cycling bug must have bitten her as well, she was out for a gentle ride to Wye river to shake off her cold and give her mountain bike possibly its first ride since the winter.

Coffees over, I decided to loop out to the pier before facing the hill back up to the house, once at the pier I just kept on going along the Great Ocean Road … at first I was just going to go around to the river, then I decided to keep going until I met Jo on her way back. The wind had picked up and it was surprisingly strong and straight in my face on all the little climbs. A few motorbikes went howling past, hired campervans lumbering along as well. At one of the many lookouts I finally took a photo of the roadsign that has been making me laugh for the last few months; “Drive on Left in Australia” — a few too many overseas tourists stop to admire the view then get confused when they get back in their cars! I caught up with Jo just as she’d decided that the wind made up for the distance as she turned around a few km short of Wye river.

The ride back to town was much quicker than the ride out! That wind blows straight in off the Southern Ocean, its hardly surprising there are so many shipwrecks along here!