8 May 2014
Yesterday we drove from Apollo Bay to Peterborough to have a look at the rest of the Great Ocean road.. A lot of walking was involved and we were all tired when we got back home late in the day - - - we and John & Denise managed to heat up baked beans on toast for tea.
Unfortunately you can’t pick your days for taking photos – if I did that I what have only about photos. It was cloudy again and sometimes the sun did appear just to remind us it existed.
As we started travelling through the Otway Ranges we came to a place where we could stop and take photos of the fabulous view.
The road was winding and at times the recommended speed to round a corner was down to 25 kmh.
We first checked out a lookout point where we could view the rugged coast line, also known as the Ship wreck coast.
We stopped at this little place that only had a general store and found toilets, a few seats and a view for morning tea. After the winding road I was ready to stretch my legs.
This is the view of a small river while we sipped our cups of tea and coffee.
We finally came to the turn off for the famous 12 Apostles. The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the port Campbell National Marine park.
The apostles were formed by erosion, harsh and extreme weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually eroded the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then became arches, which in turn collapsed; leaving rock stacks up to 45 metres high. The site was known as the Sow and Piglets until 1922 (Muttonbird Island, near Loch Ard Gorge, was the Sow, and the smaller rock stacks were the Piglets); after which it was renamed to The Apostles for tourism purposes. The formation eventually became known as the Twelve Apostles, despite only ever having nine.
On 3 July 2005, a 50 metre tall stack collapsed. You can see the collapsed stack in the foreground of my photo.
Next we went onto Loch Arg Gorge. Here there was a ship wreck in the 1800’s. All but a young man of 15 years, Tom, and a young lady Eva survived. Once on shore the young man climbed the gorge to search for help. He came upon two stockman who helped him get Eva to the top of the gorge. The name of the clipper was “The Lock Arg”.
another view of Loch Arg gorge.
Then it was onto the “Arch”.
Next was “London Bridge”.
The arch closer to the shoreline collapsed unexpectedly on 15 January 1990, leaving two tourists stranded on the outer part until they were rescued by a helicopter. No one was injured in the event. Prior to the collapse, the arch was known as London Bridge because of its similarity to its namesake.
After having a good look at the London Bridge we travelled a couple of kms ti “The Grotto”. This was beautiful and John went down the steps while Denise and I watched.
Lance & I have visited The Bay of Islands in New Zealand so of course it was essential we visited the one on the Great Ocean Road.
We came home tired but happy.
Today Lance & I went to Otway Point where John and Denise had seen Koalas in the wild. Today we only saw 4 high up in the trees and were a little disappointed.
Aren’t they just gorgeous.
Here is the view from our caravan. The Apollo Bay caravan park runs along the banks of the Barham River.
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