I headed off to the Apollo Bay RTE on the Friday as Sue & I had decided to make a long weekend of it.
Unfortunately Sue had come down with a nasty bug and wasn't well enough to attend so she generously sent me off on my Pat Malone... Thanks Sue!!!
With the weather forecast looking a bit dodgy I juggled my departure time hoping to avoid the rain that was predicted.
All was well until I got down to Geelong and with what looked like a shower of rain fast approaching I decided to stop off at Maccas for a hot chocolate and a toastie.
It all ended up being a bit of a false alarm as it turned out to be nothing more than a bit of light drizzle.
Anyhow, I headed off into the drizzle without worrying about pulling on my waterproofs so I was quite pleased when after a few k's it cleared...
That ended up being the last I'd see of any rain for the day although the roads remained quite wet.
After checking in to my Apartment at Apollo Bay I wandered down the street to stock up with a few necessities then caught up with Ppopeye & Chris who had also decided to make a long weekend of it.
Saturday's weather forecast didn't look too bad so I figured a ride to the 12 Apostles was in order seeing as the RTE was for dinner and I had plenty of time to kill.
Although the weather wasn't too bad, the roads through the "Otways" were very wet after overnight rain so plenty of caution was in order.
I arrived at the 12 Apostle Info Centre just after 11am after encountering just a couple of patches of drizzle through the ranges.
With plenty of tourists already fighting for space to take their selfies I quickly took a few photos of my own and then got the hell out of there!
Rain showers were about so it came as no surprise when I ran into a few yet again as I made my way through the ranges...
Thankfully the STs fairing kept me reasonably dry so I arrived back to base quite content, figuring I'd now just kick back and relax for the rest of the afternoon.
Dinner was scheduled for 6pm so, after catching up with some new arrivals, a few of us decided to wander down to the pub early for a drink or three...not that I was drinking any of the beers (or anything else other than pineapple juice) that was on offer...
Unfortunately I got distracted during dinner so failed to get any photos of the actual RTE so apologies for that!
I blame the lack of hot chocolate as, for whatever strange reason, coffee/tea & hot chocolate were unavailable until after the kitchen had shut down from serving meals for the night!
A big thankyou to Chippy for kindly sending me the one & only photo I have of the night which I've posted below...
After waking to a glorious Sunday morning we all caught up for a final group photo (without our Ozstoc flag unfortunately) then it was time to head for home via the Great Ocean Road and then the Queenscliff to Sorento Ferry with the hope of avoiding heavy traffic heading into Melbourne.
It wasn't long before I was regretting my decision to ride the Great Ocean Road back as the tourist traffic kept speeds to barely above a crawl...well, it felt like it anyhow!
After perfectly timing my arrival at the Ferry Terminal it wasn't long before we were on our way...
With calm seas I was able to leave the bike and wander around the Ferry, something I had previously been unable to do as normally you have to stay with your bike as they don't secure it to the deck.
It wasn't long before it was time to disembark...
The only drama I had for the rest of the ride home was an idiot in a car in front who decided to do a right hand turn from the left turn only lane...Hopefully my blast of the airhorns made him aware of my displeasure!
I arrived home around 3.15pm, a bit weary but pleased with how the weekend had panned out...
Thanks to Michael for organising yet another successful RTE and another thankyou to those that attended, it was great to have such a good turnout...
Photo courtesy of Chippy... 
On the Queenscliff to Sorento Ferry...
