Advertisement
Published: February 9th 2008
Slipping out of Melbourne for a day we decided to journey south along the "Great Ocean Road" to see what lay ahead. To start the blog off right however we should start 10-20 million years ago when there was a shallow sea that covered this part of the world (rock geek). Long story short, over millions of years numerous amounts of little sea critters died and became compacted to form the limestone cliffs you'll observe in the photos. Eventually the sea dried up which is more common than you think and the limestone rock became exposed. Of course the last 2 million years out here has played hell on the limestone as the sea level has gone through quite a bit of change. Approximately 130,000 years the sea level would have been 4-5 meters higher down here then it is now.
The Great Ocean Road itself was built by men called "diggers" (returning World War 1 soldiers) with only shovels and picks. The story we liked the most about the Great Ocean Road had to do with a section called the London Bridge. There was a section of rock that resembled the London bridge with two large arches and a
pathway over them. One day however as a bus of school children and an elderly couple were pulling away after just finishing walking over the London Bridge they saw in their rear view mirror a section of the bridge collapse. On the other side and currently stuck was a couple. So the old couple raced off and found a park ranger to report that "London Bridge" had fallen and a couple was stuck on the other side. The ranger thinking this was joke drove down and saw indeed a large section of the rock had collapsed and a couple was stranded on the other side. So off the ranger goes to report the case to the police so they can get a helicopter to rescue the couple. The police officer after hearing that the London Bridge had fallen thought it quite the clever joke since that was the one day they had taken the engine out of the rescue helicopter for repairs. After more people reported the same incident they went ahead and sent a deputy down and low and behold just as everyone had said, a section of the London Bridge had fallen. Finally the police commandeered the local
Caught in the Act
Everyone kind of stumbles through this area with a camera in hand and a smile to boot.news stations helicopter. Not to miss out on a great story, the news station of coarse sent a film crew and reporter.
So as the helicopter flew over the small island of rock to pick up the stranded couple they noticed the couple was running and hiding from the helicopter. Getting out they had to go to the far side of the little rock patch to get the couple who seemed very hesitant to be rescued. The couple made a run for the helicopter and somehow a fight broke out among the film crew and the couple. The police breaking it up had the helicopter lift up and land on the other side. To the police officers dismay, as soon as the helicopter landed the couple shot out and jumped in their vehicle and sped off. The police knew they had to file a report and would need the names of the couple, so they called in and had a road block set up and then set off to pursue the couple. As these things go, they were finally stopped by the cops. The next day on the front page of many news papers was the title, Couple hits
the rocks as they fall on hard times. Turns out the couple had told work they were sick and had eloped off for the day. They were a married couple but unfortunately not to each other.
Dohhh! Imagine that! Hell of a way to be reminded that yes, erosion does happen.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.161s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 58; dbt: 0.0994s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
jocelyn
non-member comment
hello
just following along. Uncle Robert showed me your blog. Hope your having the time of your life. Keep sending the great pictures!!