The tour I took was very nice. It was a small tour of about 15 people which made for a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. We went to all the places of interest along the Great Ocean Road and all of those places were well worth the stops. We first stopped and did a short little walk through a rain forest of fern trees and gum trees. The forest was pretty thick, you couldn't see too far into the forest due to all the vegetation. After that we made several stops at places along the coastline. All the places we stopped at featured limestone stacks off the shore. The coast is made up of limestone and sandstone rocks. Over time water and wind wore away at the softer sandstone, leaving huge stacks of limestone standing as the shoreline eroded farther and farther inland. Stopping at the 12 Apostles I was in for a shock. It was a tourist magnet. There were countless tour buses in the parking lot and the walk out to the viewing area was packed with tourists snapping photos. I joined the masses and took a gander at the formations. The 12 Apostles are a series of 8 stacks close to one another. The name is a misnomer, there never were 12 stacks; there were 9 stacks but one collapsed in the 1990s. At any rate it was a sight to behold: large stacks of sandy brown and red rocks juxtaposed against seagreen coastal waters giving way to an azure ocean stretching to the horizon.
The stretch of coast from 12 Apostles to the Bay of Islands is known as the Shipwreck Coast. Since the late 1800s there have been more than 80 shipwrecks along that stretch of coastline. We stopped at the site of one of the most famous shipwrecks along the coast. Loch Ard Gorge is a gorge named after a ship that became one of the 80 ships that wrecked along the coast. The wreck of the Loch Ard is famous because out of more than 50 people onboard there were only two survivors, a 23 year old sailing apprentice and an 18 year old Irish girl. After they were rescued there was pressure for the two to get married, though it never happened. The girl, having lost both parents and 5 siblings, returned to Ireland to live with her older sister. The gorge formed a narrow cove along the coast. I had fun watching the tourists walk to the edge of the surf and pose for a picture, only to have a wave come up behind them and soak them from the knees down. Just as fun was watching people run away from the encroaching waves.
The next two sites, London Bridge and Bay of Islands, had formations similar to 12 Apostles but nowhere near as large. London Bridge at one time had two archs jutting out into the ocean, but the span connecting it to the mainland collapsed about 5 years ago. London Bridge was nice because we had the place to ourselves. We took advantage of that and took a group photo, one of the few photos that I have been in since arriving in Australia.
We spent the night at a hostel in the Grampians, hanging out and drinking beer. The next day we went on a short hike to a waterfall that was more like a watertrickle. Next we climbed Mt. Zero which offered some nice views of the surrounding area. The Grampians were very neat, jagged mountaintops raising out of a flat plain. Kangaroos were all over the park. There are several Aboriginal rock painting sites within the park, though we did not go to them. Much of the Grampians was closed at the time as a result of rockslides and landslides caused by the large amount of rain that had fallen recently. The tour really only offered a sneak peak at the Grampians as the park itself is fairly large. But we were in the Grampians long enough for me to see two emus just off the road.
In Horsham myself and about 8 others left the tour to board a bus to Adelaide as the tour was headed back to Melbourne. The bus we boarded was a luxury bus compared to the other buses I've been on. More leg room, comfortable seats, even an in-bus movie all made the 5.5 hour trip to Adelaide a pleasant one.
My plan is to take a train into the heart of the outback and arrive at Alice Springs. The train doesn't leave until next Sunday, so in the meantime I will be spending the week in and around Adelaide. Adelaide is much smaller than Melbourne and a little bigger than Hobart. Even so, there seems to be a fair amount of things to do. Part of the time I will be meeting up with Giulia. She has been in Adelaide for about 3 weeks working. The hostel I'm staying at has a pancake breakfast every morning and apple pie every night, which is quite nice. Also nice is that the hostel coincidentally put me in the same room as Giulia, so I don't have to go far to meet up with her. We shall see what kinds of adventures Adelaide has in store for me.
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