The Great Ocean Road

On Saturday, I completed my things to do in Melbourne list by taking a trip to the Great Ocean Road with 5 friends. It was a great day.

Our first stop was Bells Beach in Torquay, the capital of Australian surfing. Every year for the last 35 years, Rip Curl has sponsored a surfing tournament at Bells, so there is a lot of history there. Driving through town, I almost had a heart attack. There was one strip mall that instead of having normal stores, had all surfing brand stores. Roxy, Billabong, Rip Curl, Quiksilver, even one called Ashley Surfing Company. If you know me, you know how much I love these brands. I was very sad as the tour bus drove past this mecca of surf shopping. Anyway, we got to Bells Beach where despite the 60 degree ocean temps, there were a few diehards catching the waves (above). The surf wasn’t that impressive when we were there, but usually it’s really dangerous because the waves are huge and there’s rocks and corals on the bottom (above).

Then we actually started driving on the Great Ocean Road (us at the beginning of the road). The road was built as a response to the Pacific Coast Highway in California, and exists solely for tourists. We drove between the two yellow stars on the map (above). It was really bendy, and at some parts there was just a guardrail to prevent you from careening down the cliff to the water below. Eek! Since so many tourists drive the road and it is so dangerous, there were these signs everywhere that said “Drive on the left in Australia” (above). But since the road hugged the coast so tightly, the views were spectacular (above, pictures courtesy of Brittany).

After lots of driving, we pulled onto this small road into a koala neighborhood, if you will. Basically there were a lot of eucalyptus trees, so there were a lot of wild koalas in this one area. Naturally we went koala-spotting. Most of them were so high up, all you could see was a little round ball silhouetted against the sky (above). I did find some that were closer (above, koala in circle) so I was able to capture them on film better (above).

Near the koala neighborhood, the tour guide gave us some bird food to bribe the native birds, the rainbow lorikeet (the green ones), and the scarlet rosella (the red ones). While Matt was able to remain calm when the birds landed on him (above), the rest of us were very excitable when they landed on us (above). It was great fun. Then we drove to the Maits Rest rainforest, which had the biggest trees I’ve ever seen (above). To give you an idea of the scale, here’s Kaitlyn standing next to the roots of one (above).

In the afternoon, we got to the most famous part of the Great Ocean Road, the Twelve Apostles. They are giant sandstone monoliths that rise out of the ocean right next to a spectacular coastline (above). There are only eight apostles left due to the ocean’s erosion, and eventually they will all fall into the sea. My pictures don’t really do it justice because the sun’s poor position (silly sun) washed out most of the color. They were beautiful.

A 5 minute drive from the 12 apostles was the Loch Ard Gorge (above). The gorge was named for a ship sailing from Ireland (named Loch Ard) that crashed off the shore in 1878. Only two people survived. To steal from Ithaca’s slogan, the Loch Ard Gorge was Gorges. The yellow sandstone contrasting against the turquoise water was stunning (above). Here we had beach access, so we did what you usually do on a beach: act silly. We posed on some big rocks (above), and Matt and I had a jumping contest (above, you be the judge).

The final stop on the tour was London Bridge, a sandstone bridge (above). It used to be connected to the land, until a section collapsed in 1990. When it collapsed, two people were stranded on the bridge. It turns out that those two were a couple having an affair with each other, and they were outed by the media. Funny stuff. We took the opportunity to play the children’s game London Bridge, which Mary didn’t appreciate it (above).

We loaded back into the bus, where we were given PSPs to watch movies on. I watched Priscilla Queen of the Desert, an Australian movie about 3 drag queens that take a road trip through the Australian outback. It was hilarious, especially since one of the drag queens was Agent Smith in the Matrix.

It was a fabulous ending to a fabulous day.

Grampians Day 3: A last hoorah of sorts

On Wednesday morning we did research for our paper about the trip. The assignment was to compare the way tourist brochures (European Australians) portrayed the Grampians compared to how Aboriginal Australians presented the Grampians.

Then we went for a short walk to the Venus Baths, which was an area where a stream led to little shallow pools. It also had a massive sloped hill of rock where the pools were (above). Walking on the trail we ran into a few kangaroo (above), and saw some more pretty rocks (above).

We were treated to lunch by the Budja Budja (Halls Gap) Aboriginal Co-op. They cooked us an authentic Aussie barbie. (They really don’t eat “shrimp on the barbie,” and besides shrimp are called prawns here). Instead, it was pork sausages and kangaroo kebabs. Quite yummy. After lunch we drove back to Melbourne.

The trip was awesome, although it was pretty bittersweet. It was the last time that all of the Walkabout kids would be together in that sort of context, all having the same awesome experience at the same time. While I’m here for 3 more weeks, about half of the group is not taking the photography class, so they leave this weekend. It was a great way to come to the end of our time together.

Grampians Day 2: The view from the top

Tuesday was a fantastic day. We began by visiting the Ngamadjidj Rock Shelter (above), home to rock art painted between 5,000 and 7,000 years ago by Aborigines. While it is amazing that the art was that old, it’s even more amazing to think that Aborigines have been living in Australia for at least 40,000 years (the oldest culture that still exists today). This site, which has great spiritual importance for the Aborgines of the Grampians, has paintings done in white ochre. There are some people, who look to me to be dancing (above), and one dude who appears to be brandishing a spear (above).

Then we went to the Bunjil rock art site (above), which depicts Bunjil, the chief who Aborigines believe created the Grampians (above). The area where Bunjil was located was amazing in its own right. It was filled with huge boulders (above), which we of course had to climb (above). The view from the top of the boulder was awesome, across miles of sheep herding fields (above).

After lunch we went hiking in the Grampians. It was truly spectacular. We had to climb pretty much vertically to get to the top (Mary, above).

Just kidding. That shot was achieved through some movie magic. We hiked normally on a path was mostly just made up of the rock that naturally existed there (above). We hiked up the mountain for about an hour and a half, seeing some fantastic sandstone rock formations (above). Some of the areas the path went through were pretty narrow (above).

The view at the pinnacle was so worth the climb. You could see for forever (above). We all stopped to admire the surroundings (above). “The Pinnacle” was a rock outcropping that jutted out over the cliff’s edge. It was not for the faint-hearted, but even Eric (who’s afraid of heights) stepped out to the edge of the pinnacle (above).

It was an absolutely amazing day.