The Great Ocean Road, Day 2

Early the next morning, we got up and had some breakfast. Then it was off to start another big day of adventuring. We still managed to get out of the hostel a bit later than planned. Complacency about group size is a dangerous thing.

Our first stop was the spot we had cut out the day before, London Bridge. This used to be connected to the mainland. There were two arches to the “bridge” and it was even possible to drive cars out onto the structure. Gradually erosion worked its magic and the first arch was worn away to where cars could no longer fit to make it across. People could still walk, though, and for many years many people did just that. Just why officials allowed it to continue for so long is somewhat unclear, but they didn't stop people from going across even as the last bit of rock got precariously small. One fine summer day, the area was swarming with people. The sun was bright and warm and people were out enjoying themselves. Lots of people were over on London Bridge. Suddenly amidst the revelry, someone heard a sound. A cracking sound. That person shouted out to everyone that the bridge was falling (I wonder if it was something like the song... probably not). In this case, the proper response was a mass, panicked exodus from the bridge. Almost everyone made it before the span fell, except for two. Somehow, they leapt back from the edge just as the rock collapsed and avoided falling into the ocean below, where they would almost certainly have been seriously injured and possibly killed. Now they were trapped on the new island. But it was a lovely day. Someone called for a helicopter to come and rescue them. Unfortunately, summer is bush fire season and there were several that required attention, and the helicopters were busy. They would come when they a spare block of time. No problem. The pair on the island were in no danger; the day was warm. They could wait. They seemed quite relaxed and calm. Meanwhile, this was big news. There hadn't been a structure fall along the coast in a number of years and so the news groups in Melbourne got right on it. They sent their helicopters out to get the story. (I could already see where this was headed. If it was a movie, nobody would ever believe that it would happen like this.) The first news helicopter arrived and began to scout the location, taking photos and film footage for the news later. As the helicopter came up, the pair on the island got up, thinking it was the rescue helicopter. Suddenly the helicopter turned and they saw that it was a news helicopter. And their whole demeanor changed. Suddenly they turned away from the helicopter and hid their faces. When the helicopter would change to get a better view of the pair, they would turn away again. This was very strange. When the helicopters eventually left to get their stories in, the questions on everyone's minds were, who were they and why were they so camera shy? It turned out that although the couple was married, they were not married to each other and had been caught out by Mother Nature and television news. And that is the story of London Bridge, that has fallen down. Ha ha ha!!!

Next it was on another section of the coast, at the other end of the Twelve Apostles. Beyond a formation called the Razorback...

...the first of the Twelve Apostles could be viewed.

Next it was on to Loch Ard Gorge. Here was another sad story. In the early days of Australia, many settlers came to make new lives. There being no planes at the time, this was an arduous, months-long journey by boat. One of the ships that brought people to their new lives was the Loch Ard. Now, just as a good Chinese bus wants to get as much as possible on board before setting off on its route, so ships would get as much cargo as possible. The Loch Ard had some 40 or so immigrants, a bunch of cargo, plus a number of paintings (that were going to be shown in an exhibition the following year in Melbourne) on board when it set off on its 91 day journey. All went very well, and the ship was travelling along the south coast towards Melbourne and reaching end of its journey. They were on day 90 and the end was in sight, almost literally. It was time to celebrate the end of the journey and the passengers and off-duty crew opened the wine and had a little party. But outside, ominous conditions were developing. A choking fog closed in. Then the winds picked up and a storm started. The storm got worse and the captain eventually excused himself to deal with it. Through the night, the captain fought the Loch Ard into staying afloat. When morning came, the storm still raged. A crew member was sent up to the eagle's nest to scout the way through the fog. Suddenly he saw they were bearing for a reef off the point of a small island. He alerted the captain, who used all his resources to turn the ship aside from its impending doom. But, laden down as it was, the ship refused to turn and collided with the reef. And it started to sink. It apparently sank in about 15 minutes. There were 54 people on the ship. Most went in and didn't come out. One young crewman, eighteen year old Tom Pearce clung to bits of the ship that floated and made his way into what became known as Loch Ard Gorge. Exhausted, he lay on the beach, all but certain that he was the lone survivor of the shipwreck. Then, through the gale, he heard the cries of another. At risk of his life, he re-entered the water and fought for an hour to bring the other survivor back to safety. This young survivor was one of the immigrants, eighteen year old Eva Carmichael. Together, exhausted, they headed to the back of the beach in the gorge and found a cave where they sheltered for the night. The next day, Tom somehow scaled the cliff and found help. They rescued Eva and then both were taken to hospital. Tom recovered quickly, but Eva had lost the other seven members of her family and she was devastated. She remained in hospital, broken and in despair for some weeks. Tom visited her everyday, and in time she recovered her health and her mind. Then... (are you ready for a fairy-tale ending?)

Eva went back to Ireland, got married and never left her homeland again. Tom went on to get married, have two sons, who both died in other shipwrecks, before going on to survive two more himself. He died a somewhat broken man in his forties. Yeah. I was hoping for the other ending, too.

And it all happened here.

After Loch Ard Gorge, we headed back for another look at the Twelve Apostles. They were more impressive in the daylight. I'm not sure I would think so if the sunset had worked out, but in our case, the more impressive view was in full daylight.

