Day 7, 8 and 9

Friday morning we rode into Merimbula to have breakfast and didn't get back to pack up our camp till around 11am. We refueled the bike in town then headed out the road to Bombaba. The ride through the mountains was great as the road surface was in good condition and very little traffic. As we climbed the mountain the air was filled with the sweet scent of the gum trees in full flower.  

Marissa looking over our pics.

The main channel from the ocean into Merimbula is really clear and makes you want to go for a swim, except its so damn cold.

The channel at Merimbula

Another of the channel

When we reached Bombala we stopped for a coffee at the local bakery and had one of the the nicest custard tarts I'd had in ages. I highly recommend you stop and sample the food if your passing through. 

Main Street Bombala

We looked over the maps and saw that the road from Bombala to Orbost had 2 sections of dirt that we were a bit unsure about riding with the trailer on the back. We got talking to one of  the locals who told us he'd travelled that road that morning and said the dirt sections were in good order, so we decided to take this route as I'd already ridden the Bombala - Cann River road several times on previous trips. We didn't know at that time that we were in for real a treat. 

The Bonang Highway as its called is nothing short of "fantastic" on a motorcycle. The bitumen sections are in great condition, and the dirt sections are good but require some extra caution. The road is approximately 100 kilometres of endless bends. Most of the twists and turns are fairly tight, so it's the kind of road worth taking your time on as the scenery is great. It took us almost 2 hours to cover the distance between Delegate and Orbost, and we had a coffee stop at a lovely little rest spot near the Orbost end of the road.   

  

Farm house and Canola field south of Delegate

Lovely views on dirt road between Delegate and Orbost

Rest stop near Orbost

We arrived in Lakes Entrance around 4pm and decided to stay at a Motel as the forecast was for overnight rain. And rain it did!

Day 8
We awoke Saturday morning to sound of heavy rain outside. It was a job to get our gear back onto the bike without everything getting wet. As the weather was crook, we decided to change plans today and head towards the Great Ocean Road rather than risk riding over Mt Hotham in wet conditions.

We put our wet weather gear on and left Lakes Entrance around 9am and headed straight up the highway through Bairnsdale, Sale. Then skirted around Melbourne to head to our friends house in Sunbury for the night.

After diner Dick and Ella took us for a drive up into the Macedan ranges, it's a truly beautiful area that we have now planned to spend a few days exploring with Dick and Ella on their ST1100 when we get back from the Great Ocean Road section of our trip.

Day 9

Today we were truly blessed by the weather gods. We left Sunbury this morning heading down through Bacchus Marsh and into Geelong before the final section of road that leads to the beginning of the Great Ocean Road. It was a little overcast in the morning, but as the morning wore on the clouds cleared and the coastal scenery along the GOR was spectacular. We stopped at Lorne for a beer before heading onto Apollo Bay where we have set up camp for the night.

Marissa has taken lots of photo's from the back of the bike that we will upload later. Just finished having showers and about to go up town to find us some diner.

All is going really well and we're having a ball.

Regards

Barry and Marissa