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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Great Ocean Road Day Tour


My last trip with Bunyip Tours is to spend the day with the most ironic road trips in the world "The Great Ocean Road".


We stopped at Bell's Beach, the beach that surf film "Point Break" made famous. Bell's Beach is loved amongst surfers and we are having our coffee/tea and biscuits here.

one of Australia’s famous surfing beaches, world renowned for the Rip Curl Surfing Pro

Our Santa tour guide with his matching shirt and sandals

In the morning the flies are terrible. The sun is blazing and the little black pests are out in force. The flies swarm around us like a bristling black cloud searching for any opportunity to attack here.

There are everywhere and any place that they can be the most annoying. They purposely try to land on your face and fly into every orifice on your body. I couldn't take it anymore and run back into our bus and enjoy the coffee inside the bus.

We' re being attacked by flies here

If I would know this earlier, definitely will get this for myself "No flies Hat Net".

Next, we enjoy the breathtaking coastal views from historic split point lighthouse.

Lighthouse

Enjoy the breathtaking coastal views from the historic split point lighthouse "Around The Twist"

Stopped by at The Great Ocean Road one of the world’s largest memorial sites for photo taking.

The development of the road was a lengthy operation which took almost 14 long years. Many of the workmen lived in tents or small campsites along the road with their families and were on roughly 10 shillings per 8 hours working day

There was no machinery used during the construction, only hand tools

Continue our journey through the scenic towns of Lorne, Apollo Bay and Port Campbell. There are plenty of opportunity to see the native wildlife in its natural habitat including Koalas.


Great Otway National Park where you can see wild koalas

sleeping koala spotted on the eucalyptus trees

trying to attract our attention

wild koala trying to be friendly

We enjoy delicious picnic lunch and a rain forest walk in The Oatway Rangers too.

self service sandwich for lunch

with Scherhesad Basurto from Mexico

and Yanan from Beijing, China

Along the trail in the Otway rain forest.

After recharge ourself, arriving at the Port Campbell National Park the famous limestone rock stacks, the 12 Apostles.

We reached the lookout point for Twelve Apostles

I saw the magnificent Twelve Apostles, which actually there are only seven

Gorgeous view of the ocean


An amazing work of God and I feel grateful to be there to appreciate the magnificence of it all.



10 minutes from Twelve Apostle, there's another attraction "Loch Ard Gorge". This place was named after a clipper ship Loch Ard which was wrecked on a nearby Muttonbird Island after a 3-month journey from England to Melbourne.


The amazing thing was only 2 survivors made it out of the 51 people on board, thanks to the gorge that protected them from the very strong and fatal waves of the ocean.

Loch Ard Gorge view from the top

View of the shore

amazing limestone

London Arch, our last destination before ended our trip. London Arch is a natural arch in the Port Campbell National Park. This stack was formed by a gradual process erosian and formed a complete double-span natural bridge. The arch closest to the shoreline collapsed unexpectedly on 15 January 1990.

A land bridge connected the tip of the promontory to the mainland, but collapsed in 1990.

This is how London Bridge looked like after it collapsed ;(

Despite the flies, The Great Ocean Road definitely a great place for a visit. The sight of stunning limestone cliffs, gorges, and arches carved out by crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean was awe-inspiring, but remember only when fly season is over ;)