04 May 2006

The Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road


This rainbow was ginormous (gigantic + enormous = freaking huge)

A nice ocean inlet at the start of the Road: a small surfer's mecca called Torquay.

To get any real appreciation for most of the pictures in this blog...I suggest copying and pasting in order to view the full screen image...these are just way too small otherwise.

It is quite funny that they need to add the "in Australia" at the bottom...the signs were a comforting reminder though


It was slow driving with so many amazing views just around the bend.

The trusty little rental car showing some of the amazing scenery...all from the road too as I didn't have enough time to venture to far from it on foot. Check out the sweet license plate letters too...

Pictures do so little justice...

A nice view that doesn't have the ocean in it. This was still taken from just beside the road though.

There is a large part of the road that goes through a heavily forested area...really pretty as well. I didn't have time for it (I want to come back later in life with about 5 days to devote specifically to this amazing stretch of highway)...but there are some short hikes you can do away from the road to a variety of waterfalls and other spectacular sights...I need to come back with more time. I barely even got a glimpse of the amazing towns that the road goes through...each had what looked like to be incredibly nice b+b's and guesthouses as well...I won't even mention how good the surf was.

The best part is...those signs are serious.

The beginning of the Shipwreck Coast; over 80 ships have been lost in this stretch of cliff-lined jagged coast.

The Twelve Apostles rock formations. It was quite dramatic seeing them on such a dreary day...and it really sunk in the feeling of the Shipwreck Coast (no pun intended)...but what these must be like when the sun is shining bringing out the contrast of the yellows and reds in the cliffs to the bright blue of the water must be beyond words.

This bit jutting out will eventually become another apostle. The ocean will continue to hammer away at the rocks and an arch will be formed beginning to separate the tower from the main cliff...then at some point the arch will collapse totally disconnecting the tower from the mainland. You can't make it out here...but if you zoom in on this you will see a small black spec in the center of the soon to be apostle (out at the end of the jutting out part). This is a person.

Scale shot: those tiny black dots at the top center of the cliff seen in the picture are people. These cliffs and towers are hundreds of feet tall.

The Blowhole. Cool story: so this is another location along the Shipwreck coast. When the Loch Ard (a ship) sank (a long time ago)...11 bodies got pulled into the tunnel that connects the ocean to the Blowhole (dark spot in back)...the bodies stayed down in there as they could not be pulled out due to the violence of the turbulent water within. The eerie part...at night the Blowhole actually glowed purple after the wreck because of phosphorous flares that were also trapped inside. Wouldn't that be terrifying to see at night...11 bodies being slammed by the waves in this eerily glowing pit where the ocean's power was focussed and unleashed sending huge spouts of water and foam up the hundred or so odd feet to where one was standing...I thought that was an awesome story.

Just another beautiful seascape...

Near Torquay...the surf coast.

2 comments:

Neal said...

Drew, you should definitely take that guy up on his offer for $900 just to have fun. The money wouldn't hurt and lord knows you're so boring right now.

Josh The Pilot said...

Dude, awesome pics! I've always wanted to go Down Under, now I can't wait to go!