Movie stage XIV & XV
| start date | activity | place | from - to | days | km | km/ day | comment |
| 11.10 | Hiking | Grampians | Halls Gap - Borough Huts | 1 | 19 | With backpack and skateboard through yhe mountains | |
| 12.10 | Skateboard | Borough Huts - Dunkeld | 1 | 56 | |||
| 13.10 | Rest | Dunkeld | 1 | 3 | Waiting during raining day | ||
| 14.10 | Skateboard | Dunkeld -Port Campbell | 4 | 183 | 46 | Phone lost | |
| 18.10 | Rest | Great Ocean Road | Port Campbell | 2 | 6 | Waiting for family arrival | |
| 20.10 | Skateboard, hike | Great Ocean Road | Port Campbell - Princetown | 1 | 28 | With family from 12 Apostles |
In 2020 I moved to Perth for a year to prepare for my trip. I found free skateboarding lessons for beginners, so I showed up for the class - as it turned out I was the only adult among dozens of kids, but it didn't bother me much. Unfortunately covid stopped the classes after only two sessions. Later the problem turned out to buy a longboard that would meet my requirements - dropped down, long and stable, soft and large wheels. In the end one shop put it all together, and I managed to go out to the park in Sydney to try it out. When I picked up my skateboard at Halls Gap I quickly watched YouTube videos on how to brake on a downhill ride. So it was hard to say that I was comfortable with my skills.
On the first day I went trekking in the Grampian Mountains, but as a hiker with a skateboard attached to my backpack, I was puzzling other tourists. The next day came the long-distance riding test. As long as it was flat or a little uphill it was going quite well, but when the descents began, it was no longer fun. I was learning to find the speed limit when I was still able to brake in one piece. To achieve this I crossed once the "line of no return" and was carried away by a gravity (and it turned out that it was only 30 km/h). Losing control was too risky, so I came up with idea of seated descents - what a fun! The soles of the shoes slowed down on demand, and the body turned the board.
The rainy weather forced me again to spend two nights in one place to wait out the biggest rain downpours. When the sun came out I moved on and the road was mostly flat. I was surprised that during the day, at a relaxing pace, I am able to cover 50-60 km even with head wind. That's why I reached the Great Ocean Road quite quickly, and the first view of the sea in over half a year was full of emotions. I made it to the sunset in the amazing Bay of Islands, and in the morning I could admire the cliffs illuminated from the opposite side. It was a perfect day. How wrong I was :(
I went down to the beach, took some photos and video, the light and weather were perfect, the sea was calm. I walked over to harder sand and decided to send a photo to my wife from here, because she likes such places. I was taking the phone out of my pocket and suddenly a big wave appeared out of nowhere, so big that I instinctively jumped back, picking up the skateboard with my other hand - unfortunately, during this maneuver the phone fell out of my hand. I quickly realized what was going on and panicked looking for the device in the retreating wave. I saw it a few meters away towards the sea, I ran up and reached out to grab device and as I touched the phone, a second even more powerful wave swept it away again. I stood in the water up to my waist and my eyes wandered desperately. In vain. I took off my clothes and entered into the water again, but it was almost impossible to find the phone.
I sat upset and angry on the beach. My computer, planner, communicator, informant, link with the world, and above all, a camera. It's gone. I have never bought new phone models in my life, but for this trip I made an exception because the iPhone 12 and 13 Pro are the first models that take photos in RAW format, and this is a huge photographic advantage over jpg. In all this tragedy, fortunately, I made backups a few days before, so I only lost photos and videos from the last four days. I feel so sorry for them anyway, because it was the documentation of almost the entire skateboard stage and the wonderful Great Ocean Road. I was saving money the whole trip, I was happy when I get a $5 discount on accommodation, when I bought food on sale or I had access to the kitchen, and here is such a huge unexpected financial blow, after all, the phone was my most expensive item of all my equipment.
Of course, my wife comforts me, I also try to explain to myself that it's just money. After all, I enjoy life as much as possible, me and my family are healthy and happy, but anger at myself remains. I want to cry, but I have to move on, so I admire the beautiful cliffs by the ocean without taking pictures.
That's how I got to the town of Port Campbell. I arrived too early to meet my family and it was difficult for me to sit on my butt doing nothing for nearly three days, without books or internet - I can't rest, I have to do something. Who would have thought that sitting is no less tiring than crossing the desert.