I've just returned from Perth and Fremantle, both very pleasant places and neither of which I had visited before. Closer to home, I've never visited Mt Gambier in South Australia either. So that was the plan for this trip, stopping at some points on the coast West of the famous Great Ocean Road.A very late start and city traffic meant that I had to minimize delay if I were to reach my intended coastal target of Port Fairy (lighthouse in top picture) before nightfall. I headed to Geelong and took the Hamilton Highway, stopping at the very tiny town of Lismore for some nice pub grub at the Lismore Hotel. Lismore also has free tea for visitors, a fact which is well sign-posted along the highway. It wasn't the best ride: windy and wet, and colder than I expected, and the police were out in force. The dark clouds and the mist took away all the scenery. When I stopped I noticed that the rain cover on one of my panniers had almost completely fallen off, and was only being held on by the passenger footrest. I got lucky, as it didn't interfere with the back wheel. I'll now make sure that checking the drawstrings on the rain covers is part of my pre-ride checks. Lesson learned.
After the pub grub things cleared up a bit and the rain fortunately stayed away. I headed to Warrnambool, taking the Hopkins Highway at Mortlake, and then to Port Fairy on the Princes Highway another 25 or so kilometers along the coast, where I eventually found the YHA Hostel (bottom picture). My luck was in, getting a dorm room all to myself.Riding Distance: 320 kms
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