Day 8: Apollo Bay to Geelong (1st May)
Things are looking up. The hardest days under the belt, the weather on the improve – what more could one ask for?!? Waking up in Apollo Bay to 10 degrees vs 0 degrees in Warrnambool the day before makes such a huge difference. Before I get ahead of myself we’d better sit back for a few minutes and soak up what Willie has for us.
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Welcome welcome welcome…we are close to the end. A quick recap of Day 7 before diving into Day 8 highlights.
Can these community dinners get better? Yes they can! We walk in to a packed house at the Apollo Bay Hotel, looking over the ocean with 180 of your TdC buddies. This is what it’s all about. It’s one of those times where you just take a step back on the tour and think ‘Wow, we are really part of something massive and special’. The dinner is hosted by David Mann and his son Lars. It is just lovely to see such deep family involvement and what makes the Tour de Cure culture what it is today.
To the formal part of the evening, we have another $10,000 cheque to donate tonight totalling $75,000 so far on this tour. Tonight it was presented to Otway Health and will provide them with a new Palliative Care bed and a refurbishment of the room. They’re trying to ensure the bed is big enough for a family to get in and give patients a cuddle when they need one, because love really is the best medicine.
..and then of course…the jersey presentation…. the competition is tough as the entire crew is just raising the bar every day, but there has to be winners… tonights are….
- Focus: (White) Owen Barnett
- Doer: (Orange) Murray King
- Attitude: (Yellow) Steve Newman
- Awareness: (Green) Victor De Sousa
- Guts: (Blue) Naomi Land
- Inspiration (Pink) Mark Beretta
Day 8 – nothing but pristine coastline ahead of us. The Great Ocean Road in all its glory.
As the most spectacular sunrise happened over the beachfront at Apollo Bay we started out the morning again with Mark Beretta doing his Channel 7 Sunrise crosses. The weather today is going to be a cracker. As we peddled, the undulating road hugged the famous rugged Victoria coastline – the stunning views and perfect riding weather was more than enough to enable us to forget our tired minds and legs. There was a real surge of energy in the bunch as we accelerated through the dips and descents before pushing hard to crest the rises that followed. This was one of those days when you really didn’t want the riding to end, despite the aches and pains.
We did a school presentation early today right on the beach and had the kids having the best time before they took off for school. But now its time to roll. It’s a long, windy, beautiful road as we take each turn and soak up the amazing scenery.
Lunch was awesome – the footy was out and we had a bit of a kick on the oval. Then back on the bike to take in the rest of the amazing views into Geelong as we rode around some of Victoria’s most famous landmarks like Bells Beach. Spectacular. Awesome. The afternoon was all about the school visits with two visits! The kids were amazing as always but it was time to get into Geelong for some deserved recovery.
Before long we were entering the outskirts of Geelong, finally making it through the afternoon traffic to an awesome welcome at the finish with the great help of the support crew. After a day’s riding like that it sure felt good to be standing in the ocean, cold beer in hand. The vibe was magical as the sun started to go down and we head to the iconic home of the Cats in Geelong for our community dinner.
Signing off for the penultimate time…Willie
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Not long now and another tour will be over. It’s been amazing so far. Every day a challenge.
(Below) The sunrise in Apollo Bay was something else. Given what we’ve endured so far it was nice to be able to savour moments like this.
(Below) As an observation I have to say it appears funny things grow on trees in this part of Australia…
(Below) On arrival into Geelong it was good to go take a walk into the ocean to chill some of the lactic acid out of the legs.
(Below) I could be accused of getting a little off topic here, but I think that a little dog shaming is justified in this instance. In my absence my 9 month old pup decided to express how much he was missing me by inverting his bed…not happy
YOU MUST WATCH THIS: As I’ve mentioned before, we have an absolute gun on tour who captures many amazing moments on camera and video. His toy of choice – the ‘drone’. Take a look at his 4 minute compilation…very impressive. (copy paste into your browser)
https://vimeo.com/126730527
Donation tally update:
As of 1st May my donation tally = just over $28,500.
Some stats from today:
Distance ridden: 122km (1,209km running total)
Elevation climbed: 1,090m (6,505m running total)
Time ridden: 4 hrs 45 min (44 hrs 40 min running total)
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