Dreaded Lavers Hill!

Today only 80km but everyone was talking about Lavers Hill it's the highest point in the Otways. Lots of talk about take it slow, hey the gradient's not too bad, just keep going, it'll be cold when you stop, etc. 

It was a cool morning but we soon got hot riding. Had to stop and look at the Apostles of course.

It was a misty day- felt like we were riding in a cloud, probably because we were!  We left at 7:45, very early for us. Breakfast is 6-8am, and the route opens at 7am, & you have to be going by 9am.

Coming up Lavers Hill wasn't as bad as we expected! There were downhill bits to recover. I stopped to take my rain jacket off - Rikky didn't want to stop but her chain came off during a gear change. It started to rain for the last bit, but I didn't stop to put the jacket on, just sorted clothes when we got to the lunch spot at the top. It was really misty there, and still raining. 

Lunch tent

Coffee queue in the distance - that was a long wait, but so worth it. Rikky brought me my lunch while I waited. 

We finished our coffee in the toilet queue.  Hey it was too wet to sit down on the grass anyway. 

Our next rest stopwas at Ferguson - this shed-cafe seemed to be all that was there. 

After this, it was almost a downhill to Gellibrand. Scary downhill, as the road was very wet. We were on the brakes most of it. Would have gone a lot faster on a dry road, but it was good to get here safely. 

It was still raining when we arrived, and the luggage from truck 7 was in 4 lines under lengths of plastic, piled 3-4 deep. We found the 2 bags easily, but it took ages to find the packs. It stooped raining and we got the tent up, and headed for the showers - very welcome. (That was after sharing a chocolate bar)

And time for a rest

And a coffee...