Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Trip To Victoria - Day Five

Up early for breakfast, much like the sort of breakfast I had when on holidays at Aunty Joan's house when I was a kid, and a game of Trouble before heading off to the Great Ocean Road. Man, it's a long, winding road along cliff edges.

There were a few points of interest along the way. One good trick was to follow tourist buses around. They stop at the best vantage points and you save some $120 per head.

If you, as a tourist, had gotten this far I didn't think that you would need reminding which side of the road to drive on. Perhaps it's for the benefit of the Victorian drivers themselves.

Urquhart Lookout - a tourist bus was parked here so it was worth a look.

The spectacular view from Urquhart Lookout.

Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road was pretty much like this all the way.

Potter Point was another vantage point.

Took the opportunity to get a family photo in.

One tour bus that we followed for a while to take advantage of the best spots that they knew about.

Great views wherever you looked.

Stunning shoreline.

This is the sort of clifftop driving that there was a great deal of. Photo taken at Cape Patton Lookout.

Apollo Bay

Stopped for lunch at Apollo Bay and the place was teeming with Korean tourists. Who'd a-thought? It was a strange feeling.

Apollo Bay.

Mait's Rest Rainforest Walk - part of the Otway Ranges and there is a 30 minute walking path set in amongst the rainforest. Quite chilly inside and huge trees and ferns on display. A nice little detour and worth the visit.

Gives you some idea of the growth in the rainforest at Mait's Rest Rainforest Walk.

The Rainforest Walk itself.

They reckon this is a couple of trees that just fused together.

A myrtle beech, like this hollowed-out one, takes some 350 years to reach maturity. And they are massive trees.

Giants of the rainforest.

Even the ferns were huge in the rainforest.

Cape Otway Lighthouse - we had seen enough of lighthouses on our last holiday and certainly didn't want to spend a heap of money when I just wanted to see the cliffs. So we took another path that didn't cost anything.

Cape Otway Lighthouse - not worth the long drive to get there.

The 12 Apostles - truly breathtaking. No wonder tourists come a long way to see this. Definitely worth the effort to see. It was a bit of a pity that we arrived later in the afternoon and it wasn't conducive to good photography. Helicopter tours were available too. The place was pretty busy with tourists but there was only one tourist bus there during our visit.

The entrance to the Twelve Apostles National Park.

Twelve Apostles.

One of the giant stacks up close.

Twelve Apostles.

Twelve Apostles.

Twelve Apostles.

Twelve Apostles.

Twelve Apostles.

Twelve Apostles.

Twelve Apostles.

Cliff face at the Twelve Apostles.

Cliff face at the Twelve Apostles.

Cliff face at the Twelve Apostles.

Boxing the Apostle.

Loch Ard Gorge - named after the Loch Ard, a ship that was wrecked against the cliffs. Some very nicely manicured cliffs.

Loch Ard Gorge.

Loch Ard Gorge.

Natural archway at the Loch Ard Gorge.

We stayed the night in Port Campbell, an old fishing village. Had pizza and pasta for tea. The servings were huge but the taste was heading in the other direction. Unfortunately the pasta had pine nuts in it so Yu-Jin couldn't touch any of it. After tea Yu-Jin and I played a card game that Aunty Joan had given him. I beat him so badly, he insisted on played the skills game, and made him quite upset. Before going to bed he read me a great book about a giant that Aunty Joan had given him also.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ta, very much. Lovely pics.

Anonymous said...

Were the trees as big as the Kauris in W.A?

Hammy said...

Nah, I reckon the karris are bigger but they are probably older too as this area in Victoria was heavily logged. The tallest tree in the world came from Victoria - a gum tree estimated to be 150m tall. It was cut down a long time ago.