Amy's Gran Fondo 2013 - Part 1

This is how much we enjoyed 2012!

In 2012 Mr Carl and myself went over to Lorne to undertake our first Gran Fondo ride. We had such an amazing time that we decided doing it again was a definite must. We actually had all the logistics sorted 6 months in advance, which should give you an indication just how much we were looking forward to it.

The weeks leading up to the Fondo were a roller coaster of ups and downs, the spring grumps hitting me hard as well as some work related frustration making the Fondo vacation come as a welcome relief. Mr Carl and I had wisely given ourselves an extra day to get organised, which led to us getting away early. We had been anxiously watching weather reports, which had been fairly ordinary and the weather as we left Adelaide was less than promising.

Wild weather leaving Adelaide

Our weather watching wasn't all related to our Fondo ride, friends of ours had decided to undertake the herculean task of riding to the Fondo from Adelaide. The Smudge Monkees had started out on the Monday before the Fondo and had managed to avoid most of the wild weather as they rode towards Lorne. Their daily updates were full of humour and pub reviews and Mr Carl and I hoped to bump into them on our drive over.

An eerie drive through the tunnel

Having a bit more time on our hands, we decided on a slightly meandering route, especially as we were well fortified by a breakfast of chicken nuggets at the Keith roadhouse. Had I known how awesome these were going to be I would have ordered my own and not shared with Mr Carl! Tender strips of chicken tenderloin, freshly coated in some sort of flour and spice mix then fried. I know, it's sounds like an add for KFC, but they were really good!

 
Breakfast out the way, we wandered further south, eventually ending up in Penola before heading across to Victoria. The weather continued to look pretty lousy and we were glad that we were safely in Suby and not the excel with the dodgy window wipers. Some kind friends (I'm looking at you nutella bob) suggested that we ought to have brought our fishing rods. I suspect we wouldn't have needed to make it to the ocean to go fishing, I'm pretty sure I saw a pair of swans nesting in what appeared to originally have been a paddock. Now the swans had a safe a secure nesting spot, protected from the foxes and cats by a fairly large body of water. I was beginning to worry that we'd be swimming along the great ocean road, not riding it!

Did someone airbrush the sky?

After some creative navigating on my part we ended at the coast, and given how well we were travelling, decided to meander along the Great Ocean Road. This provided a bit of an opportunity to play tourist and I happily gawked at the scenery as we drove.

 

Strangely enough, with all the wild weather we had driven through, the sea appeared calm, fading into the sky at the horizon. I don't think I've ever seen light quite like that, with the sea fading to almost purple and the sky almost the same colour, photos just didn't do it justice. Didn't stop us trying though.

The Great Ocean Road View

Throughout our trip we had been wondering what the Monkees were up to and whether we would catch them. All we really had to go on was that we knew they were going up Lavers Hill. I managed to spot Lavers Hill on the map and as it seemed to be in the general direction we were going, we decided to investigate.

Laver's Hill is a beast of a hill and as we drove up it I wondered how the Monkees had made it up on their bikes. It seems to go on forever, in fact I actually thought we were on Lavers Hill long before we were simply because I couldn't believe that there would be more hills. Finally we saw a road sign indicating that we were now, actually on Lavers Hill. The scenery was amazing, temperate rainforest interspersed with lush fields. I couldn't imagine how long it would take me to ride up with all the "scenery stops" I'd have to have.

Amazing Scenery

As we reached the top we saw a familiar looking emblem on a slowly moving car and just in front, a familiar looking bloke on a bike. We had caught the Monkees just as they made it to the top! I wound down the window and shouted encouragement to Reidy, then worried a bit that he might have thought I was an abusive motorist. We caught up with the rest of the Monkees a couple of hundred meters up the road and I provided mobile cheering support for the whole group. We pulled over and had a quick chat, but they were understandably keen to get to their accommodation and into the pub!

With the sun setting we meandered our way into Lorne, the darkness making the last 30km seem twice as long. We arrived at our accommodation with ample time to spare (unlike last year) and proceeded to organise ourselves before heading out for noodles. We were glad to have made in one piece with the wild weather and we were even happier to know that the monkees weren't far away and all appeared to be in fine form.