Day 10: Great Ocean Road: The Twelve Apostles

The drive along the Great Ocean Road is truly majestic...and slow! There are lots of places to stop off and take in the view. We chose to head straight for the Twelve Apostles today and have a walk around Loch Ard Gorge.







The Twelve Apostles are quite amazing, as their size is phenomenal and one really feels quite insignificant when you see the power of the ocean and what it can do. The only drawback to this little adventure were the evil flies at the lookout area, which was also so hot it felt like we were slowly being roasted.





The aforementioned evil flies seemed to follow us to Loch Ard Gorge, the site of a big shipwreck in the 1800s. So bad were they, that we had to set ourselves the challenge of not mentioning the words 'evil' and 'flies' in conversation as we walked along all the different paths. Andrew lost by a mile, not being able to stop himself mentioning these nasty little beasts as they tried to find moisture in our various orifices. It was to the great delight of everyone that I seemed to attract the most flies, having quite a collection finding a resting place on my back. This in itself was interesting as I was the only one who put on insect repellant sunscreen. Go figure.


Features of Loch Ard Gorge included a blow hole (see above picture), thunder cave, various lookouts at the eroding cliffs, a beach (see picture below) and a grave yard. Only two people survived the wreck, and those four bodies that were recovered from the wreck of the Loch Ard are buried in the graveyard.

Our journey back to Lorne took a bit longer than we anticipated because there was a collision on the road between Skenes River and Lorne, so the police blocked the whole stretch of road. We found ourselves having to make a detour through the forest, which was a bit hair-raising as the road was not fantastic. We put Sheila to work and she at least confirmed that we were heading in the right direction. When we came into Lorne the same 'road closed' signs were up, but we decided to chance it and see if we could get to Cumberland River (4kms along the road). If the accident was before CR, we would be stuck, but if it was after then we would be able to get to the caravan park. Luck was with us this time, as the accident was about 100m up the road from the park, on the other side, so we were allowed to pass and get back to the van, coffee and FOOD!