Watching the surf.
Today we chose to go on a coach trip along the Great Ocean road, built by returning soldiers from the first world war. It gave them a job on their return and they were all volunteers who where paid very well. The only thing was that it was dug out by hand and instead of taken 3 months as first predicted, it took a year with extra help being employed.
We started off going to the road via Geelong, made famous many years ago when Prince Charles was there for two years of schooling.
Once past this we drove to the start of the Great Ocean Road and it took us along wonderful winding roads hugging the cliffs and down to beautiful bays. These bays are famous for their surf and many world comps are held here every year. One of the beaches Bells Beach was just being set up for a major competition next week, but we did manage to see the great surf swells from the road and these were all along the coast.
We stopped off at many bays some of which were very rocky so no good for surfing, but it was wonderful to see such great big waves crashing into shore.
Lunch break was joined by many parrots and other birds and they were very interested in the bird seed sold locally!! The Koala bears here are twice the size of the ones found in captivity and are very wild. You certainly would not want t hug these, they have no interaction with humans at all. They have very sharp claws and can inflict nasty injuries if provoked. So we left them alone!!!
We then went on to walk in the rainforest again. Each one was so different from the last, this one was mainly large beech and many ferns (and leeches!!). The walks are all controlled so there is no problem with anyone getting lost thank goodness.
Onward again and we found ourselves at Loch Ard Gorge, so named after a shipwreck. The sailing vessel had completed its journey from England with immigrants aboard. They were celebrating the fact that after all the weeks at sea they had arrived off of the coast. Unfortunately a thick fog came down and the ship lost its bearings and wrecked on the rocks of this bay. Two people survived, one lad Tom Pearce got himself to shore and then heard cries and swam out again and dragged a young Irish girl to the beach.
Seeing the pounding of the waves and the rocks it is a wonder they survived at all. The area was then named Loch Ard. All along this coastline there are large rocks of sandstone jutting out to sea, twelve of them in formation are called the Twelve Apostles. David took the helicopter flight to see them from the air (I stayed firmly on the ground). The weather was closing in and we got soaked!! We made it hot foot to the coach and then drove on to see London Bridge. This area was in fact all one piece until 1990 when part of the sandstone bridge collapsed. There were a people stranded on the far side and a helicopter had to be brought in to rescue them. Unfortunately for the couple, they had been on a days jolly from work and each were married to different partners!!! Caught in the act!!!
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