A long journey, but every second was worth the 17 hours in the car, 1000K, and 100L of petro! This is a weekend I will never forget and cannot wait to share with friends, family, and my future students.
Alan being creative with his photography skills
The Enchanted Forest (turn your head to get the right view-- it wouldn't upload properly)
Susan and I after our walk through the forest and on our way back to the car (This was the first experience we had where the map was misleading and untrue to the time it would take us to complete the walk. We ended up having to walk along the road to get back to the car.)
Experiencing wild kangaroos on our journey over the long weekend
The stunning experiences on The Great Ocean Road
It was a long weekend this past weekend so Alan and Carolyn decided it would be a great opportunity to take us along the GOR and have a bit more time to see all the sights along the coastline and then inland on the way back to Diamond Creek. Of all the views I have seen since arriving in Australia, these were some of the most beautiful scenes, sounds, and smells that I have come across. We had a very rigorous agenda that we wanted to complete and here is a list of everything that we did from Friday night after school until Monday at 10:15 pm when we arrived back in Diamond Creek.
Friday night:
-Drove from Diamond Creek to Torquay where we stayed at the family cottage
Saturday: (The start of our journey along the GOR)
-Breakfast at the cottage, quick stop at Rivers in Torquay, walk through of the market (we saw baby lambs, pigs, chicks, and bunnies)
-Burnside camp in Angelsea: This is where I would have been for the week if Grade 6 camp was not cancelled
-Aireys Inlet: lighthouse and coastal views
-Lorne: Beach views and lunch, pier walk, and a close up encounter with a shark head
-Kennett River: Koalas doing what they do best in the Eucalyptus trees
-Apollo Bay: final stop for the day; dinner on the beach and some fun taking pictures while on a walk along the coastline
--> Saturday was our light and more relaxed day of travel. We all had a nice sleep and prepared ourselves for the 19 stops we made on Sunday.
Sunday:
1. Mait's Rest: rainforest walk
2. Castle Cove: views of the ocean along the Great Ocean Walk (this is a path that people can spend days doing and typically camp along the way)
3. Johanna beach: major surfing beach
4. Lavers Hill: unique birds and beautiful Australian flowers
5. Triplet Falls: another rainforest walk that leads to beautiful waterfalls
6. Gibson steps: lead down to a breathtaking view of 2 of the 8 Apostles still standing
7. The Twelve Apostles (8 still standing)
8. Loch Ard Gorge: Loch Ard is a famous ship that was built in Scotland and left the England coast in 1878 with 51 passengers and crew. Three months into the trip, a disaster struck, and because of fog and haze Captain Gibb was unable to accurately calculate where the ship was located. After attempting to control the ship along the rough Victoria coast, the ship was unable to hold on and crushed against the reef. Pieces from the cliffs smashed into the ship and it sank within 15 minutes. Only two people survived the crash, Tom Pierce and Eva Carmichael. This is a famous, historical moment that will be forever remembered when one views this intense inlet/cove.
9. Port Campbell: We took a break from the major stops along the way to enjoy an ice cream and watch people swim in the port (was not quite warm enough for us to put the bathers on and jump in)
10. The Arch
11. London Bridge
12. The Grotto
13. Wind farm: Throughout our trip we saw various wind farms that consisted of seven or more wind turbines.
14. Portland: This was our final destination for the day. While I only have 14 things listed, there were many lookouts and other views we had to capture on camera so that lead to the 19 stops in all for the day. After a nice dinner at the Grosvenor Motel, which was known to be "clean, quiet, friendly, and modern (or NOT!)", we all slept very well!
Monday:
-Portland: views of the coast and various historic buildings throughout the town
-Wind farm #2: I never expected to see 10-15 wind turbines on the coastlines of Australia. When you think about it though, these are some of the most productive places for them to be. There were various spots along our trip where we saw these "wind farms" and had to capture the magnitude of them.
-Cape Nelson State Park
-Lighthouse in Cape Nelson State Park: Walked along the Great Southwest walk where we saw gigantic waves, cliffs, and a kangaroo skeleton. Parts of this walk made me think we were in the Outback of Australia. There was nothing but rock, dirt, and small vegetation.
-Enchanted Forest: A unique walk through some very "Snow White" type looking forests
-Port Fairy: This is where Alan and Carolyn would normally stay if they were doing the GOR in a weekend, but there was an extremely large music festival on. Port Fairy is a small fishing town of about 1,000 and over the weekend there was 20,000+ people in the area for the event.
-Tower Hill: One last climb up a gigantic hill to get a different view of the ocean from the countryside. This site had 270 steps going up and down, which did not include the four ramps you also had to walk up in between all the steps!
-Colac: This was our last stop on the trip back to Diamond Creek. Most of the scenery along the way included large hills or completely flat farm land. Colac is a town of about 5,000-8,000 people and we stopped here to get take away for dinner and make it home before midnight.
-HOME VIA GEELONG
There is so much information about the GOR and all the views along the way. I have included a website for anyone who wants to read more or look at pictures of what we saw during our long weekend. The site has various links to historical information as well as tourist suggestions and highlights along the roadway.
http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au
Here are some pictures from the weekend. It was really tough to choose just a few to share because there were so many fantastic views (I took over 700 pictures during the trip!).
Me inside a tree at Mait's Rest
The first 2 Apostles I saw up close after walking down the Gibson Steps. Breathtaking:)
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