Friday 4th November
It was a 7.25am pick up at the Vibe Savoy Hotel just round the corner in
Little Collins Street. Rob our driver and guide, originally from Hemel Hempstead
was very chatty and incredibly good at remembering names. I am always impressed
by anyone who can be cheerful before 9 am. On the tour were two American
couples, one retired, from Seattle and the other couple middle-aged from N
Carolina, a couple from Germany, a mother and daughter from Philippines and two
young guys from Singapore. The initial
drive out of Melbourne for about 100 km past Geelong along the motorway wasn’t
very exciting but just after 9am we stopped for coffee and biscuits at a beach and
from there on the scenery was beautiful, helped by brilliant sunshine.
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| Beautiful Morning on the Victoria Coast |
Rob provided lots of information about the historical background to the
building of the Great Ocean Road, essentially a make-work scheme for the
returning soldiers from the First World War Stopped to take photos at the Great
Ocean Road Memorial Arch and then stopped briefly just outside Lorne, one of
several resorts along the coast, where we saw our first Koala asleep up a tree.
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| Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch |
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Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch
Memories of the First World War never seem far away in Australia |
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| Lorne |
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| Koala or a ball of fur? |
The Kennett River Camping site proved the unlikely place for seeing
koalas and pretty birds. Took lots of photos of sleeping koalas, none of which
were much good. If only they wouldn’t sleep behind all those leaves!
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| Crimson Rosella |
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| Australian King Parrot? |
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| Kookaburra |
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| Koala hiding. Maybe they are shy? |
Stopped for a tasty and filling lunch at Apollo Beach and then
went for a walk in the woods at Mait’s Rest in the Otways nature reserve, where
huge mountain ash trees, myrtle beech and tree ferns create a slightly spooky,
dense forest said to be unchanged for 20 million years.
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| Ginger Beer with Lunch |
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| Tree Ferns in the Forest |
Our next stop was, or should it be were, the twelve apostles, of which
there are only seven. According to Rob, and backed up by Wikipedia, the name
was a mistake but not surprisingly the tourist authorities thought it was an
improvement on the older name of the “Sow and Pigs”. They were indeed very
impressive as was the gale force wind which made it hard to hold the camera
steady.
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| Rugged Coastline |
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| Two Apostles |
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| More Apostles |
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| Bad Hair Day |
Our last stop before dinner was at Loch Ard Gorge, where a
tragedy unfolded in 1878 when the sailing ship Loch Ard ran aground on the rocks
off the coast after its three month voyage from England and just a day before
it was due to arrive in Melbourne. All but two of the fifty two people on board
died, the two survivors being washed up in the gorge that bears the name of the
ship. This coast was infamous for shipwrecks, over 600 during the 1800’s. We
had dinner, excellent fish and chips for me, at Port Campbell from where we
made our way back to Melbourne along an inland route where we saw our one and
only wallaby crossing the road.
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| Loch Ard Gorge |
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| Island Archway, but the arch collapsed in 2009 leaving two isolated stacks |
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| Fish and Chip Shop in Port Campbell |
Impressed with the bird pictures, surely harder to photograph than the sleeping koalas?
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