Day 7 - Great Ocean Road
From Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles of Port Campbell National Park, and back through Otway Forests National Park, and on to Torquay, an hour west of Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road is one of the most famous and scenic drives in the entire world
November 27, 2004

001-Sunrise The sunrise on Saturday, November 27, 2004, from our motel, Seafarer's Resort in Apollo Bay ... Dad woke me up to go take a look at the sunrise, but I'd stayed up late working on photos and stuff, so I kinda ignored him and dozed off again ... but then a couple minutes later he woke me up again to have me take a picture of it, so I obliged him by rolling out of bed, grabbing and turning on my camera, walking over to the patio window, and only opening my eyes just enough to aim the camera, then I took the photo, closed my eyes, and went right back to bed, saying that I'd appreciate the sunset in the morning when I woke up for real :-) 002-Sunrise I'm pretty sure my Dad took this one after I went back to bed again ... in any case, the Apollo Bay sunrise was as pretty (or prettier) than the sunset 003-ApolloBay The town of Apollo Bay 004-ApolloBay Apollo Bay 005-MarrinersLookout Marriner's Lookout, above Apollo Bay 006-MarrinersLookout Marriner's Lookout 007-OtwayNP Otway National Park, east of Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road 008-OtwayNP Otway NP 009-PortCampbellNP Port Campbell National Park, even further east along the Great Ocean Road 010-GibsonsSteps Gibson's Steps, Port Campbell NP 011-PortCampbellNP Gibson's Steps, Port Campbell NP 012-PortCampbellNP Port Campbell NP, with one of the Twelve Apostles (huge sandstone stacks) visible 013-GibsonsSteps Gibson's Steps, Port Campbell NP 014-PortCampbellNP Port Campbell NP 015-TwelveApostlesSign The Twelve Apostles is one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Australia 016-TwelveApostles The Twelve Apostles, Port Campbell NP 017-TwelveApostles The Twelve Apostles were originally named Sow and Piglets, but officials decided the unique sandstone formations needed a more attractive name, hehe 018-Jared-TwelveApostles One of my goals had been to see a sunset here, but at least I got to see the Twelve Apostles 019-SandstoneStack A sandstone stack, one of the Twelve Apostles 020-PortCampbellNP Port Campbell NP 021-Grasses Various grasses 022-TwelveApostles Twelve Apostles, Port Campbell NP 023-TwelveApostles Looking the other direction for a couple more of the Twelve Apostles 024-RockTower A rock tower that looks like it was carved out 025-TwelveApostles Twelve Apostles 030-TwelveApostles Twelve Apostles, Port Campbell NP 031-RockTower Rock tower 032-SandstoneCliffs Sandstone cliffs 033-MomDad-TwelveApostlesSign Mom & Dad by the Twelve Apostles sign 034-WickedVan There were all sorts of these Wicked Vans around Australia, they're easy and cheap to rent, and each one has a unique paint job, such as this Jimi Hendrix/marijuana theme, hehe 035-WickedVan Wicked Van 036-WickedVan That van's wicked cool 037-WickedVan Lo and behold I saw another Wicked van in the parking lot, this one with Aboriginal dot-style painting on the side, and the lovely proverb on the back 038-WickedVan Wicked Van 039-WickedVan Wicked Van 040-LochArdGorge Loch Ard Gorge, Port Campbell NP ... back in the 1800s (1835, I believe), a ship called the Loch Ard foundered off the coast near here ... the currents swept the only two survivors, an 18-year old Irish girl and an 18-year old Australian boy, ashore here in what is now Loch Ard Gorge ... fortunately for them there was a homestead nearby and the beach was accessible, so they were discovered and rescued after a few days ... much is made of a potential love story between the two, but the girl was summoned home to Ireland by her father, and the two never saw each other again ... it's kinda sad, actually 041-LochArdGorge Loch Ard Gorge, Port Campbell NP 042-MomDad-LochArdGorge Mom & Dad at Loch Ard Gorge 043-Jared-LochArdGorge Me at Loch Ard Gorge 044-Cave A cave at Loch Ard Gorge 049-LochArdGorge Loch Ard Gorge, Port Campbell NP 050-LochArdGorge Loch Ard Gorge 051-Cave Cave 052-SouthernOcean Southern Ocean 053-Arch Sandstone archway 054-Beach The beach where Tom and Anna, the two survivors of the Loch Ard shipwreck, were washed