Following healthy breakfast we embarked on a days drive to see the ’12 Apostles’, a famous geological coastline feature close to Port Campbell, further west along the Great Ocean Road. We first stopped off at Cape Otway for tour inside the most famous light house in Australia, involving 10km detour along a track lined with eucalyptus trees full of koalas. For many emigrees making the 3-4 month perilous journey to Australia, the lighthouse was their first sight of land since departing England. Sadly, many ships ran aground along the notoriously dangerous coastline between Cape Otway and Torquay, drowning many within sight of a new life.
While the distance to Port Campbell is not great, the winding narrow coastal road meant driving conditions were more tortuous than the Monaco grand prix, delaying our arrival until mid afternoon. Journey time would have been much longer, were it not for the expletives hurled by Astrid at grandmothers and other cautious and gentile drivers holding up traffic. However, our efforts (and impatience) were magestically rewarded with fantastic views of solitary limestone monoliths carved out from the cliffs by wave action over many eons. The result speaks more to native legend than grinding geological processes.
To alleviate boredom on the return journey, we left the Great Ocean Road at Lavers Hill, passing through Beach Forrest and thence along an old logging road, through spectacular primary coastal woodland to Tanbryn and sharp right to Skenes Creek. We eventually reached Lorne early evening, after which we cooked dinner, and then watched a few more episodes of Benidorm
No comments:
Post a Comment