Before I update you on Melbourne in a future text (beautiful city and definitely in the top 10 cities of the world that K and I have visited), I must tell you about our trip to Melbourne along the southern coast of Victoria. Victoria is mainland-Australia's smallest state (only Tasmania - island state - is smaller, and Australia also has a number of territories), but Victoria is the most densely populated. Along the south west coast of Victoria is miles and miles of sea cliff and beach. After WW I, the Australian government had returning veterans build the Great Ocean Road (then called the Southern Road) as a way to put them to work and serve as a war memorial to their fallen comrades. Officially, it is just under 250k (about 150 miles). Unofficially, it is a bit longer and extended on both ends (allowing more towns and tourism to flourish).
Small side story before I begin... the night before, our hotel's clothes dryer was not working. So we had a stack of wet - albeit clean - clothes and an early start the next morning. This created what I have come to call the "Great Dryer Incident of 2014." Let's just say that K was not pleased and her mood that evening reflected her displeasure with things (the dryer, the hotel, me, ...). By morning, she was fine, happy and normal K. However, I learned why traveling with my wife is a special treat. She plans for every contingency. Little known to me, she had packed huge (2' by 3') zip lock bags. The clothes that did not air dry by morning were folded and zipped into one of these bags. Guys - would you have ever thought of circumstances to which you needed to pack and carry super big zip lock bags? No - of course not, but this is why we have these wonderful women in our lives. That is my K.
We began our journey leaving South Australia on the morning of March 17th (perfect timing as it is just the start of fall here - not too hot or cold - and the summer crowds have all gone). We took two full days to travel this beautiful icon (arriving in Melbourne the night of March 18th), but if you have more time to give the trip I would advise it.
As we left Mount Gambier (the last city in SA before crossing into Victoria), our first stop was the Cape Nelson lighthouse. As you will see, this is the first of many lighthouses along the coast. In fact, this coast is known as Shipwreck Coast. Some 800+ ships were lost over the years (especially in the early days of western colonization of this country) - many of them on the last leg of their journey before reaching Melbourne, Hobart (Tasmania) or Sydney. So the need for lots of lighthouses is apparent even to this day. In fact, some of these old lighthouses are still operational.
As we were taking our photos of the coast and lighthouse, we were visited by a little kangaroo (or what I think is actually a wallaby - which is a smaller kangaroo variety here in Australia).
From Cape Nelson, we traveled down the coast to Port Fairy - a small cute fishing port town (with another lighthouse) and beautiful sandy beach. Port Fairy is what many believe to be the start (if not official) of the Great Ocean Road on the west side.
The coast itself is stunning - turquoise water with high limestone rock cliffs and small stunning beaches. As you near Port Campbell coming in from the west, you reach the first two iconic formations (that make the Great Ocean Road famous): Bay of Islands and Bay of Martyrs. These are two limestone cliff coasts, where sea, weather and time have eroded the area to create some small bays and high cliff islands in the sea. I hope you can see by the two selected pictures from these two attractions just how beautiful this coast can be. Along the entire coast, we found ourselves driving for a few kilometers and then quickly pulling over around each turn and bend of the road - it was that beautiful.
Next, a couple of beautiful bays and beaches: Croft's Bay and Massacre Bay.
The beauty was so great and plentiful, sometimes the overlooks/bays went unnamed like the one below.
Believe it or not - as we were to learn - this was just the mundane stuff on the Great Ocean Road. Up next was "the Grotto." A gorgeous natural arch cut into a small bay with a natural sea pool under the arch yet above the sea (K caught a partially nude girl swimming in the pool as we arrived - dang it, I was late).
The London Bridge is surrounded by a bay with the most incredible beach I have seen - unfortunately, without a very long rope or very big ladder, no one can visit the beach!
One of my reasons for liking this gorge is also the tragic story behind its name. It was named for the Loch Ard - a ship carrying immigrants out of Britain) in 1878. On her last night at sea with her crew and passengers celebrating their last night at sea and their new life in a new country (they were headed for Melbourne the next morning), she crashed against an island (Mutton Bird Island above) outside this gorge. Only 2 people survived - a teenage Irish girl and one junior British apprentice crew member. They swam into this gorge where he climbed the walls of the gorge the next day to sound the alarm.
The coupe des gras of the Great Ocean Road (considered the icon of the icon if you will) is the "12 Apostles." The "Apostles" are the limestone stacks or mini-islands you see in the picture below. By some guides/experts, there really aren't twelve of these stacks. It all depends on how far down the coast you go and what you count (do you count some of the islands as a stack?). But, the Australians found that you get more attraction if you give these things a name and since apostles come by the dozen it seemed a better name.
We wrapped up our day driving into the rainforest of the southern coast - more on some of that later as I report on the rest of our Great Ocean Road journey. I'll wrap up with a picture of a critter we encountered on our last overlook of the coast towards sunset. We thought it first to be a porcupine. We learned later it is an echidna - an egg laying mammal that is also known as the spiny anteater. They are found in Australia and New Guinea.
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