Great Ocean Road Part 1

Jean writes:

We took the route south from Hamilton to Port Fairy, stopping off there as Sue and Geoff have bought a plot of land and are having a new house built there, and because we had read that it is attractive.  

Port Fairy started as a whaling port and still has fishing boats.  

There was a market, where we bought a few items, including this evening's meal.  There are also about fifty buildings with a history, some of which are owned by the National Trust.  

An hour on from Port Fairy we had been talking about wishing to see a koala and a wombat when, just short of Peterborough, a koala ambled across the road in front of us and disappeared into the undergrowth.  We're still waiting for a wombat! 

The Twelve Apostles are probably the most famous landforms off the shoreline of the Great Coast Road.  They are limestone stacks, of differing height and girth, which are deemed to deserve a visitor centre, large car park, walkways to viewpoints from the cliff and hundreds of people.  I agree, they are well worth their fame.  We couldn't count the stacks to see if twelve still exist but, upon investigation, it seems there are now only eight!  The waves are very destructive here and the limestone relatively soft, so easy to erode.

As it happens, though, we were approaching from the west, and there are other limestone coastal features before the Apostles: 
Bay of Islands

Bay of Martyrs
London Bridge

The Arch
and several others which we bypassed.  These had only a handful of people and, in our view, were equally as impressive. 

London Bridge has a story attached to it.  Originally there were two arches, the landward one being the bigger.  On15th January 1990 the main arch cracked and fell into the sea, leaving a couple of people stranded near the seaward end.  They had to be rescued by helicopter the following day.  

The vegetation over the last hour before we reached Apollo Bay, our destination, became more lush, resembling rain forest.  

The weather during our stay has only been hot and humid for about three days in Melbourne.  The remainder has been much cooler, with some cloud, some sun.  The last few days, since Robe, have been quite windy and today ended cold, with overcast skies and rain.  We hope for some sun tomorrow as Apollo Bay looks lovely and a bright blue sea would really enhance the view.

Dave writes:

A ridge too far?

Hamilton has a lovely lake and I ran round it this morning. Plenty of birdlife and no other joggers in sight. 

Our wonderful hosts Geoff and Sue tell me of an annual two-day running/walking event up in the hills/mountains but I am backing off. 

Like many racehorses, I am better on a flat track with firm going!  

Sad farewell

Splendid brunch downtown with Geoff and Sue. Sad farewell but hope we can meet up again sooner rather than later. 

Memorable drive down the Great Ocean Road - one of the world's most well known highways but on maps and road signs it's simply the B100. 

It's been a splendid month for sport down here epitomised tonight by the Asian Cup football final where Australia overcame South Korea 2-1 in extra time.

Earlier Serena had beaten Shriekova in the women's tennis (Melbourne is quiet once more) and we've been watching Murray march on. 

There was also an amazing finish the other night to the final of the Big Bash competition where Brett Lee's final three balls in competitive cricket almost yielded a hat-trick. 

Tomorrow it's Murray in the tennis and England v Oz in the tri-series cricket final.

And then it's the World Cup!