The Great Southern Randonnee is a grand experience as much
as a grand randonnee. Audax Australia
organizes this ride as a fully supported ride with the intent of attracting
international randonneurs to Australia. They go full out to provide a great
experience for riders who make the trip to Australia.
The relative isolation of Melbourne provided a unique lead
up to the ride. Almost all Americans flying to Melbourne had to fly through Los
Angeles and many of us happened to choose the same day to travel. So the Rolling
Stone Bar and Grill in Terminal 7 at LAX became a gathering place for
randonneurs from all across the US to tell stories and share a beer or two
while waiting for our flights across the Pacific. The camaraderie continued on our arrival in
Melbourne. Peter Donnan, ride organizer, was there to personally welcome us and
assist us with transport to our local hosts. Myself, Joe Edwards and Rod and
Sue Geisert were taken to Charlie and Clare Cooke’s home in the Surrey Hills
suburb of Melbourne. The Cookes would be amazing hosts for our stay and their
home was our base for the Melbourne portion of our stay.
Audax Australia had added a 100k brevet to their ride
schedule for the day after our arrival to give international riders a chance to
test ride our reassembled bikes and get used to riding on the “proper side” of
the rode. The route was a fantastic assortment of urban trails leading to
Southbank, in the heart of downtown Melbourne and then south along the Ocean to
Black Rock. While others were eating lunch at the turnaround, Spencer Klaassen,
Rod, Joe, Mark Thomas, and I snuck across the street to a microbrewery for a
quick beer.
Festivities continued after the ride with a cookout at Peter
Donnan’s home with many of the international randonneurs and several of the
Australians.
The next day was moving day, as we moved bikes and other
gear to the ride headquarters in Anglesea. Our group was lodged in a 3 bedroom
cabin unit at the Big 4 Holiday Park. The evening ended with dinner and
kangaroo watching at the Anglesea Golf Course.
Almost all of the Americans, including me, opted for the
Sunday evening start. I chose the evening start because in past years, it had
been the only option, and I liked the idea of sticking with the traditional GSR
experience. The evening start begins with a 200km loop east of Anglesea on the
Bellarine Peninsula and the west side of Port Phillip Bay before returning to
Anglesea and heading out onto the Great Ocean Road. Additionally, a night start lets you ride
through the first night and day without sleep which should let you get ahead of
the clock giving you more flexibility later in the ride. At least, that’s the
theory.
Most of Sunday was spent packing and repacking drop bags and
nervously checking weather forecasts. The forecasts were calling for STRONG
south west winds throughout Sunday evening and Monday. At 6pm, we headed out on the Bellarine
Peninsula loop. As tailwinds pushed us eastward, the pace was moderate and the
mood was light. At various times, we rode along the Ocean and Port Phillip Bay.
Everyone was definitely aware that the free ride wasn’t going to last and our
tailwind wasn’t going to last very long.
The expected headwinds appeared as we were leaving Portarlington toward
Geelong. By this point, our group for the ride had formed. I was riding with
Rod, Joe, Spencer and our Australian friend, Leigh Paterson. We rode through
the night rather uneventfully, despite the headwinds and arrived back in
Anglesea just over 10 hours into the ride. With time in hand, we decided to
take a short 1 hour nap in our cabin before tackling the 300km of headwinds
towards Port Fairy.
We left Anglesea in morning twilight. The first 30k of the
day was along the Great Ocean Road within sight of the Southern Ocean.
The section featured the worst winds of the
day and, although we made slow progress, we eventually made it to Lorne.
Historically, GSR remained on the Great Ocean Road at this point. However,
spring rains had led to sporadic road closures so GSR organizers had developed
an alternative inland route. So at Lorne, we left the Great Ocean Road and
climbed 10km into the Otway Mountains. After the initial 10km climb, the route
meandered over rolling terrain to the town of Forrest. The control in Forrest
was a combination bike shop/café. Apparently, Forrest is a major mountain
biking destination. GSR organizers had
pre-purchased a sandwich for every rider at the café.
Leaving Forrest took us further into the Otways and we soon
came to Turton’s Track. The Track was one of the more memorable roads of the
ride. It was signed as unsuitable for busses and campers.
The bike path width
road wound through the mountainous rain forest with several miles of tight,
twisting corners. Following the track a stair step climb brought us to Laver’s
Hill for a pre-purchased muffin and lunch. A long decent brought us back to the
Great Ocean Road near the 12 Apostles landmark. Although the scenery was
spectacular, I was really dragging as we passed several scenic overlooks and
into Port Campbell.
The control at Port Campbell was at a hostel and was fully
staffed by GSR volunteers. The volunteers were great and rushed to fill water
bottles and take meal orders. I had heard Spencer talking up Ronnie’s shepherd’s
pie so I ordered a bowl. A couple bowls later I was feeling a lot better and
ready to go.
We rolled out together and headed towards the control at Wangoom,
which was a local hall where a local organization was selling food and drinks.
At this point, our group split up as Spencer decided to take a nap on the wood
floor while the rest of us decided to finish the 44km to the overnight at Port
Fairy. Despite the promise of an evening
start, we dragged into the Port Fairy overnight at 12:55am, leaving only about
an hour for sleep. I tried to make my way quietly through the dormitory room at
the hostel but I’m sure I made quite a bit of noise. I wasn’t much better an
hour later trying to get dressed in the dark, but it seemed that almost
everyone in the dorm had a very similar wakeup call.
The 50 or so miles from Port Fairy to Hamilton was lightly
rolling. A large group of riders formed and much of this section was spent in a
group of 12-18 riders. After leaving a food stop in Macarthur, we saw a koala
bear hop out of a tree and bound along the road towards another tree. Coming
into the Hamilton control gave me a good lift.
