Day 19 Sunday, March 31, 2019 Melbourne
We had a spectacular tour along the Great Ocean Road and to the Twelve Apostles.
Emily picked us up at the meeting place, which turned out to be a hotel only 30 yards from our apartment complex. She was a delightful guide, always making us laugh, playing cool music, telling funny stories, and helping us to enjoy the day. As we drove around the town picking up others from their hotels and then driving out of town, we were in the middle of a huge bicycling event. Thousands of riders, with their numbers attached, were all over the place, and frequently we had to wait for them to pass by before being allowed to proceed.
Over the massive West Gate Bridge, the cyclists enjoyed two blocked lanes for themselves as they rode to the western suburbs. This event was huge.
Emily told an interesting story about the West Gate Bridge AFTER we had crossed it: Two years into its construction, in 1970, a 367-ft span collapsed. 35 construction workers were killed and 18 injured,
making it Australia's worst industrial accident. The whole 4,400,000-lb mass plummeted into the Yarra River mud with an explosion
of gas, dust and mangled metal that shook buildings hundreds of yards
away. It was determined that it was a structural defect. Construction resumed in 1972, with the bridge being completed in 1978. The
bridge carries up to 200,000 vehicles per day for this major freeway leading to the western suburbs.
It is twice as long as the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The red line on this map shows our exact route for this tour. The views along the coast were constantly spectacular, and then we circled back inland through Colac. Every stop we made and where I have taken the photos below are identified on this map.
We drove non-stop to the SW of Melbourne, through the suburb of Geelong, and then south to the beach at the "Surf City" town of Torquay. There, we had a short break to watch the surfers, drink hot coffee, tea, or cocoa, and eat pastries. This marked the beginning of the Great Ocean Road.
The Australian National Surfers Museum is in this town. Emily played Beach Boys surfing songs, while telling us that the surfing craze started there following the 1956 Olympic Games held in Melbourne. By the way, all morning long, there were hot-shot cyclists all along the Great Ocean Road, speeding along in pacelines on this perfect Sunday morning. Many looked like club or team rides since they were wearing matching kits.
Smile for the camera! Emily told the story of a 1991 movie called
Point Break that especially put this area on the "surfers' world map." It was a surfing-action film whose final scenes were supposedly taking place at Bells Beach, a mile to the SW from here. In the movie, a record storm is producing lethal waves, which the lead character (Patrick Swayze) calls the "50-Year Storm" that he has always wanted to surf. The cop (Keanu Reeves) attempts to bring him into custody for some crime, but he begs the cop to
release him so he can ride the once-in-a-lifetime wave. Knowing the surfer
will not come back alive, the cop releases him, bids him farewell, and sees
him surf to
his death. Whoa! Emily said that these scenes were actually filmed in Oregon, but it made this area an ultimate goal for top surfers around the world.
A bit west of Torquay was the Great Ocean Road Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery, which Emily said had 4700 people lined up on their opening day in 2017.
After continuing southwest past beautiful ocean scenery and through the pretty town of Anglesea, we arrived at the Eastern View Memorial Arch to mark the official beginning of The Great Ocean Road. Markers explained its history: Following WWI, they needed to put returning soldiers and sailors to work, so they employed 3000 of them to build this road. It's 186 miles long, built between 1919 and 1935. It reminded me of a combination of the building of our Blue Ridge Parkway and California Hwy 1.
This sculpture ("The Diggers") shows the camaraderie of the war veterans as they toiled to build this road from nothing (no previous road had been along this coastline). The war had a devastating effect on the country, as noted on a marker there: 330,000 volunteered for service, but 64,000 died and 160,000 were wounded. This was a casualty rate of 64%, higher than any other nation and the worst of any Australian conflict. As stated on the marker: "This loss had immense repercussions for the returned men and broader Australian community of 5 million people for ensuing decades."
We continued SW along the ocean with incredible views, coming to the resort town of Lorne. This is the old Lorne Theatre.
We stopped for a potty break here at Loutit Bay in Lorne.
Surfers here too. Lorne was named for the guy who married Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise.
As we were departing Lorne, we passed the Pacific Grand Hotel, an icon here dating from 1875.
Farther along the scenic coastline, we reached Kennett River, where we stopped in case anyone was hungry (we weren't). But Emily told us that the Eucalyptus trees here were known for having koalas and some flashy birds, so we went walking to see.
Sure enough, I caught this colorful Rosella Parrot.
It turned out that there were lots of these King Parrots, as you can see below.
Others from our tour fed them, so they were all over them.
We walked a little farther, and luckily, others in front of us were pointing to a spot in the gum tree, and we found him! Our first koala in the wild. Of course, they don't move a muscle.
This guy is so brilliant that it's hard to notice the duck behind him.
In another gum tree a ways from the previous koala, we saw another one! When we got going again, Emily played the Koala "Bear" song, a funny one about how it's NOT a bear. She also told us that "koala" means "no man, little drink", and that they actually do not drink much water.
A few miles farther, there was a scenic pull-out at Cape Patton. The section of the road between here and back to Wye River was completed finally in 1935, and is considered an engineering marvel due to the steep cliff faces they built on.
