Great Ocean Road

Hello again everyone,

It’s only been a couple days since my last posting, but I had such an incredible weekend I just couldn’t wait to share.  We got up early Saturday morning, packed an overnight bag, and drove inland a bit to Bacchus Marsh.  They were having their 4^th annual Strawberries and Cherries Weekend!  Our first stop was a little orchard asking a mere $8/kg for self-picked cherries. We were led out to the trees by the owner who demonstrated the proper technique for picking cherries and left us with a step stool and a couple crates for our haul.  Amazingly, we ended up with about 3-1/2 kilos of cherries despite eating every other bunch we pulled off the tree.  We then moved down the road for strawberries, stopped at the Big Apple Tourist Orchard store for some fresh goat’s cheese and tomatoes, and picked up some freshly baked bread at the bakery. After a stroll along Main Street (and some cherry and strawberry ice cream) we packed up our pillage and took off for the Great Ocean Road. 

Bells Beach!

We started our Great Ocean Road expedition at Bells Beach!!!  It was a bit surreal to stand on such a famous beach watching the surfers out in the waves and the paragliders suspended in the updraft over the cliff.  There was a group of older gentlemen there decked out in their wetsuits videotaping each other walking down the beach with their boards.  You could just imagine them all as young boys doing the exact same thing 30 years ago.

Cape Patton

Our journey continued on making various stops for pictures along the way.  I am in awe of the magnificence of the views here.  I went a little camera-crazy and should probably apologize for the quantity of pictures that accompany this in picasa, but I just couldn’t bring myself to leave any out.  We stopped in Lorne for a picnic lunch, dining on our take from Bacchus Marsh before driving on towards Apollo Bay for the night.  We checked into a little motel/restaurant along the beach and spent the rest of the night at the pub.

Twelve Apostles

We got up Sunday morning, Stephen and I a bit worse for wear, and promptly took a nap under a tree in the park.  Feeling a bit more human around noon we carried on towards The Twelve Apostles. A brief description I picked up from Wiki: “The apostles were formed by erosion: the harsh weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually eroded the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then became arches, which in turn collapsed; leaving rock stacks up to 45 metres high. The site was known as the Sow and Piglets until 1922 (Muttonbird Island, near Loch Ard Gorge, was the Sow, and the smaller rock stacks the Piglets); after which it was renamed to The Apostles for tourism purposes. The formation eventually became known as the Twelve Apostles, despite only ever having nine stacks.”  There was a strong wind coming across the cliffs but the view was well worth the 30 minutes of cold.

We moved on to Loch Ard Gorge after leaving the Twelve Apostles and finally made our way to Port Campbell and essentially the end of the Great Ocean Road!  After another beachfront picnic we hopped on the highway and came back to Melbourne.

You can check out the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/smichelle.manning/GreatOceanRoad?feat=directlink.

Much Love!