Great Ocean Road is Great

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Monday was a blustery day with strong winds, rain, hail, and sunshine. We headed out on the Great Ocean Road to Loch Ard Gorge where a famous shipwreck occurred in the 1800s on the last night of a long voyage from England. All but two died. Rather bad end to a long journey. From there we headed to the Twelve Apostles, which is a famous set of limestone towers just off the beach. They are really down to about six or seven apostles now due to erosion, but no one here seems to be interested in renaming the area. We then headed into the mountains to the Otway Fly Treetop Walk, which is an area in the forest where they have installed a system of elevated walkways and towers. The wind was really blowing hard, but the walk was quite safe and enjoyable. We made it to the visitor centre just before the rain and hail hit. Moving farther down the road, Kirsten spotted a couple koalas in eucalypts just off the side of the road. As we were snapping pictures we had at least two other cars stop to see the cute little guys that we were pointing out. After that we completed our tour of the Great Ocean Road with some spectacular vistas, drenching rain, rainbows, and a great time. We are in the town of Torquay tonight, which touts itself as the surfing capital of Australia. We are too cold to visit the beaches much to find out if this claim is accurate. The news reported tonight the highest winds in this area in two years (> 60 mph). They also said that it is snowing in Hobart, which is our destination in two days. We are sipping hot chocolate tonight.

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Photos

Loch Ard Gorge
Beautiful now but deadly to folks on ships.

Three Apostles
We are about to be blown away at the Twelve Apostles.

Twelve Apostles (or thereabouts)
Here are a few of the Apostles.

Tower at Otway
If you look closely, you can see Kirsten and Tammy at the bottom. The tower stairs start about 50 feet up.

Out on a Cantilever
Tammy and Kirsten are out on a cantilever that they say can hold 14 elephants. I am not sure how they got 14 elephants up there to test it.

Koala
One of our roadside koalas.

Rainbow and Gnarly Tree
I have been shooting gnarly trees and happened to catch this with a rainbow in the background.

Comments

[Stacy]

You survived you treetop walk --- YEAH!
I'm glad to hear that your treetop walk went so well, even with the winds and unseasonable weather. Sounds like you have the true Oregonian spirit and you're not letting anything stop you from having fun. :-D While you are enjoying the spring weather, we are having to endure the summer boating weather by going to Merwin to cool off. It's difficult, as you know, but someone has to do it. LOL :-P Hope the weather turns warmer for your last leg of the trip. ENJOY!

[Linda]

Cool Pictures
It looks like you are having a wonderful trip! We have been following your travels and really enjoying all of the great pictures! It sounds like you will really enjoy the warm Maui weather when you get there! Hope you have a great rest of your trip in Australia!