So, a month (or more) has gone by, and my fault, I never finished the last 3 days of our trip – which quite frankly were some of the best! So, this will be a mini-blog – reporting what we did, but without most of the commentary on the funny little things that happened along the way, because, well, heck, I’ve forgotten all the little stuff. Sigh…here goes:
I do remember that we are up bright and early today with a 7:20 pick up for our Great Ocean Road tour. Fortunately the pick up is across the street from our apartment, so we don’t need to rush. We’re there early – the tour bus is there late – but it all works out in the end. We’re the 4th people on the bus, and we’re able to grab the front seats, right behind the driver. Good for the views and since that’s what this tour is all about – we’re in the cat bird seat….literally!
The Great Ocean Road is heralded as one of the most spectacular scenic coastal drives in the world. It is over 250K long and our total tour today will cover close to 600K in driving. Thus – the tour! We don’t have to drive, just sit. 14 hours from start to finish, but, at the end of the day? Worth every hour. Fantastic! Ok – so back to the beginning….
….We end up with a pretty good bus load of folks, 22 in all. Mostly Asian, Korean being the majority. The tour company had ipods with tour translations, and they were in short supply. The driver actually ran out of Korean language ones and asked that they share them. There is a girl, Alison, from Kailua, HI, and another Maria, from Buenos Aires but living in Santiago Chile at the moment, who we talk to through the whole trip (and who both take great pictures!).
The drive to the ocean takes about an hour and a half and isn’t very scenic. The driver, Alan, gives us a pretty good overview of the area (including the stadium where one of the big Aussie football teams play), and heck, there’s wi-fi on the bus – so we can keep ourselves occupied if we get bored! We finally hit the Great Ocean road and our driver deposits us at a beach for our tea and cake break (I can’t remember which beach, but I know it was not on our itinerary because we were running late, and it was better to stop there to snack). There is coffee and tea and great pound cakes and banana nut breads. It’s a gorgeous cloud free day again, so we all enjoy the quick break.
Next up is Bells Beach, the big surfing beach in Australia.
Next we head to the World War II memorial arch – a bridge of wood built over the road.
The road was constructed by returning servicemen who needed jobs. They were so traumatized by the bombing in the war, though, that couldn’t use dynamite to blast the rock out of the way, so they used picks and chiseled it out by hand.
You can see how rocky the terrain is – amazing they did all this by hand!
We continue to drive along the road stopping at a couple of beaches – great photo opps…
…then to some little camp ground area to see Koalas and some guy feeding birds….
…then through the cute little town of Apollo Bay, an onto the Great Otway National Park, where we get to stretch our legs walking through the forest with giant Eucalyptus trees.
Then it is on to lunch at a cute little Thai restaurant—“ThaiHouse” in Apollo Bay. We had pre-ordered our meals, and they were fantastic – pad thai with tons of chicken – and sauteed chicken with vegetables. Both excellent – and who knows what I was thinking because I have no pictures! Oh well! Suffice it to say, it was really very good. And they gave it to us in takeaway containers so we could have gone down to the beach if we wanted. But instead, we just sat outside at the little sidewalk tables and enjoyed our food.
After lunch we finally go to the piece de resistance of The Great Ocean Road – the 12 Apostles. This is an area of the coast where there are huge limestone stacks, caused by erosion, standing along the coastline. There are really only 7 Apostles (don’t ask!0 but they are all incredible to view. We wander out to the coastline and take as many pictures as possible – unfortunately they are mostly back lit – this should be a morning stop, but that would mean staying out here overnight – so you get what you get – and you still get pretty fantastic!
Next it is onto Port Campbell national park, which we actually think is better than the Apostles. The formations here are bigger and you can see more of the rock striations. There are a lot more trails here too and view points.
This is also where the famous Loch Ard shipwreck occurred during the gold rush years. Only 2 people of 54 survived, the ship’s apprentice and an 18 year old girl. The apprentice floated until daylight on an overturned lifeboat, then managed to drift into the bay and onto the beach here. He heard the girl yelling for help and went back into the water to save her. The community thought they should marry – since it was such a heroic almost love story, but the girl wanted nothing to do with it. So they went their separate ways – and now Loch Ard is just a gorgeous little beach in the middle of a gorge with a lot of history.
The next and last stop is London Bridge – well, now London Arch - which was a natural bridge over the water for years until it collapsed in 1990. Allegedly there were 2 people on the ocean-side of the bridge when it collapsed. They had to be air lifted off by helicopter after hours of waiting on the rock promontory. The urban legend has it that it was a couple who refused to be interviewed after being saved, and who rushed off in their car. Allegedly they were having an affair and didn’t want their identities to be revealed. That’s not actually the truth, but it makes for a great story!
Back home we head – after a very long, but very fun day. We stop in Colac for a quick dinner of KFC – then back into Melbourne we go. We get back to the hotel at 9:30pm. Wow! 14 hours! But we were never once bored (thank you wi-fi and kindles) and it really didn’t even seem like that long a trip. Great, great day – one we’re very glad we didn’t miss!
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