The Great Ocean Road – The Blue Lake – Mount Gambier

 

While finishing odd the Great Ocean Road we visited the Waworong Lookout up on the rim, looking down on The Blue Lake, just outside of Mount Gambier. Waworong Lookout gets its name from the aboriginal Booandik Tribe’s word for ‘Blue Lake’.  The Blue Lake supplies water for the City of Mount Gambier and gets its name quite simply from the bright blue colour of the water. In a couple of days each November the water turns a vivid blue, then after summer, usually in late March it gradually fades until the water is grey during the winter.

 

Blue Lake Mt Gambier 2011 02 27 2 The Great Ocean Road The Blue Lake Mount Gambier
Blue Lake Mt Gambier 2011 02 27 2 The Great Ocean Road The Blue Lake Mount Gambier
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The Great Ocean Road – London Bridge – Port Campbell National Park

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London Bridge … has fallen down! The collapse of London Bridge was only a matter of time. One evening in January 1990 the main arch of the London Bridge collapsed, breaking it away from the mainland.  Fotunately noone was injured and the only drama was a couple of people who were marooned on the newly formed island until rescue from helicopter.

London Bridge is still a fascinating feature and the size of it is hard to comprehend.  It is located near the Twelve Apostles National Park it is further down in the Port Campbell National Park.


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The Great Ocean Road – Lock Ard Gorge – Twelve Apostles National Park

 

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With the rest of the day after a morning at the Twelve Apostles we had plenty of time to enjoy Lock Ard Gorge, the Ship Wreak Coast and the rest of the Twelve Apostles National Park.
All the coasts features are amazing along this stretch and we explored this area with excitement, going down to the caves at the bottom of the cliffs and looking at ‘the razorback’ and other features from above. Reading about this coastline was fantastic too the erosion to the rock not only from the waves but the spray and wind too which harden some parts of the rock while the soft parts then crumble away. Realising how fast parts of the coastline was receding and how much was disappearing to the sea I wondered how much would be left in 10 years time.

 

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The Great Ocean Road – The Arch & Grotto – Twelve Apostles National Park

Great Ocean Road The Arch 003 300x200 The Great Ocean Road The Arch & Grotto Twelve Apostles National Park

Another feature of the Twelve Apostles National Park was this archway, lesser known between Lock Ard Gorge and London Bridge. It is marked on tour guides and maps just as The Arch and we were grateful to have some time here away from the crowds that flock to the more well known features.

The Grotto in the Port Campbell National Park is another of the lesser visited attraction often bypassed by the coach tours from Melbourne. The pool of water underneath the archway looked incredibly inviting but unfortunately there is no access underneath the archway.

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The Great Ocean Road – Gibsons Steps

Just before you arrive at the infamous Twelve Apostles there is Gibsons Steps (heading west). These steps allow you to negotiate down the sheer limestone cliffs to the beach below. Standing below these cliffs you can really get a perspective of the sheer size of the cliffs along this stretch of the Great Ocean Road and therefore the size of the Apostles that stand proudly round the corner.

The steps allowed us to get down and close to the famed treacherous sea that is the Bass Strait. Standing on the sands watching this crashing surf I felt for the sailors of past who navigated this coastline, many having almost completed their passage all the way from Europe, only to come to grief upon the rocks that lurked like sharks in the water.

It was definitely worth the walk down even though the steps were hard work on the way back up again!

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The Great Ocean Road – Cape Otway Lighthouse

The sea is treacherous along this coastline as wind and currents are variable and the shallow, 80 meter average depth of Bass Strait makes it a graveyard for ships. There have been 55 recorded shipwrecks between Cape Otway and Point Lonsdale since 1853. The Cape Otway Lighthouse made it a lot safer from 1848 but storms and human error have always dogged the region.

Today the Lighthouse is proudly open to the public for tours and adventures into the past. Emily and I were able to view the lighthouse from along the Great Ocean Road Walk at Lighthouse Lookout.

The most serious wrecks occurred in the nineteenth century with some loss of life. Rescues were made by brave local men in small boats or by firing a rocket onto the ships from land but survival was often a chance of luck. In 1940 the 5883 ton ‘MS City of Rayville’, hit a German sea mine just off Cape Otway and was the first American Ship sunk during the Second World War, even before the Americans had joined the war. The noise of the explosion alerted the nearby fishing town and local fishermen helped rescue the crew. Amazingly only one crew member died as he had returned to his cabin to collect his personal effects.

