Great Ocean Road - 12 Apostles

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13 Jan 08

Woke up early in the morning at around 6:30am. Having gone to bed at 1am last night, it was awful not to be able to have a nice long snooze on Sunday. I quickly gathered my things and headed out to the pick up point at 7:15am for my second day trip of the weekend to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. Sure enough the mini-bus arrived promptly and after picking up the other passengers, off I was to the road.

The first stop past the city of Geelong was Bell's beach; it is supposed to be famous for surfing


Ah a first look at the Ocean


A surfer


The start of the Great Ocean Road


It was built so that the soldiers returning from WWI had a job to keep their minds busy. The idea was to rival a similar road in California.


Another beach, the sky was overcast with clouds. It looks relaxing to fish and have a drink here.


We arrived a town for breakfast, I think it is Angelsea.


Beaches with nice sand are everywhere.


More surfers

Panorama of the beach


Looking out over a headland at one of the many look out points along the Great Ocean Road



Kennet River tourist park, where we hope to catch a glimpse of some Koalas in the wild


Ahah! Found one!



Scenic shots taken from the bus as we traveled along the road


We stopped for lunch at another town, I think it is Apollo Bay


The canned drinks here are all 375ml


A smoked salmon sandwich with raw bean sprouts (yes yucks!), somehow as a whole, the sandwich tasted quite alright.



Every town here has a beautiful beach


Seagulls slacking off

After lunch, we headed off the costal region into the forested region of the great ocean road. The sun was beginning to peek out over the clouds much to my delight. That was goodbye to the beautiful beaches. What awaits is a rainforest and the final destination -- a part of the road that is along some scenic cliffs.

A short rainforest trail, hmmm... carnivorous snails...


Old trees with large holes at the bottom; some trees were over a hundred years old.


There isn't that much undergrowth here


Huge ferns are commonplace


Some of these holes are so large, one can actually sleep in them.


Another large hole blocked up


The hole was part of this dead tree that may collapse at any moment


We are nearing the 12 Apostles, where the ocean has eroded the cliffs to give rise to scenic land forms.


This is what I woke up early for


Some flora


Always stick to the path!



A few of them apostles, unfortunately the sun was not in my favour



The vast ocean


The cliffs here are constantly assaulted at the base by the ocean




More scenic shots


One wonders what would happen to the people there if this cliff suddenly collapses.

A friend of mine decided to take a helicopter ride over the twelve apostles. Since his camera battery was almost used up I lent him my camera to capture some aerial shots.

Aerial shots give a good overview of the land forms in this area.


A short video clip from the helicopter

Next, we left this section and headed towards the other sections of the park. One of those sections has a land form called the "London Bridge". The ocean had eroded two arch ways in the cliffs giving rise to the shape of a bridge. According to the guide, a few years ago, one arch collapsed (hence "London Bridge") and a couple was stranded on the other arch. After they were rescued by helicopter they avoided the media much to everyone's surprise. It turns out that they were actually having an extra-marital affair on the bridge.

Other scenic views



This is the "Razor"


An arch way



London Bridge fell down! Hey isn't "falling down" bad English?


Alas! It is time to go, but before that, dinner!


Indigenous fast food


It actually looks better than it tastes


Why red?


The Melbourne Skyline


Time to drop off a bus load of people. As per yesterday, I am the last to go again.

Reached Melbourne at about 8pm. This was certainly one of the most tiring weekends. At 95 AU for this trip from Go West Tours, I would recommend it for those that like scenic trips. That was about all the trips I will be making until I leave on the coming Friday after another week of work.

Read about the next related post here.

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