Travel with Manfred

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Copyright © 2004 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

April 12-13, 2004

The Road of Famous Cliffs

The Great Ocean Road

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: Australia, Victoria, The Great Ocean Road, Torquay, Apollo Bay, Port Campbell, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

It's all in the name. "Twelve Apostles". That sounds unique. That sounds mystical. That sounds inspiring. There is magic in these words. They create an idea or image in your mind. And they are easy to remember. How much power is there in marketing? Use the right words for your "product" and the people will come. The product in this case is the coast line of western Victoria in Australia, and the sales people are Tourism Victoria which is the State Government authority responsible for developing and marketing Victoria as a premium tourist destination for Australian and international travelers

The Twelve Apostles form the centerpiece and visual highlight of the Great Ocean Road, one of the world's best known scenic roads. The Great Ocean Road is a road movie that you can live, touch and feel. All you need for this experience is a car with a full tank, a free weekend and a pair of open eyes.

I expected scenic roads, ocean breezes, the ocean crushing against rocks, spectacular cliffs and a spectacular sunset. We got all this and a few more unexpected pleasures. There is more to the Great Ocean Road than road, ocean and beaches.

The trip starts with a warm-up leg from Melbourne to Geelong. Once past Geelong, our attention was heightened and our odometer needled dropped to have more time to take in the views. The surfers' paradise starts at Torquay. The area reminded me a lot of California. The houses along the coast were frequently basic, rented out to surfers and a board was peeking out from about every open garage. In Jan Juc which is just a couple of minutes from Torquay there are beaches to the left and right as far as the eye can see. The coastal line throughout most of the Great Ocean Road is a range of cliffs - maybe some 30 to 50 feet high - falling rather steeply into the sea. Standing on the edge of the cliffs there are great views down onto the waves as they roll in and in the case of Jan Juc on the hordes of surfers waiting for their next ride. Being at an elevation the views off to the side go a lot further, large stretches of the rugged coast line can be seen. Jan Juc has a large parking lot with shade-providing trees and shrubs. These plants were torn and shaped by the forceful winds.

Again I had to think back to California: The scenic route of Big Sur came to mind with its starting point in Monterrey. The ingredients are the same: road trip, coastal beauty, winding road along the cliffs overlooking a craggy coastline, windswept vegetation, unspoiled nature, and more.

As the mind drifts back to the now and here, back to Australia, we reach one of the world's most famous surfing spots: Bells Beach. Even to complete surfing ignoramus like me this rings a bell. As chance will have it, not only are we at the Olympus of surfing, we are at the Olympus of surfing on a Surfing World Championship weekend. It is crowded. Parking attendants control the traffic, advertisers had plastered the scenery with billboards and race updates intermingled with promotions are blasted loudly across the speakers. The professionals are signing autographs and the lines for getting a prized autograph are long. TV stations are here in their broadcasting trucks and radio stations interview people from the audience. It is a big spectacle. It is business, show business. It was a zoo. I was interested though to see and feel the atmosphere of a Surfing World Championship competition. It was my first and I doubt that I will ever see one again in my life. More as a joke, rather than real interest, we even got an autograph signed for our daughter and a nephew.

Away from the hustle and bustle of Quiksilver and alike we stopped at Point Addis, a cliff that projects a bit out into the ocean. As such there are great views up and down the coast. Since there is no beach access there are no surfers and the place is typically quiet and empty.

One of the unanticipated treats of the area is that it is not all just about sun, surf and sandy beaches, but the Great Ocean Road also offers other natural beauties. Forests and waterfalls abound. All along the road are forests and hidden within them are more than a dozen well sign-posted waterfalls. Victoria is currently going through one of its worst draughts ever and water rationing is in effect for several months already prohibiting washing cars and similar wasteful activities. Obviously these are poor conditions for seeing waterfalls. We should temporarily rename them to "waterdrops". But anyway, it is not so much about the destination as about the journey, i.e. the walk towards the falls. We enjoyed the cool stroll through the lush greenery to Erskine Waterfalls and the Coral Lynn Cascades. The added bonus was that the rhythmic motions of walking put our baby in the carrier-bag to sleep in no time.

The day was slowly coming to an end. The sun was disappearing, somewhat uneventfully, in a gradual but unimpressive fashion. No major sunset spectacle awaited us. The road winded around coastal corners and after each one, another one appeared. It was a never ending sequence of turns. As the sun lowered itself to the horizon the temperature also gradually dropped. It became fresh, then cool. Eventually it was night, all dark and slightly cold. We were in the middle of nowhere and it took us another hour to make it to the next town: Apollo Bay.