Getting supplies to the Cape Otway Lighthouse was always a dangerous challenge. Most of the supplies for the lighthouse keeper and his family were brought in by boat before there was passage across the mainland. Unfortunately due to the treacherousness of the coast three brave men lost their lives on this quest and they are commemorated at the lighthouse where they were laid to rest.

Next to the lighthouse stands a telegraph centre. This telegraph centre was a poineer in that it was the link, for a short time at least, to communications with Tasmania. They laid underwater cables which ran across the bottom of Bass Strait all the way across to Tasmania allowing telegraph messages to be sent to Australia’s colony. Unfortunately the rough seas and coral put an end to communications, destroying the cable but the telegraph centre stayed as a means of sending messages to major ports like Melbourne and Sydney to make them aware of incoming ships that would be arriving imminently.

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The Great Ocean Road – The Twelve Apostles

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One of the highlights without a doubt of our drive along the Great Ocean Road has been our visit to the Twelve Apostles or should I say visits!  Having decided to stop the night in a caravan park with showers (much excitement!) in Princetown only 4km from the Twelve Apostles despite knowing we had the whole of the next day to enjoy the Twelve Apostles National Park, we couldn’t resist a sneaky premature peak! Having secured a pitch mid afternoon Emily and I headed down the road and pulled in at the Twelve Apostles car park and walked out to the cliffs and boardwalks that offer the best views of these magnificent stacks of limestone.

With the afternoon sun the Apostles were lit from behind, silhouetted and standing tall. The photographs that came out best were shot towards the east as the rock was detailed. I was eager to return in the morning when I could capture these awe-inspiring formations.
Before the morning there was evening though and we were treated to a beautiful sunset. Although we were late (due to the shower block and a new hair cut for me) we were in time to catch the Apostles as the sun set. I could have stayed there all night with the prospect of a starlit night but with the sun out of sight, the air grew cooler rapidly and my jumper wasn’t sufficient.
The next morning brimming with excitement I almost charged down the boardwalks to see the Apostles in what I knew would be the best light and they didn’t disappoint.  Seeing the Apostles at three markedly different times of day was an experience I shall never forget. I do apologise for the cliché though!

 

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The Great Ocean Road – Overnight stop with Carlos the Koala!

Carlos the Koala 2011 02 241 300x200 The Great Ocean Road Overnight stop with Carlos the Koala!

Travelling around in our blue camper van has been a truly amazing experience. The other night we stayed at one of Victoria’s free campsites. Aires River East Campground is a fantastic place to stop overnight with good facilities. Toilets (with loo paper!) Fire pits and great surroundings that we have found common with these overnight stopovers. While we were sitting enjoying the arrival of the evening, reading our books next to our camper, we were treated to the arrival of Carlos the koala! He climbed up into the tree we were parked next to and proceeded to munch away! We were delighted as (the quickly dubbed) Carlos was the first wild koala we had seen and it was especially rare to have him to ourselves without a large audience.

Carlos spent the night with us sleeping in the tree and in the morning he woke when we did and proceeded to dismount the tree without an ounce of grace, landing with an undignified thump on the floor having fallen!

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The Great Ocean Road – Maits Rest Rainforest Walk

Well worth a see is Victoria’s Maits Rest Rainforest Walk. Maits Rest Rainforest is a cool temperate rainforest, it lies protected in a gully in the Otway Ranges, which provides it with its rare climate. The huge Beeches and Tree-ferns here would have been once common across the Otway Ranges. The walk takes about half an hour (allowing time to pose in the roots of the vast tree roots!) and there are boardwalks across the more difficult sections making it an even gradient and easy walk.

Maits Rest was named after the districts first forestry officer, Maitland Bryan. His family still live in the Otway District.

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The Great Ocean Road – Cape Patton Lookout

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Cape Patton Lookout is a pull-in just off the Great Ocean Road. Whilst exploring this streatch of coatline in 1800, Captin Grant named this cape after a British admiral. The Cape Patton cliffs are some of the highest along the Victoria coast and are embedded with old dinosaur bones in the rock layers of sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.

This section of the Great Ocean Road was built in 1935 by the GOR Trust. It linked the road in Apollo Bay that was built in 1919 to the road from Wye River. Construction on the cliff face was an engineering feat with the road being supported by tonnes of boulders and scree removed from the hillside. This sheerness of the cliffs was apparent especially was we were held up for half an hour along this stretch as a climber was dislodging any loose rocks that may fall on unsuspecting cars passing by.

The view from Cape Patton along the coast to the west was beautiful and well worth pulling in to see.

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