On the next day, our friend lend us his car for us to drive along the Great Ocean Road. The drive along the cliffs are just so breath taking, no wonder there are lots of signs saying that it’s high accident prone area. The scenery is too beautiful to be concentrating on driving!
For those who are car sick, please be warned to sit infront of the car, because the road is very winding. I’m a person who rarely gets car sick, but somehow, I think it was the way that Mathias drove on the first few stretch of road, I was starting to feel a little car sick eventhough I was sitting in front! He kept braking at every little corner. So, I asked him to stop at the next town and let me drive instead. Thankfully I made the right decision. Once I started driving, I felt so much better.
I found the trick to driving smoothly on this winding road. There are road signs before every corner telling you how fast you can go at the corner. For example, if you see a road sign which says 55 km/h, that means you can drive at 55km/h at this corner. Some corners even say you can go at 100km/h. If you meet one which says 35km/h, that means it will be a very tight corner.
I didn’t even have to break when I was turning the corners. I told Mat about this, and fortunately he got the hang of it and it was a smooth ride home.
Ok… enough about the driving.
First stop, Gibson Steps. The name Gibson Steps refers to the staircase leading down to the stretch of beach below. Due to a recent risk analysis, access to Gibson Steps is closed until furture notice 😦 So we could only savour the view from the top.
View to the east of Gibson Steps
View to the west of Gibson Steps
It was a very beautiful day. Blue skies, sunny day, but pretty windy. You can see how strong the wind is by the condition of my hair. I couldn’t even keep it in place.
Ok, next stop… the famous Twelve Apostles!
No, these are not the Twelve Apostles – cows nearby the Twelve Apostles
This… is the famous Twelve Apostles.
The Twelve Apostles are a collection of natural limestone stacks. The stacks have been formed by erosion, and are varying heights and thicknesses. And no, there’s nothing wrong with your eyes, because you won’t be able to see all 12 of them at this place. And it’s not really 12 anymore, some have already fallen over as waves continaully erode their bases. So there are either 8 or 9 left now.
Let’s move on. Our next stop after the Twelve Apostles is Loch Ard Gorge.
The gorge is named after the clipper ship Loch Ard, which ran aground nearby on 1 June 1878 approaching the end of a three-month journey from England to Melbourne.
All but two of the fifty-one passengers and crew perished – Tom Pearce, a ship’s apprentice and Eva Carmichael, an Irishwoman immigrating with her family. Pearce was washed ashore, and rescued Carmichael from the water after hearing her cries for help. Pearce then proceeded to climb out of the gorge to raise the alarm to local pastoralists who immediately set into plan a rescue attempt.
The real stalactites, not like the one in the greek restaurant
Both Mat and I love this site the most. You just feel like sitting there doing nothing but stare at the waves coming into the gorge.
Mat couldn’t take his eyes off the powerful waves coming in
When Pearce and Carmichael was washed ashore, they seeked shelter in this cave.
This place here somehow reminds you of certain Pirate movie. Apparently, this was the location for a number of scenes of the 1982 film The Pirate Movie and also the 1999 TV series Journey to the Center of the Earth with Treat Williams.
Well, I couldn’t resist but tried to strike up a nice pose. It didn’t turn out too bad eh? 😉
The Blow Hole was next on the map.
You have to wait for it. Just stand there, and listen. There will be a pretty loud roaring sound of water gushing through the hole and when it crashes upon the side of the cliffs, it will blow…. hmm… that doesn’t sound so right… awkward… ok…moving on…
By the time we finished visiting the Blow Hole, we felt pretty hungry. So we stopped by Port Campbell to get some lunch.
I think this town has less than 10 buildings. One particular signboard caught my eye.
Does it mean 20 people ate here for the day, or only 20 people ate here so far since the restaurant started, or what? hmm…
After Port Campbell, 2 more places to visit.
Next stop, The Arch.
The continuous waves crashing through the limestone made an arch out of it.
The arch didn’t really make us gawk in awe, but what was on the west side of this view point.
Just look at it! The cliff is nearly flat. I think I will have the same reaction or feeling if I ever visit the Grand Canyon. Just a thought… what if it wasn’t the waves or the wind which made such awesome cliffs along the Great Ocean Road… what if it was that one time, during the Great Flood that created this amazing feature on the face of the earth – and no… this is not opened for argument or discussion, it’s just my thoughts.
I was trying to take a picture of myself BY myself, while my photographer was still soaking in the fantastic view. Not too bad lah, except for my hair!
Ok, finally, last stop on the map – London Bridge.
Of course they didn’t fly to London and carried the whole bridge over and planted it here. Actually there is suppose to be 2 archs. The arch closest to the shoreline collapsed unexpectedly on 15 January 1990, leaving two tourists stranded on the outer part: they were rescued by 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.
So yeah, London Bridge has fallen down!
Many people say the trip on the Great Ocean Road is not worth it, it’s boring, come all the way down here just to see rocks… blah blah blah… Well, I think it’s definitely worth it. It’s just breathtaking, awesome.
Drive down here, stop by the little towns, enjoy a cup of coffee, continue your journey, stop by little towns again for an ice cream, lunch, and most importantly, be on a vigilant lookout for koalas!
More tomorrow.
it’s not boring, it’s beautiful!
Very, very beautiful indeed! To reach Gibson Steps, takes 2 hours drive from the little town of Lorne. But we took longer than that, alot of diversions along the way, the view is just too fantastic not to stop along the road.