Saturday Feb. 7 Bus trip

12 Apostles:  originally about 18 rock outcroppings. Now only about 7 left. Many areas along the coast eroded over the years. Option for helicopter flights. Busiest flights in Australia. Special flight for 10 minutes for $95. 

 
Feb. 7th, 6 years ago in 2009, was the hottest day on record, 47 degrees C. or about 115 degrees F. Worst casualty for Australia except for war - 179 deaths. Wild fires in the western part of Melbourne. Today was this anniversary.



Melbourne:  4.5 million, second only to Sydney. (5 million).  Brisbane, 2.5 million. Western side Perth: 2 million and Adelaide: 1.5 million.  5 major population centers. Total population:  23.5 million, most living around the outside. Population of Melbourne increasing at about 70,000/yr. 200 people every day. 



Headed to Geelong still on the bay. First stop at Angle sea. morning tea break. Then follow the Great Ocean Road, 152 miles but we’re only doing 112 miles of it to Port Campbell before we head back . Total 500+ KM. round trip. 


 
First stop at Angle sea by a river entrance to the South Ocean. Jeff, our driver, set up a table with Billy Tea - because beef and other meats used to be shipped to Australia in tins, with salt added to preserve the meat 



Biggest gold rush in the world, in the 1850s, happened outside of Melbourne. Miners from all over the world sailed past here. The Surf Coast along here, but past here is Shipwreck Coast as 164 ships never made it to Melbourne as waters treacherous. Thousands of people died. 



32 years ago,  1983, all this area was burning, as well as Blue Mountains, were on fire. 

Split Point lighthouse at Airey’s Place. Whole town burned to the ground, with people standing in the ocean to escape, while the town burned down. Many weekenders, small beach homes for getaways from Melbourne or Geelong Road was built in 1918 as a work project for veterans from WWI. 3000 men were given jobs to cut this road to Apollo Bay - 40 miles - 14 years to build it. Officially opened in November 1932. We stopped at the archway over the road that says Great Ocean Road. Gorgeous beaches here but Jeff said we would be stopping at many more beaches later in the afternoon so I didn’t get off. I’m relying on Anna to get some great shots with her camera. She got off to get a shot of the white lines on the road under the archway. 

Met a woman on the bus from Capetown, SA, She is traveling with her husband who is one of the managers of the International Cricket competition beginning this week in Melbourne. Usually she only sits and watches the matches but this time wanted to get in some sight-seeing. She’s been to India, West Indies, and of course, England - any place that used to be part of the British Empire is crazy about this game. She says sometimes the matches are REALLY long; but now they have a more popular 3 hr. matches version. We saw some school groups out in fields yesterday with bats so knew they were playing it. 



Our driver told us this stop should be 10 minutes. This is one of the reason I object generally to group tours like this. We had a stop of 22 minutes, 12 minutes over because of 2 people who dawdled. When we left, the driver scolded them (gently!) but hopefully they got the message. There are mostly foreigners on the bus (52 people) and some may not understand English so didn’t get his directions at the beginning. Hopefully it will change



Coming into Lorne - the number 1 holiday place. In winter only about 2000 residents. But in summer about 30,000 - like Wellfleet! More than $1,000,000 for a house here! Had our ham/cheese sandwiches, our beer and french fries and added a chocolate/cherry cake for us to share for lunch in front of the Apollo Bay Hotel. We had a few minutes to cross the street and I bought a couple of beautiful glass pendants, one blue and one turquoise. 

 

Average rainfall for Melbourne - 26 inches in a year. Up here it’s 80 inches of rain - in this rainforest where we’re crossing the mountain.  We’ve been going along the Tasman Sea until we get to the 12 Apostles when we will be at the Southern Ocean (An ocean divides continents as opposed to a sea). Northern Australia around Great Barrier Reef is the Coral Sea, south by Brisbane and Sydney is the Pacific. On the western side is the Timor Sea and the Arafura Sea. 

 
BTW, Anna met an acquaintance who drives the city bus we took when we went downtown. He is driving one of the tour buses and joined us as we were eating. His name is John from Macedonia (formerly part of Yugoslavia). 


The 12 Apostles was our next stop, with a highlight - a 15 minute helicopter ride!! My first time! We flew with 8 people and the pilot out over the cliffs down the line to see this soft rock outcroppings. Originally there had been 18 of them but now are down to like 9. There was an archway connecting one to the land and Anna bought us a postcard that showed it on Jan. 18th, 1990 and then the next day, the arch had fallen in, leaving two tourists stranded. They had to be rescued by helicopter! But no one fell in with the arch. 

 

 
We left our bags with the driver and flew out past the row of rocks and then back. It was exciting and noisy but we had headphones so we could hear the pilots commentary. Usually flights are more like $250,  our driver said, but Grayline had a discount so ours was $95 for the ride. I’m hoping to do  a flight over Waimea Canyon on Kauai but we’ll see how much that is when I get there. 

 
Next was Gibsons Steps, a stairway down to the beach - 82 or so steps. I stayed at then top but Anna hiked down and up!! My knees just couldn’t take it! I had lovely views from the top. Next was Lard Arn Canyon, named after a ship coming from London to Melbourne. It foundered on the last day and sank in 20 minutes in mid-winter. One sailor 17 years old floated ashore here and then heard screaming. He rescued an 18 year old girl clinging to a spar. They spent the night in a cave and then he climbed the cliff and got help to rescue her; four other bodies washed ashore - her mother, sister - all dead. They are buried there. All other 52 crew and passengers, including the girl’s other family members perished. The guy was a hero and later joined the Navy. Melbourne rallied round the girl who was left with no family members and they raised funds for her to return to Ireland. No Hollywood movie ending where the guy marries the maiden!!!

 

Last stop was Port Campbell, a little town of 400, where I put my feet (without climbing a huge number of steps, in the Southern Ocean! We had our requisite beer, bought an Ocean Road tea towel and headed back to Melbourne - by an inland highway for 3 hours!!