The Great Ocean Road: Beauty Coast
Day 17
In the morning, I left the city early for a tour to visit the famous Great Ocean Road, along with other landmarks, most notably the Twelve Apostles. Great Ocean Road is a must-see sight if you plan to visit Melbourne. The road is 240km long and stretches from Port Phillip bay to Warrnambool.
The view on the Great Ocean Road is certainly spectacular, however, after 3 hours of twists and turns on this curvy road, I began to feel motion sickness. After taking Gravol pills, I requested to be seated beside the bus driver.
On our road trip, we visited the Split Point Lighthouse.
Afterwards, we visited the Great Ocean Road Memorial Archway. Here is a little background history about the Great Ocean Road. Great Ocean Road was built between 1919 and 1932 by World War I soldiers. After the world war, returned soldiers had a difficult time to re-integrate back to the society and were unable to find employment. At the same time, the local government planned to build a road that could connect all the cities and towns in southern Australia. Recognizing this opportunity, the local government foresaw the construction of the road not only as a way to employ returned soldiers, but also as a way to create a lasting monument for those who died in World War I. The Great Ocean Road Memorial Archway is to commemorate about that part of the history.
We also went to see the Loch Ard Gorge.
Of course, the grand finale was the Twelve Apostles. The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone off the shore of Port Campbell National Park. Ironically, the Twelve Apostles never had twelve stones to begin with. Originally, it had nine limestone and due to erosions, only eight remained on the shore. In addition, the name of place was originally called “the Sow and Piglets”. As the name suggests, it does not sound attractive. Therefore, the place was renamed as “the Twelve Apostles” because the British were religious.
The view of the Twelve Apostles can be described as a testament of long-standing structures attempting to withstand total erosion from indestructable forces of the ocean. This is a good demonstration of Earth vs time. Sooner or later, there will be no more Twelve Apostles.
When I arrived at the Twelve Apostles, the blue ocean was already tinted with yellow and orange colour.
I should also mention that this place is extremely windy. When you visit the Twelve Apostles, be prepared to be blown away!
Our tour stayed till sunset. Below are the pictures.
