Our big day has finally arrived - the departure from Melbourne and the official start of our journey to Adelaide!

Despite the negative weather forecasts, we've managed all of our riding days in Melbourne without any rain gear, and today it was again sunny and clear, but a bit on the chilly side.

We rode out of our carpark and across the road into the Channel 10 Como building car park ready for our big start. Megan and Meredith were wired up with mikes and earpieces, and it was fantastic to see a large group of family and friends turn out for the big departure.

By 9am we were all lined up on the forecourt of the Hotel Como ready for the live cross. The Ten news team came down to shoot a quick interview with Meredith for the news, then Donna Staib (we have so many Donna's we need a nickname for her to tell her apart from the others - still working on that!) had a star turn as a stand in for the Channel 10 interviewer from the 9am program to get the shot just right.

Finally the big moment arrived, and after a good 6 minute interview we were on the bikes and roaring off up the road..well actually around the block so we could stop and they could take all the mikes and wires off Megan and Meredith - ah, the magic of television.

After a quick stop we really did leave, and began our journey out of Melbourne. The nasty crosswind from yesterday had eased off a little making the ride over the Westgate bridge more manageable, but we still took a hammering on the ride out to Geelong on the freeway.

When we arrived at the Geelong Harley-Davidson dealer, there was a group of local women who had seen the Channel 10 story and had raced down to meet us, along with two local breast cancer survivors who were riders but unable to take the time off to do the full Amazon Heart ride this year.

We were interviewed by the Geelong Advertiser, and then rode off with a short run along the waterfront and got our first glimpse of the amazing colour of the water down here - a pale aqua blue.

Off to Torquay for another interview with the Surfcoast Times and a reporter who looked every bit the local surfer, and lunch. Then down the road to the famous Bells Beach - one of the greatest surfing locations in the world.

The swell was beautiful and several surfers were out testing their skill, but the water temperature was way too cold for us!

We came to the famous arched sign over the official start of the Great Ocean Road and stopped for a group photo.

Our last run into Lorne was beautiful - our first real stretch of the Great Ocean Road. Riding along beautiful white sandy beaches with the aqua water and surf on one side, and rising cliffs and hills on the others. Fantastic twisties too!

We made it into the hotel right on schedule, and settled into our shared apartments, eager to share stories of the day's ride. Meryl hooked up her video camera to the tv and we relived the day through her footage. Then at 5pm we tuned into the Channel 10 news, and hooted and cheered as the story of the start of our ride and the footage of our take off was aired again!

That night we ate in the hotel, and everyone from bar staff to other guests came up to say they had seen us on tv - celebrities at last!