It was dinner time as we slowly rolled into Apollo Bay. The few restaurants on the main road were busy, but before we could think about dinner we had to find a place to spend the night first. We found the Apollo Bay Backpackers, a typical backpackers' guesthouse. By the time we were settled in and made it back to the main street the streets were all empty and the restaurants closed. Things shut down early. The liquor store was one of the few places still open. A bag of potato chips helped us to make it back to the Backpackers without starving. There we cooked a basic meal and enjoyed the company of the guests and owners. What a crowd! A German girl was working there to pay for her 6-month stay in Australia. A German guest told me about his dream to become a PC game programmer or tester so he could combine his hobby - playing computer games - with making money. He quizzed me on computer games and viruses. Then there were a couple of Japanese girls that cooked a lot but talked very little. And the most interesting, colorful characters were the owner and his son. They were both a tiny bit tipsy. It was an interesting discussion about Apollo Bay, Australia and the world in which we drifted from geography to culture to the meaning of life.

The next day we were shown a new face of the Great Ocean Road. Here, in the south of Australia are tiny remnants of rainforests. Amazing but true, in this generally dry area in small valleys pieces of rainforests have survived. A good example can be found in Maits Rest Rainforest which is part of the Otway National Park. We walked through it in the early morning hours. It was cool, wet, lush and densely green. Ferns sprout everywhere; smaller plants grow on bigger plants. Even giant trees with 15 feet diameter are amongst the vegetation. This is definitely a rain forest. In the afternoon we had the pleasure to visit another rain forest at Melba Gully State Park.

The southernmost tip of the Great Ocean Road is Cape Otway. On its very tip and due to its privileged exposed and elevated location is the Cape Otway Lighthouse. The dead-end road that leads to the lighthouse cuts through old eucalyptus forests. This is a time to roll down all car windows and enjoy the eucalyptus smell. The lighthouse is surrounded by coast shrubs. Not far from the lighthouse is an historic century-old cemetery with a handful of gravestones. This place has not changed with time. Standing here it is easy to imagine the times when the gravestone were placed.

And finally we approached the highlight of the Great Ocean Road, the famous rock formations off the coast. As we saw and heard the helicopters buzzing in the sky we knew we are getting close. The Twelve Apostles are the pinnacle of the 2-day scenic drive. The Twelve Apostles are twelve rocks shaped by waves and wind over the last centuries and millenniums. Of course, there are not twelve, but I guess marketing decided that Twelve Apostles is more imaginative and sells better than Twenty-Three Rocks. At low tide there are unreachable beaches of the foot of the coastal cliffs that disappear at high tide. The Apostles are just left over rocks from the receding coastline. As such they are just around a hundred feet off the coast. As the rocks of the cliffs and the apostles reflect the natural light, they change color like chameleon following the natural ambience. On a bright sunny day they can appear nearly white, on a cloudy afternoon like it was the case when we were visiting they appear brownish, and at sun set they turn red. I don't have to mention that you have to share this unique scenery with many others, from camera-toting Japanese to Australians from all over. It is beautiful as the foam crowned white waves crush against the apostles and then gentle land on the sand beaches. The green and blue sea contrasts with the white moving lines of waves. One of natures great shows.

Not far from the Twelve Apostles are similar rock formations. Each one has a capturing name. Each one is as amazing as the Apostles. Each one as stunning. We stopped at the Arch and London Bridge. The Arch, as the name indicates, is hollowed out in the middle. As the center of the large rock eroded on the bottom an arch formed. The London Bridge looked similar to the Arch until the 1990s. It was an arch, a bridge. Two tourists were standing at the far end as suddenly with a big bang the centerpiece collapsed. The "bridge" was gone, only the "pillars" were standing. With the bridge gone, the tourists were stranded and a helicopter had to be called in to get them off the rock. A clear reminder that these rocks change on a daily basis.

Our weekend finished in Port Campbell with a fish and chips dinner. It was night but not too late when we left it to head back to Melbourne. I didn't remember that stores and gas stations close early. My blood adrenaline level was rising as we drove for tens and tens of miles and the needle of the gas indicator was in the red and getting closer and closer to the absolute bottom. Running on empty we reached the town of Colac. I haven't been so happy to see a gas station for a long time.