9. Australia - The Great Ocean Road

Covering 16 to 18 October

Boat Bay

Next to Uluru (the place we always used to know as Ayers Rock) and The Great Barrier Reef, the 150 mile long Great Ocean Road is probably Australia’s most well known natural sight. Now, we all know that the road is not natural and people do not flock here to stare at the tarmac, they come to see the stunning scenery of the sea and wind sculpted limestone coastline. The road was constructed in the early 1920s by servicemen returned from the First World War as a way of providing employment and at the same time increasing tourism access to this stunning and previously almost inaccessible coast.

Bay of Islands

Bay of Islands panorama

Bay of Martyrs

We saw the whole lot of it and it really was spectacular, nearly all cliffs and a terrible danger to shipping, particularly in times of sail. Through places like Boat Bay, Martyrs Bay, The Grotto, The Arch, it seems every bit of it has a name. There are a few beaches but most of this section of coast is sheer cliffs and offshore there are many small vertical sided islands and rock stacks. We preferred the far western end because it seemed even wilder and more spectacular than the rest of it.

The Grotto

One small island just offshore has an arch cut through the middle and until twenty or so years ago it was connected to the mainland by a second arch. It was called London Bridge. That second arch collapsed without warning, certainly without any warning to the two tourists who were on the farthest section at the time and were then stranded. You could almost write a song about it.

the London Bridge which really did fall down

The most famous section of the route is undoubtedly The Twelve Apostles, free standing stacks of rock just off the beaches. There were apparently never twelve of them and until the 1960s they were known as The Sow and Piglets. Then I guess some clever dick advertising man (yes, in the 1960s it probably was a man) came up with the more marketable name used today. It is indeed quite a sight to behold. Unfortunately for us, in the whole length of the road which we took about two days over, it chose to be raining just while we were at the Apostles and for about an hour afterwards. The rest of the time it was sunny. So unlike all those postcards and photos, mine are different, not sunny but moody and atmospheric (or wet and windy if you prefer).

The Twelve Apostles - and it's blowing a hooley

Gog and Magog - just to the east of the Apostles

The eastern half of the Great Ocean Road has a few small towns with some excellent beaches and the road clings to the hillsides as it wends a precipitous way from one to another. The countryside is undulating and verdant. What this section doesn’t have are those rocky remnants of stone standing in solitary grandeur being slowly eaten away at their bases.

on the road to Apollo Bay - not like the outback is it ?

It really is one of the great drives.

Masked Plover

Here's some birds for a change

possibly a male Blue Wren
- there are several birds like this which look similar to me

two of the 56 species of the Parrot family found in Australia
- no I haven't a clue

Those swarms of flies I mentioned in an earlier blog still occasionally appear for no apparent reason, unless you’re a fly I suppose. Not in such quantities though. What is so irritating is that one or more will always be a nose fetishist. Whatever happens it is determined to get up your nose, literally and metaphorically and a fly crawling up your nose itches like mad. In fact while I’m writing this in the van with all the doors open so that the wind will disperse the flies, Heather is sorting out some flight details while wearing her anti-fly headnet. We’ve heard that the waving of hands to disperse them is called an outback salute and because waving a handkerchief around works quite well, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Morris Dancing was originally an Aussie concept. Bruce Dancing ?

Australian Magpies are probably the bird we’ve seen most of. Strikingly marked black and white with a heavy beak, they have a wide range of calls including a rather pleasant gurgling, chattery sort of sound. The juveniles sometimes exhibit behaviour that I’ve never seen in any other bird. It’s a very strange subservient action when adults are around. The young one will lie on it’s their back just like a dog will sometimes with feet in the air, completely still and sometimes uttering a plaintive little call. The first time we saw this, the adults were bullying the young bird by jumping on it and pushing it about. Other times the juvenile just looks like a dead bird and then when the adults move away it’ll have a quick look to see if it’s safe to get up. Perhaps the young have to find a new territory and this behaviour is in the transition period. The adults want it off earning a living of its own and the juveniles want to stick around with mum and dad. Sound familiar ?

"I know my place"

who's that down there lookin' at me ?

dreaming of Eucalyptus

At one of those small towns along the great Ocean Road with a good beach, we stayed on a campsite with Koalas co-existing with us transient human population and it was the best views we’ve had of them. Koalas have developed a slow metabolism and sleep for up to twenty hours a day while their tough food is being digested. They often tuck themselves into a fork of branches when they’re sleeping and are surprisingly difficult to see unless they’re moving. We did see one crossing open ground and it’s fair to say that walking is not their strong suit. They can only feed on Eucalyptus leaves usually sticking to one or two species and occasionally trying a different one. It would be like having a diet consisting solely of say, lettuce and eating only Icebergs and Cos. Then once in a while trying out a Little Gem for variety ! Oh and they’re not bears, they’re Marsupials with pouches although I have to say with their chubby stature, flattish faces and large button noses they look more like Teddy Bears than any other ‘bear’ I’ve ever seen.