Now, Jude had been telling us about the opportunity to take a helicopter sightseeing flight over the Twelve Apostles. Somehow the owners of the tour company had worked out a deal with the helicopter tour outfit at the site to have a cheap flight available to people on that tour. For 70 dollars, we could go and look at the Twelve Apostles from above for about a 7 minute flight. I could never do something like that at home for so cheap. I hemmed and hawed for some time over it. I eventually went back to my criteria for when to do something like that. A long time I decided that, if I were ever faced with a more-expensive-than-I-planned choice or activity, I would think about whether I could do something quite similar at home. If I could, I wouldn't bother. If I couldn't, well, I wouldn't pass up the chance. So, bungee jumping? Even if it is over the Canyon of Death, or the Rapids of Well-Being, or other such places that exist no place else on Earth, chances are that I wouldn't be paying any attention to the salient details of the landscape as they flashed by. I could get the same experience at home. But to see the south coast of Australia on a rather inexpensive helicopter ride is something I cannot do in Canada. So I decided to do it. But then came the disappointing news that if it was only me, and the other two chose not to go, then it couldn't happen. We headed over to the helicopter place to see if there were any impending flights that I could tag along on. There was supposed to be a couple along in a short while and I could be added on to that flight. We didn't really have the time to wait, so Jude said we would go to the next, nearby site and she would bring me back if they called in time.

So we went to Gibson's steps. These steps took us down to the beach and gave us the opportunity to view (some of) the Twelve Apostles from ocean level.

We also got to see the ocean, crashing with what Jude assured us was much less vigour than would be usual in the winter.

We also saw, unfortunately, a few dead penguins who make their home on the beaches at the base of the cliffs.

And then Jude signalled that the call had come. The people had arrived for their helicopter tour. We rushed back to the company's office. It turned out that they had purchased a longer tour, about 15 minutes. And it was a low-level flight, which would give a better view. This was costing them more than twice what I was paying. I was advised (needlessly) to keep my mouth shut about what I was paying. And then the final bonus for me happened. The man had been sitting in the front seat by the pilot. He apparently decided that it was a bit scary and so he went in the back with his wife. That left the front seat for me, the best seat in the copter (aside from the pilot of course). I was getting a really good deal. The rest I will leave to the photos, except for one little further bonus. While we were out over the ocean, on our way back, we saw a whale. I didn't have the time to take a photo, but we saw the whale just below the surface and saw the tail flukes a couple of times as it dove down. It was quite a flight.

We were supposed to take a walk through the rainforest after this part of the coast. By the way, this part of the coastline is called the Shipwreck Coast. There are many, many ships were sunk in the area. The second third of the coastal drive was called the Green Coast. Here there are rainforests and lots of lush vegetation. It was in one of these rainforest areas that we were to take our little hike. However, the area we were to visit was closed for maintenance and we were unable to take that walk. This put us back on track timewise (albeit briefly). We put in at a picturesque little town, in which I nevertheless didn't take any photographs. After lunching in the town, and getting behind on time again, we headed down the final part of the coast. The moniker of this third of the coastal drive is the Surf Coast. It has high cliffs and, more importantly given its nickname, many breaks where there is awesome surfing opportunities. As we drove along we had opportunities to view the rugged coastline from high viewpoints.

We called at another spot where it was easy to spot wildlife. It's not an official part of the tour, but Jude goes there because there are almost always lots of koalas that are easily seen close up because of the low trees. And there were indeed koalas everywhere. We found four or five without even trying especially hard.

Then we did something technically illegal. We fed the birds of the area. These colourful birds are rosellas. These ones are on Jude.

Then there was Anna.

And Julie.

And me. I didn't feed them at all. I prefer birds and other animals find their own food. This didn't stop them from thinking I might have food and checking me out to make sure.

From this spot we passed a Gate of Remembrance. The whole war veteran culture here is very important and they take it all very seriously. The fact that many veterans of World War I returned to the area with no jobs and few prospects pushed the government into finding them a project. That project was the first part of the Great Ocean Road. Previous to its construction there was no real linking system for the coastal towns and supplies were difficult, as was communication. The road's construction alleviated that as well as providing returning veterans with something they could do to earn a living. As a remembrance of that and as a thank you for their service in the war and on the road, this arch was constructed. Actually the original arch wasn't wide enough and eventually someone ran over it with a truck and it had to be replaced. The second arch fell victim to a major bush fire that tore through the area in 1983. So this arch is actually the third Arch of Remembrance.

From here we headed to a seaside town with a lighthouse. There's not much to say about the place. It wasn't all that exciting, but the lighthouse is apparently one of the settings for a famous Australian children's show. Apparently it even screens in Canada. We got there as the sun was setting and this day the sunset was a bit more interesting, at least for the colours that it put in the sky.

Our final stop on this tour was to a famous surfing beach, Bells Beach. I've never heard of it, but if you are a surfer, you likely know of Bells Beach. It's even featured in the Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze movie Point Break. So people flock to this beach to see the place that was in the movie. Unfortunately that movie was made well before either of them was as famous as they became. As such the movie had a small budget and they didn't have the resources to come all the way to Australia to film the penultimate scene. And so Bells Beach, despite being almost a character in the movie, was never actually captured on screen. Another beach some other place filled in.

As is obvious in the photo, the time was getting late light-wise and so we had a bit of a break for tea and cookies. Then it was back to Melbourne. This was definitely a great tour to take. I enjoyed myself thoroughly.