Charlie and Clare Cooke were two of the volunteers playing major roles
at the control. Charlie promised to have a bottle of Cooper’s Stout ready for
me when we returned for the overnight, so I had something to look forward to
for the rest of the day. The run up to Dunkeld was pretty flat and we rolled
along pretty well. Joe snapped a shifter
cable and Leigh saved the day by pulling one out of his bag that he didn’t even
know he had.
The Grampians section following Dunkeld was stunning. The
section featured two major climbs and about 70km of riding through undeveloped,
wild countryside. Although we didn’t see
much wildlife on this section, the woods were full of the sounds of wild birds.
Eventually we crossed over the Great Dividing Range and dropped for about 10km
into Hall’s Gap for another controlled staffed with helpful volunteers. Hall’s
Gap was teeming with wild parrots and other kinds of birds. After a short stop
at Hall’s Gap, we had a short, flat 70km loop to Stawell and back before
backtracking through the Grampians. I found facing the 70km section back
through the Grampians to be a little intimidating in the late afternoon. The
section started with about a 10km climb and then another 60km through some
pretty wild country. I had mentioned that I was a little disappointed that I
hadn’t seen any wild kangaroos since leaving Anglesea. As we left Hall’s Gap
just before sunset, they were everywhere. It seemed that every vacant lot, yard
or park had its own herd. Just as we were leaving town, I noticed a field that
had several kangaroos and three emus. I definitely wasn’t expecting to that.
For most of the trek through the Grampians I rode with Rod,
telling stories and keeping ourselves distracted from the miles to go. Shortly
after dark, we were treated to the rising of the so-called Supermoon and the
emergence of a beautiful night sky. The final decent back into Dunkeld was
highlighted by Rob nearly missing a kangaroo crossing the road and me having a
wallaby cross the road in front of me. The final section from Dunkeld back to
Hamilton was pretty easy riding but the temperature dropped dramatically to the
point that I was shivering violently and in a pretty grumpy mood by the time we
got to the overnight in Hamilton at 12:30am. Luckily, Charlie was looking after
me and produced the long awaited bottle of Stout. After a good meal, and
another Stout begged from Clare, we were shown to our cabin for a quick shower
and just over 3 hours of sleep.
Historically, GSR riders have faced headwinds on the first
couple of days and tailwinds as they return to Anglesea. We would not be so
fortunate. After battling 20+ mph headwinds on the first day, the winds shifted
to be in our face for the return trip as well. For most of the day, the winds
weren’t quite as strong as we had faced earlier in the ride but they were
enough to really slow us down. However, some of the worst headwinds of the
entire ride hit us as we passed through the Warrnambool area and worked back
towards Port Campbell. The portion of
the Great Ocean Road passing several scenic pullouts should have been a
glorious and beautiful ride. Instead it was a slow, frustrating 9 mph slog. We
did stop for a couple of quick photos before eventually limping into Port
Campbell for some more shepherd’s pie.
Throughout the day, I had been looking
forward to stopping at the 12 Apostles viewpoint following Port Campbell but
our slow afternoon slog made me give up on getting there before sunset. At the
control, however, Joe and Rod suggested we give it a shot and see if we could
get there before dark. As we left, the winds seemed to let up. As we approached
the pullout, I saw Bob Booth, who had DNF’d the ride earlier, standing by the
side of the road waving us in. He had been following our progress on Facebook
and wanted to make sure we stopped for the view. He escorted us out the walkway
and to the best viewing spot, just as the light hit the magical time for
photos. Bob said something like “this is the light people have been waiting all
day for”. We walked up, took a couple pictures and were back on our bikes
within about 15 minutes.
We were expecting a lot of traffic after sunset when the
crowds from the 12 Apostles viewpoint left. However, they must have found a
different route to their hotels because we were only passed by about 5 cars
over the next couple of hours. The climb up Laver’s Hill was a long, slow grind
but it was made better by an amazing view of the Southern Cross followed by the
rise of the Supermoon. Shortly after that, we came around a corner on the climb
to see a koala bear sitting in the road. Despite several of us milling around
the bear, it didn’t move for several minutes. It finally got annoyed and slowly
walked into the woods at the side of the road.
The control at Laver’s Hill was a welcome sight. We had a
quick meal while debating whether to sleep there for a bit or to move on to the
next stop at Forrest. Eventually, we decided to sleep for an hour before
leaving. Several other riders had the same thought and we left in a much larger
group than we arrived with. The ride through Turton’s Track was less fun in the
dark as the slow, winding route seemed to take forever. Sunrise came shortly
after another food stop in Forrest. The tough climb to Benwerrin was made
easier knowing that it was the last serious obstacle on the route. I followed
Wolfgang down the 10km descent, leaving only 18 miles to the finish. As we parked our bikes at the bottom to wait
for our groups to reform, Wolfgang looked at me with a big smile and summed up
my thoughts perfectly by exclaiming with a thick German accent, “What a fucking
ride”.
We were welcomed back in Anglesea by a large group of other
riders and volunteers assembled to cheer finishers. Our finishing time of 88
hours and 25 minutes was not particularly impressive, but we had a great ride.
I absolutely loved the Great Southern Randonnee. The scenery, organization, and volunteer
support were amazing. The 2016 version
of the Great Southern Randonnee had three distinct areas, each of which was as
scenically spectacular as anyplace I have ever ridden. The 12 Apostles and
Scenic Oceanfront, the Otways with Turton’s Track, and the Grampians were each
uniquely beautiful. Basing a ride around any one of them would be worth the
trip to Australia. Including all 3 took the ride to an entirely different
level.