ashore 059-Arch Arch 060-Beach Beach 061-Razorback The Razorback, Port Campbell NP 062-Razorback The Razorback 063-PortCampbellNP Port Campbell NP 064-PortCampbellNP Port Campbell NP, with a few more of the Twelve Apostles out there 065-Razorback The Razorback 066-OceanFloor Ocean floor 067-Jared-PortCampbellNP Me at Port Campbell NP 072-Blowhole A big blowhole ... when the tide is high enough and waves surge in, air pressure inside the cave becomes so great that it essentially explodes outwards, shooting out a jet of spray, foam and water 073-Blowhole Blowhole 074-PortCampbell The town of Port Campbell ... for lunch we had some of the tastiest pizza we'd ever had at Nico's, a Greek place in the town 075-BoomerangTree The 076-OtwayNP Otway NP, the southernmost temperate rainforest in Australia 077-OtwayNP Otway NP 078-OtwayFly The Otway Fly Treetop Walk, a 600m walk through the treetops, at a height of 20-27m for the majority of it 079-OtwayNP Otway NP 080-OtwayFly Otway Fly Treetop Walk 081-DadMom-OtwayFly Dad & Mom on the Otway Fly 082-GuyWires Guy wires that help support the Otway Fly ... each of those ferns that you see way down there are actually rather large tree ferns 083-Treetops The treetops of the Otway Rainforest 084-OtwayFly Looking down from the 47m platform tower at the rest of the Otway Fly Treetop Walk 085-MomDad-OtwayFlyTower Mom & Dad in the Otway Fly Tower ... Mom was determined to climb all the way up it despite her bad knees, and she managed to make it up there and back down again 086-Jared-OtwayFlyTower I'm 47m above the ground, yet still not above some of the area treetops! 087-Otway Otway NP 088-EndlessStair The endless stair 089-Treetops Eucalyptus treetops 090-Stairs The stairs of the Otway Tower 091-OtwayFly Otway Fly Treetop Walk 092-Stairs Stairs ... the tight and seemingly endless spiral staircase made me a bit nervous and a little dizzy 093-Perspective This shows some perspective of just how high above ground the walkway was 094-Forest The rainforest of the Otway Ranges 095-SilverTrees Silver trees 096-OtwayFly Otway Fly 097-LookingDown Looking down from the Otway Fly ... again, those are tree ferns way down there, and they're not exactly small things ... most of them have a canopy of over 10 feet across, and are at least 10 feet tall, and yet they look tiny from our vantage point 098-OtwayFly Otway Fly Treetop Walk 099-OtwayTower Otway Tower 100-Jared-OtwayTower That's a really tall tower in the middle of the rainforest! 102-Mom-OtwayFly The Otway Fly Treetop Walk was one of Mom's favourite things we did/saw in Australia ... the railings along the walk were fortunately high enough (shoulder/chest height) that you never once got a sense of vertigo, even when you were really high up 103-Dad-OtwayTower Dad posing by the Otway Tower 104-StringyBark Stringy bark on one of the many types of gum/eucalyptus trees represented in Otway NP 105-OtwayFly Otway Fly Treetop Walk 106-OtwayFly Otway Fly 107-OtwayNP Otway NP 108-OtwayFly Otway Fly 109-OtwayFly Otway Fly 110-Ferns The tops of tree ferns as viewed from far above 111-OtwayFly Otway Fly 112-Ferns Ferns 113-OtwayNP Otway NP 114-Fern Canopy of a tree fern 115-FernTrees Fern trees, as viewed from the ground 116-FernTrees Fern trees 117-OtwayFly Otway Fly 118-MomDad-TreeFern Mom & Dad by a tree fern 119-Jared-Ferns I enjoy the ferns too 120-OtwayFly Otway Fly 121-ArtificialTrees Artificial 122-DadMom-GiantBlueGum Dad & Mom by a gargantuan blue gum tree, which had to be at least 300 years old 123-100Stop This was absolutely hilarious, they'd posted a 100 km/h (60 mph) sign, and not 40m later there was a stop sign! 124-GreatOceanRdSign Great Ocean Road mileage (kilometerage?) 125-Jared-GreatOceanRoad The Great Ocean Road is amazing, every bit of it 126-FlatCypress Flat cypress trees in Apollo Bay 127-SmythesCreek Smythe's Creek, between Apollo Bay and Lorne 128-Cliffs Cliffs by Smythe's Creek 129-Coast Coastline 130-GreatOceanRoad Great Ocean Road 131-MomDad-SmythesCreek Mom & Dad at Smythe's Creek 132-KoalaSign Koala sign along the Great Ocean Road 133-CapePattonLookout Cape Patton Lookout near Lorne 134-CapePattonLookout Cape Patton Lookout 135-Sunset Great Ocean Road sunset 029-12Apostles 071-Razorback4 101-OtwayTower The Otway Tower

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