The view from Cape Patton looking back eastward, where we had come from.
Emily mentioned the Ash Wednesday fires that occurred here and far to the west on Feb 16, 1983, the deadliest in Australian history with 75 deaths. Within 12 hours, more than 180 fires fanned by winds of 68 mph caused widespread destruction across the states of Victoria and South Australia. Years of severe drought and extreme weather combined to create one of Australia's worst fire days in a century.
A ways farther was Apollo Bay, a fairly large city with many restaurants and a protected harbor. The entire tour group was served lunch at a Thai restaurant, and it was great. Upon strolling down the bay sidewalk, we saw this carved kangaroo, I bought a Great Ocean Road souvenir book, and Janet bought me THEE coolest surf shirt (see me in it in tomorrow's photos). This city is the closest point to Tasmania, 180 miles away, and there used to be an undersea telephone cable that stretched from here to there, in use between 1936 and 1968.
Emily told us about a shipwreck here in 1932, the SS Casino, which had on board 300 barrels of beer and spirits. Apparently, the clean-up workers decided to take two weeks off to have huge parties drinking all the goods!
From Apollo Bay, the road turned inland to skirt Cape Otway, the southern-most point. This took us to Maits Rest Rainforest Preserve, where we took a hike guided by Emily.
Awe, aren't they cute?
Having that fellow in the photo shows just how huge this tree is.
All the ferns reminded my of the rain forest we saw at Scenic World in the Blue Mtns.
Janet is talking with Emily on our rain forest walk.
These fungi were interesting.
The road met back with the coast and we soon reached one of the highlights of the Great Ocean Road, the Twelve Apostles. These columns of sandstone rock have formed after millions of years of coastal cliff erosion. There are now only 8 or 9 of them, although everyone seemed to have heard a different number still standing.
It's all a national park, of course, and is the 3rd-most-visited natural site in the country. This looks westward.
Looking eastward.
Getting this selfie was a challenge due to the millions of tourists wanting their group photos and elaborate selfies. These photos don't show all the people crowding the pathways, because I tried my best to keep them out of them.
Look at the pedestrian walkway along that sheer cliff.
How did those people get down there?
Just off the tourist pathway was this echidna, searching for ants! His nose and face were buried in the sand, so we couldn't see them, but you can see his legs/feet.We thought it was so exciting to get to see one of these rare mammals in the wild.
There's his leg!
We got back in the van and drove a few miles farther west to Port Campbell National Park, filled with stunning gorges. This one is Loch Ard Gorge, named for the crash of the Loch Ard clipper in 1878. Only two of the 54 passengers survived, a young cabin boy (Tom) who made it to the beach after many hours and then went back out for another hour to save an 18-yr-old girl (Eva). Emily said that romantics tried to make something of a "Tom and Eva" affair, but none of that was actually true.
This is the beach in Loch Ard Gorge. There were stairs down to there, but we didn't go.
One more special, pretty view of Loch Ard Gorge.
I'm really glad I hired a helicopter to get this picture! Ha. I wanted to show the overall dramatic coastline with all the spectacular gorges, cliffs, caves, and arches. Loch Ard Gorge is left of center and reaches farthest back to the car park. But you can see how many other gorgeous sights we got to see. The island in the front is Mutton Bird Island where the Loch Ard crashed. It has a beautiful arch. Farther back is Island Arch with another stunning arch, however...this photo is at least 10 years old, because that arch collapsed in 2009 (see my photos below of the new two islands). A thin island farther to the top right is Razorback, and I have several photos below.
That is Mutton Bird Island, with the arch.
This photo is taken from Tom and Eva Lookout!
Those two chunks used to be Island Arch, until 2009! Funny how the current Google photos as well as the one in my Great Ocean Road book still show those as an island with an arch.
Walking farther east I came to a lookout for Razorback. I have close-ups of both the thin, sharp top and the chunk falling into the sea.
This shows the thin, razored top of Razorback, with other islands and cliffs beyond. The stunning scenery just never ended.
Erosion at work.
Another stunning inlet.
I decided to scurry down the stairs to the beach, while Janet waited above.
Lots of steps down the steep cliff.
Definitely it was a vertical cliff, straight into the sandy beach.
Once back up and to the van, we headed home via an inland road. Emily told how in 1859, in Winchelsea, a fellow named Thomas Austin brought 24 breeding rabbits from England so that he could have something to hunt (he was bored) on his nearby estate. While this was were praised at the time, he has borne the brunt of blame for introducing this pest to Australia.
We stopped in Colac for dinner, and I thought this old cafe was cool-looking. It soon got dark before we got all the way back to Melbourne. The things I remember Emily telling us were about Men At Work, and their famous song, Land Down Under. In 2009, they were sued by the patent holder of Kookaberra Sits By the Old Gum Tree song, which came out in 1980. The plaintiff said that the Kookaberra melody (from 1934) was plagiarized, and the court agreed. Men At Work was ordered to pay the plaintiff 5% of the song's royalties, which meant a hefty payment. The plaintiffs had sought a payment of 60% of the song's royalties, but they did not get that much.
Emily said that she went to grade school with one of the Men At Work band members.
