Wednesday 30th April,
2014: Loch Ard Gorge to Geelong along the GOR
(My apologies about the formatting in this. I still haven't quite got this working right and it's all over the place)
It was an early start to the
day as we had to have the van back before 4pm so after a quick cuppa
to warm us up from another chilly night, we trudged off through the
crisp, clean, morning light to Loch Ard Gorge, named after the ship
that foundered nearby. Though we were down and into the gorge very
early, we still couldn't beat the Japanese tourists who seem to
simply love the place. They posed and snapped their little hearts
out, taking advantage of every possible available view and vantage
point to get another hundred photos. The story of the Loch Ard is a
remarkable and sad one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ard_%28ship%29
| Loch Ard Gorge from above (taken with the camera) |
I paused to take my first photo
on the Lumix, which was fine. Lovely shot! The second however, saw me
looking at a blank screen. I pressed the power button and a message
appeared....'no battery power'. Nooooooooooooooo..... and I wasn't
sure if we even had a spare. Ah bollocks! I was also getting that
slightly unequivocal feeling that I needed to pee. There were no
toilets here but that was okay, I could hold.
Luckily everything has a camera
in it nowadays and so, after a slight panic and a self admonishing
moment for not having checked the state of the battery, I whipped out
my trusty phone like a modern day sharp shooter, hoping that that
actually had enough battery power, otherwise I'd have felt like a
right dill. As it turned out, it had just enough and although the
photos were not quite as sharp as they would have been with the
camera, I still had proof of my visit, and that was the important
bit. Mind you, you can see by the colours just which were taken with the phone. Oh well.
| Loch Ard Gorge on a chilly morn'. |
| The cave in which they took shelter |
After playing dodge and weave
to keep out of the Japanese tourists' photos and managing to snap a
couple of pictures of our own, it was back to the van and on our way.
I wish we had had more time because there were other things to see at
the Loch Ard site, but we couldn't really waste a lot of time today
and we still had the Apostles to visit, plus a toilet to find (a
little desperately now). Less than 10 minutes later we pulled up in
the 12 Apostles carpark and began a frantic search for a spare camera
battery and then hoped that, should we find it, we had remembered to
charge it. We were lucky on both counts!
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| Early morning mist on the cliffs |
I was most impressed with
myself. It was still only 8.30am and I was doing stuff! We emerged
from the van, and my pressing need for relief was becoming dangerous.
I spotted the all-too-familar ladies sign on the side of the visitors
centre and made a dash. I grasped the handle and.... locked! No!
Nononononoooo how can that be?! Then I remember that it was, indeed,
still 8.30am and nothing would be open for a while despite the fact
that more tourist vehicles were arriving in the carpark by the minute
with some people making the same mad dash that I had and finding the
door just as locked. I was ready to jump behind the nearest bush when
Dave, bless him, spied another block of public toilets that were open
all the time. Okay no details will be entered into but suffice to
say, relief was palpable.
A few words of recommendation... if you are
travelling ANYWHERE, make sure you know where the nearest facilities
are and don't drink tea before you know that they're open.
After I could walk in a
leisurely fashion again, we wandered from the carpark and towards the
cliffs, taking the tunnel under the highway. I must say that I felt
that my morning brain was doing rather well in the circumstances,
particularly since it was also windy, which made it a little less
comfortable.
There were a lot of interesting
sign-boarded snippets of information on the way along the wide paths
(suitable for the disabled) and not too much up nor down, (for which
I was very grateful). The Apostles were again, exceptionally
spectacular, although at one stage I did think it odd that there
seemed to be a small, thatched hut near the lookout and assumed it
may have been an information centre or even a small kiosk. Even
through binoculars it could still have been a hut. It was only as we
neared that it became obvious that the 'hut' wasn't. Nature just
continues to astound me.
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Though only 243km long, the
Great Ocean Road is a wonderfully spectacular sight and one that I
was glad to experience. If I ever did it again, I'd take an extra day
or two to explore all of the nooks and crannies we didn't have time
for. We stopped once more along the GOR where we saw a few cars
parked and followed the short path with interest but it was nothing
more than a bit of a lookout to the ocean. A lovely couple took our
photo against the backdrop of the cliffs, and we theirs, then it was
time to go.
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| Otway foothills. |
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| From the Otways across to the harbour at Apollo Bay |
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| The long and winding road |
We wound our way along the
coast and then through the glorious, lush Otway Ranges until we came
to Apollo Bay, still as beautiful as ever. After a bit of shopping
and a bite to eat, we came to a fork in the road and a choice as to
whether we take the high road and the highway, or the low road and
the coast. We still had a few hours so we chose the coast but almost
wished we hadn't. It was slow and winding and filled with caravans
doing 80kmh or less and cyclists who took up their fair share of road
and there were no overtaking lanes.
Time was ticking on and we still
had a long way to go before we reached Geelong where I'd go back to
Venture with all of our gear whilst Dave returned the van to
Melbourne Airport. There was no more time for sightseeing.
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| Surfers we have spied |
By the time we got to the
Western Beach Yacht Club, we were rushing. Dave cadged a lift to
Venture in one of the club dinghies and fetched ours back to the dock
where we loaded it to the brim with our gear. I had never seen it so
low in the water. We quickly unloaded at the boat and Dave left again
to take the van into Melbourne, still over 80km away. The van was due
to be there by closing time at 4pm. He made it to the door at 3.59pm!
Woo hoo!!
What they hadn't mentioned when the van rental was being
arranged was that the return depot was actually almost 4km from the
tram stop and no buses ran from the depot to the tram so he had to
walk. Finally on the tram, he then had to do a reversal of our
original trip, tram, train, change trains, walk, dinghy. By the time
he stepped foot on the boat it was almost 9.30pm and he was totally
buggered. This sailing stuff is exhausting!!!
Location:
Apollo Bay VIC 3233, Australia
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We were fascinated by Loch Ard Gorge after watching the Laser Show at Warnambool. How they managed to climb their way out of there I'll never know!
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