Great Ocean Road!

Tuesday, 9 October, 2012 Great Ocean Road

                The wonderful Bob Laslett drove me to the Nunawading train station at 6:45 am. I caught the train into the city. I had to catch a bus for the Great Ocean Road tour at 7:45 outside a hostel in the city. I got into the city - panicking a bit when my train went the opposite direction around the city loop. It went to all the same stops, though, thank goodness.

I hopped off the train at the Southern Cross Train station to walk about five minutes down the street to get to my stop. Unfortunately, coming into the train station from the other direction got me all turned around inside the station. I got out of the building trying to figure out how to get the correct direction.

                I stood there panicking for about five minutes (and I only had ten until the bus was to leave). I called my daddy and his omniscient GPS workings. I made it to the bus stop (Thanks, Daddy!).

                However, the buses that stopped in front of my bus stop were all from different companies! I was struggling to stay calm when a guide came around the corner and asked if I was Megan - Haha! Perfect! It turned out they parked on the other side of the building. I hopped on the very, very full bus (24 people in 24 seats) and set off.

                We headed out to our first stop, Campbell's Beach! Our tour guide (Campbell) started telling us about the Melbourne Zoo, and he answered a question that has been burning Kylen and my brains for about....three months.

                The elephants all around Melbourne are large sculptures of elephants with crazy designs and patterns and colours. Campbell told me that the elephants were placed to commemorate 100 Years of the Melbourne Zoo. Whew - makes me feel better to know.

               

  The Great Ocean Road is divided into three different areas; the surf coast, the green coast, and the shipwreck coast. Our first stop was a short one in Campbell where at the edge of the woods we found a herd/group of grey kangaroos! It took me quite a quite to actually see them off in the distance, but I got some distant pictures of Wild Kangaroos! Pretty exciting start to the day:) 

We piled back on the bus and headed toward Bell's Beach - a perfect place for surfing! We also had morning tea (supplied by the company) and took some fabulous pictures on the spectacular day (weather was BEAUTIFUL all morning). 

After about fifteen minutes we hopped back onto the bus and headed to the great Great Ocean Road Sign.

                There's a huge sign and statue commemorating the men who built the road right at the start of the GOR proper.

                After WWI, the soldiers came back from war, and the War Committee put them to work building the road. Seem s a bit rude to me, but apparently it was pretty therapeutic for those men coming back from the war.

                After taking some silly pictures there, we headed toward Lorne - stopping off periodically to take some pictures and look at the beautiful coast.

                Lorne was  acute little beach town with pretty views. A really interesting thing about Lorne is that it's the home of the Pier to Pub crawl. Three decades old, it's a tradition in which a group of people jump off the pier, swim across the bay, run into a pub, and skol (chug) a beer.

                The beer part of this practice has been phased out, as there were 2,000 participants in the Pier to Pub Swim this year. It is a big event in the area, if not outside of Lorne.

                Next we headed toward a little caravan park called Koala Point (or something akin) where we walked around the wooded area. We actually saw five of six koalas floating around in the trees. Most were sleeping, but one was feeding and moving around quite a bit! I actually got a video, but it was on my phone, so it wasn't too great. But that was definitely pretty fun to see.

                We next went on to Apollo Bay, where we had lunch at a pretty great Greek Restaurant. People said the other stuff was good too, but I got a fabulous salad. The food was nice at the restaurant, but the ice cream down the road was magical! They made their own and had very original flavours including Vegemite (which I did NOT try). I got a safe double scoop, one of vanilla, and one of mandarin, and had a wonderful creamsicle ice cream cone!

                After lunch, Campbell took us to Otway National Park and we went on a beautiful temperate rainforest walk. Since most forests here are gum forests, that dark brown of trunks and deep green leaves that I'm use to are much more rare. I felt very at home there, even more so than in the Blue Mountain rain forest.

                At the tail end of our walk, it had started to drizzle, and when we took off for th 12 apostles, it was beginning to actuallly rain.

                In general, I don't mind the rain - I like it, even - but I'm generally not trying to look at one of the wonders of the world. It was very, very wet and windy. In fact, I convinced myself and a fellow tourist (Gavin, from wales) to buy ponchoes - mostly to protect my camera. The rain, I am sure only fell upon us because I didn't bring my rain coat. That morning the weather was promising (even at 6:45), and so I chose the other jacket, much to my dismay.

                The 12 Apostles is a misnomer, first of all. Not only are there not twelve, but they look nothing like apostles, and it is not a religious monument in the least. They are impressive, thouhg. Beautiful orange and yellow limesotne formations raising out of the (today) very rough waves. When looking back at the cliffs themselves you'll see the same gold and sunset layers in the ground on which you are standing. My british friend and I took turns taking photographic proof for each other as evidence of our attendance at the National Monument. We stood more grimacing than smiling on the edges of the lookouts. ALthough you couldn't see more than about 100 meters out to sea, the rain hadn't quite blotted out the rocks we were there to admire.

                After we had taken enough proof, we trudged  back to the bus to find the previous (and better) name for the 12 Apostles: "The Sow and Piglets". I think the experience would have been less miserable is I knew I had been looking at bacon.

                Our next stop was the also Iconic London Bridge. Unfortunately, London Bridge in Australia has fallen down, and there's quite a story to go with it.

Firstly, London Bridge is another limestone rock formation in the shape of a bridge with two arches. Prior to 1990, it looked like this:

Now, it looks like this:

                Campbell told us the story of the day London Bridge fell.

                It was a Tuesday, so the Bridge wasn't particularly crowded. There were only two couples on it. (Before it fell, tourists were allowed to go out and stand on it!). The couples chatted for a bit and one of the them decided to come in. Almost immediately after they had crossed the closer of the two arches, they all heard a deep rumbling sound, and then a huge splash as one of the huge archways crumbled away and fell into the surf below. I can't imagine the astonishment and then panic of the couple still standing and now stranded on the outer arch.

                Fortunately, one couple was already on solid ground. After talking to the stranded two, the others jumped into their car and headed for the nearest town (Apollo Bay) which was almost two hours away.

                When the couple finally found a pay phone, they called 000 (Australia's equivalent of 911), through which they found there was only one helicopter designated for rescue services, and it would be around eight hours before it would make it to the London Bridge. However, the 000 operator was smart and quick on his feet. He called the Channel 7 News, and told them about the 'story' on the terms that they take the helicopter out and rescue the couple. Channel 7 jumped on it! However, being a news agency, they did some circles around the rock and terrified couple perched atop it before actually picking them up. So naturally, they were a little ticket, and didn't want to do an interview. The man originally said he didn't want to because he had called in sick from work. Ha! Campbell went on to tell us that it came out later that the couple was having an affair.

                After telling us that part, Campbell said, "Okay, that was a lie. Lots of rumors circulated, but they were just a married couple out on the Great Ocean Road." Not sure about taking a sicky though, that may have been true.

                Then we drove the two hours in the dark in dumping rain, and I desperately tried to fall asleep on the wet, sticky, smelly, and bumpy bus. Overall, it was a grand day and tour!