After leaving Melbourne we decided that we simply couldn’t return to Sydney without tackling at least a part of the Great Ocean Road which runs from Melbourne along the Northern edge of the Bass Strait to Adelaide. Our target was the Twelve Apostles which fall into the Port Campbell National Park, and the Journey was certainly worth it (as always), but the Destination was spectacular and one that we wouldn’t have missed for the world.
Click on the pictures to view enlargements
The coast road from Anglesea down through Apollo Bay and on along to Glenaire and Wattle Hill was truly an assault on the senses. If one could lift Chapman’s Peak Drive off the side of the mountain between Noordhoek and Hout Bay - extend it by a couple of hundred kilometers - and then drop it into a never-ending surround of lush green hills and valleys, then you would have a sense of the beauty of this coastline.
Typical landscape along the Great Ocean Road
Very reminiscent of the Cape
There were lush green valleys everywhere
The real Coup de Grace comes however when you are suddenly confronted by the eerily majestic windblown limestone structures that are the Twelve Apostles.
Most of these structures stand up around 50 meters high and the extreme weather conditions (both wind and sea), have sculpted them into the most exquisite shapes.
It is not enough however to simply look at them from the road - to experience the full extent of their majesty one needs to descend the 86 Gibson steps to the beach and walk along the magnificently eroded cliff face that towers scarily above you with enormous shear cracks that make you wonder if the wall of rock could collapse onto you at any minute…………….but having taken 10 - 20 million years to get to where they are now it is highly unlikely that they would choose this split second in time to suddenly break up and fall.
Seeing the apostles in detail from the beach was akin to being in a magnificent art gallery and having one’s senses continuously thrashed by new sculptures - by new shapes and colors - and suddenly having to come to terms with the enormity of one’s own insignificance in the greater scheme of things. Certainly an experience not to be missed if you ever find yourself Downunder.
The climb back up to the road was a bit exhausting, but plentiful stops and the incredible views that the sea and land presented one with made the trip down eminently worthwhile.
At Port Campbell we turned North and into the countryside - wending our way through some really magnificent countryside - all the time pointing ourselves towards Sydney along the North-Eastern slopes of the Snowy Mountains.
Approaching Albury I was really feeling pretty damn shitty and decided I needed to see a doctor …………. there to be told I had pneumonia - I was given some antibiotics and instructed to go to bed for at least three days, which of course was entirely out of the question considering where we were.
Albury is like taking a step back in time - everywhere we were reminded of the nineteen-fifties. The way people dressed - the decor in the shops - the food at the club where we ate - the music …………… and most of all the demeanor of the people. Despite feeling pretty damn rotten I had a grin on my face for virtually all of our time in this very strange little town.
Back on the road to Sydney we quickly came upon a most incongruous sight …… a huge submarine parked in the middle of the landscape. As it turned out the Holbrook Council acquired a portion of the hull of HMAS Otway - an Oberon-class submarine - after it was decommissioned by the Royal Australian Navy in 1995 to honour Lieutenant Holbrook, the town's namesake. Just another Albury quirk!
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