The Great Ocean Road, Australia Nov. 5, 2012

The Great Ocean Road-Australia

This is the city of Melbourne from our hotel room at the Grand Hyatt

The Great Ocean Road hugs the southern coastline of Australia.   

The coastline road

Those are all surfers trying to catch a wave. 

It is a pretty coastline

 We rented a car and drove southwest from Melbourne for an hour and a half before reaching the coast at Anglesea.  We watched the surfers catch the regular breaking rolling surf.  The waves looked perfect for beginning surfers.  Everyone in the water was dressed in full-length wet suits.  The Great Ocean Road is not very long (about 350 kilometers) but is a narrow and windy road so it will take us about 6 hours to drive to the town of Port Campbell.  Unfortunately, we have no time to stop and surf.

All the surfers in their full length wet suits.  The waves are very rounded, consistent and have a continuous roll.

 They celebrate the Great Ocean Road by staging a road rally for vintage cars.  This is a Vauxhall.  It looks like it has an aluminum body.

It looks like a full aluminum car

 Fish and Chips at a seaside town were in order, so we stopped at the quaint little town of Lorne for lunch.

There are rainforests along the road to walk through.  We walked on a wooden pathway through the Otway National Park.  There were 300-year-old Eucalyptus trees and beautiful fern gullies. The air was heavy from all of the trees and you felt like you were in a spa with the eucalyptus aroma coming off the wet leaves.  It was an enchanted forest. We watched for Koalas in the eucalyptus trees before entering the rainforest but came up empty handed.

Beautiful ferns

Huge trees reaching for the sky

Barb getting a little wet from the rain

A lot of the trunks have openings so big that you can stand in them

Lots of moss

An enchanted forest

Scott

 The road winds through beautiful grassy hillsides with cows grazing in fields with sheep over the next hill.  There are signs along the road to watch for Koalas and Kangaroos.

Beautiful grassy hillsides

Farms dot the hillsides

You have to watch out for the Kangaroos and Koalas!

 Near Port Campbell are the Twelve Apostles. Except there are only eight.  Four of them have fallen into the sea. (These are gigantic rock formations in the ocean).  They are quite spectacular.

Barb at the windy lookout point

Spectacular monoliths coming out of the sea

Self portrait

Not sure which Apostle this is

Pretty colors

 

Many ships have crashed against the rocks on this coast.  We walked to a coastal lookout to look at the spot where the Loch Ard clipper ship was dashed against the rocks.  

So close to shore and still a shipwreck.  Dangerous coastline.

Gorgeous inlet

Reminds us a little bit of the slot canyons in Lake Powell

The ship wrecked out on the furthest point

Beautiful arch.  When the seas are rough the water sprays up through the arch.

 We found a motel in Port Campbell and spent the night.  Tomorrow we will head back to Melbourne to catch a flight to Sydney.