Day four - Apollo Bay to Port Campbell - 101 km, 1698 m - ride total 303 km

 A 7:30 a.m. departure on account of it being one of our bigger days and we were stopping at the bakery to get something for lunch as the plan was to stop beside a Billabong to boil the billy and have our lunch out in the open. It just so happened that sunrise this morning was at 7:27 a.m. and as we left the camp there it was rising above the horizon of Bass Strait. It made for a good photo opportunity however it may have been a case of having to be there to get the full beauty of it.

I swung by the small boat harbour and took a few snaps then headed out of town and before too long we were into the first of our two big hills for the day - slow and steady was the order of the day as we climbed up into the rolling hill country and away from the Coast which we didn't get back to until around the 80 km marker.

Our descent took us into some new country for a bit before we were beginning "Lavers Hill" which is a reasonable climb of around 450 metres. We regrouped at the top of Lavers and decided to have our lunch there as we had kind of slipped by the Billabong for the true blue Aussie outback billy tea experience - that awaits us for another day,

It was during the big long descent that I felt my rear tyre once again give me the signal that it was losing air! Yup, my second puncture for the trip and as per the first both were entirely preventable if only, I have put new tyres on the bike! Fortunately, the puncture repair I had done a couple of days back held and so that tube went in and away I went - The sooner we get to a reasonable town with a bike shop a new tyre will be the order of the day.

Suddenly we were in the midst of tourist central at the "Twelve Apostles" (well actually Seven Apostles" as they keep dropping back into the sea. There were rental cars and dozens of tourist buses in the carpark - this meant that the walk out to view the apostles was quite busy with lots of tourists! with my cleated bike shoes I chose to walk the shorter route so didn't get to see all the remaining Apostles. They certainly looked quite majestic and fragile so you can understand how with time they will surely disappear.

After our stop at the Apostles it was only 11 km's to our accommodation for the night - 

After a shower and a cup of tea I'm feeling quite good having ridden our longest day yet with a reasonable amount of climbing.