The Big Climb

Carol and Roger pulled out of Apollo Bay and very shortly left the beaches behind.  We entered Great Otway National Park.   

Australia is often called a “parched country.”

Imagine our surprise when we entered a rain forest.  At a glance, it looks like an Olympic Peninsula rain forest, but close up it’s very different…and much more intriguing.

Most of the foliage is giant fern trees.

The titans of this rain forest are the Eucalyptus trees…which grow to heights of 330 feet.

 


The fungi and the moss are different species from Northwest rain forests... though Roger’s favorite creature was the carnivorous black snail.

As amazing as the sights were, the sound were even better.  Most of the noise came from King’s Parrots…

...male and female.  

After leaving the rain forest, we had a nice descent into the lush greenery of Airey's Valley.  We should have relished our time there because we weren’t prepared for what was to come. 

A 17 km climb up Lavers’ Hill.  The hill is 400 meters high.  How bad could that be?  

It was a beast.  Six categorized climbs, including 3 in the last fewkilometers.  The grade of the road went above 10% more than 20 times.  

But we made it.  

At the top, we stopped for a lunch of meat pies...Australian style.  Carol asked the waitress if the area has wild pigs since she heard some animal snorting as she climbed the hill.  The answer was a surprise.  

Those cute little koalas snort!  Carol never thought to look up in the trees.  A missed opportunity to see Australian wildlife.

We were so exhausted by the climb, we barely stopped to look at the biggest tourist attraction on Australia’s South Coast…the 12 Apostles.  

In all, the day’s ride wiped us out.  On the other hand, it was cool and ever so slightly drizzling.  We would remember that part of the day fondly…along with Carol’s grin at the end of almost 19 km of downhill with technical curves.