The Great Ocean Road

May 14, 2023  •  6 Comments

Wendy and I toured the Great Ocean Road with Alan Barker, an Australian photographer who was recommended to us by Philip Bartlett.   He picked us up in Melbourne and we spend a couple of days driving along the Great Ocean Road.  The road is often referred to as the one of the world's most scenic coastal drives, along the south- eastern  coast of Australia.  

We stopped at Lorne to have lunch and saw these interesting, tame birds outside of the cafe.

We hiked to Lower Kalimna  Falls, Great Otway National Park, which was about 3 km from the parking lot.  The waterfall was very picturesque and quite serene.  There were no other people anywhere around or on the trails.  We did see some Kangaroos at one point.  The younger one was quite timid and kept retreating.  We stopped so it wouldn't feel  threatened.  Shortly, it ran up the sides of the forest in order to follow its mother and stay away from us.  Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough to get a photo since my camera was in my backpack.

I  liked the same shot in black and white.

   There was a large alcove behind the waterfalls so we could go right behind it for a different prospective.  It wasn't a huge waterfall but it was a nice one surrounded by tall trees and ferns.

After dinner, we went to photograph the 12 Apostles which are part of the Port Campbell National Park.  As the evening progressed,  we did get some very nice colours.

The craggy limestone stacks rise from the southern ocean and were wonderful to photograph.  These pillars were once connected to the mainland cliffs.  Waves and wind carved them into caves, then arches and eventually battered them down into 45 metre tall columns.   

There are actually only eight of the original  twelve Apostles left.  With continual erosion affecting the limestone stacks and cliffs, the number of rock stacks are likely to keep changing.  

We stayed at this location for the entire time watching as the light changed.


The next morning at sunrise we drove to see Tom and Eva.  These are two limestone stacks named after the two teenage survivors of the wreck of the Loch Ard  in 1878.

We also photographed the 2nd Apostle, Razorback.

 

In 1878, a large clipper ship engraved with the name Loch Ard beached on nearby Muttonbird Island after a tumultuous journey from England.  It was said that the ship enters the waters  on June 1st, at Port Campbell.  The day was particularly dark and misty.   Before the captain realised it, the ship was in shallow waters, collided with a rock reef.   Unfortunately, only two of the fifty-four passengers survived, one of whom was a nineteen-year-old sailor apprentice named Tom Pearce, and the other a nineteen-year-old Irish girl called Eva Carmichael, who was travelling with her family.

London Bridge.   Originally a natural archway and tunnel in an impressive offshore rock formation, London Bridge collapsed in 1990 and became a bridge without a middle. Before the collapse, visitors to the site were able to walk across 'the eastern bridge' that stretched across to the mainland.

In the evening, we went back to shoot sunset at the 12 Apostles (only 8 remaining now).


Comments

Hetty(non-registered)
Just stunning pictures! Love the colourful birds too. Your photography always amazes me.
janice Balesic(non-registered)
Beautiful images. You have had such amazing adventures!!!
Pam(non-registered)
Beautiful pictures! I loved the 12 Apostles, and I read that there were actually only ever 9 of them. Before the Melbourne Olympics in the 1960's, the locals thought that they needed to do some marketing and changed the rocks from "Sow and Pigs" to the 12 Apostles. Brilliant marketing!
Bill Porter(non-registered)
Well done as always
Gretchen Taylor(non-registered)
Light, color, texture and depth of field. Your out did yourself with these images. Wonderful.
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