2011 Travelling Alone in Australia - Great Ocean Road, The Last Day－旅行は私の人生なのだ

Oh, my god！Today is my last day in Australia？

I wait for the bus at the same corder in the morning.

When I watch my flight information, I suddently find something wrong.

"Jesus, I misunderstand the departure time of my flight."

The time is not at midnight Tomorrow. It's the midnight Today!!

It's pretty bad that I think I should have a free day in Melbourne but the day doesn't exist anymore.

I don't have the time saying goobye to Melbourne.

I always leave an empty day for walking freely without any purpose.

This is my way to settle my mood and say goodbye to the country I'm travelling.

That's unbelievable that I've stayed in Australia so long.

Anyway, this day is my last day in Melbourne and my journey is Ausralia comes to the end.

The only good news is that I won't miss my flight tonight, or it woule be terrible to sleep on the bed after the trip today.

Due to such a reason, I try to catch the scenes on the bus as possible as I could.

My mind is flustered. It's my last moment to watch Melbourne city in the daytime.

Departing from Federal Square, the bus heads toward Geelong.

The driver tells us a feature of the buildings beside the road we pass.

In general, the houses would not be built at the location closed to the highway or the main road, or it would be very noisy and the quality of living is poor.

However, these houses are all built very closed to the acoustic barriers and the roofs ia the same length aligning to the top of the barriers. It's really a special feature.

Passing through Geelong, the first destination to day is Bells Beach in the west-southern of Torquay.

Bells Beach is the surfing heaven in summer.

Rip Curl Pro, a surfing competition, is hled here every year.

This competition was first held in 1973 and is still held until now.

By the way, Torquay is the start of Great Ocean Road, and the end is Warrnambool. The total length of Great Ocean Road is 243 km. Therefore, if you drive from Melbourne to Warrnambool, it's a very long way. It's recommended to arrange two to three days for enjoying beautiful scenery along Great Ocean Road.

For the day trip, we only go to Port Campbell as the end and return to Melbourne city via road A1.

Great Ocean Road was built by return soldiers between 1919 and 1932, and is in memry of the death in World war I. Besides, it's also the transport connection between South and West Australia.

The scenery of Bells Beach is indeed beautiful but becomes common if you compare it with wineglass bay or seal bay. The member in the trip of kangaroo Island has told me about her thought about this.

Of course, you could not surf at seal bay or wineglass bay.

The rest time at Bells Beach is also the time for refreshment.

Except for Billy Tea, the driver serves us with two refreshmemts.

The first one is Lamington, an Australian sponge cake in the shape of cuboid coated with a layer of chocolate icing and desiccated coconut.

Another one is the round cookie with the strange falvor source, Vegemite.

About Vegemite, I've tasted in Kangaroo Island because I mistook it as the chocolate sourcee for my toast, and the taste is very strange and disgusting (maybe I spread too much).

What is Vegemete? It's a sauce made from yeast extract.

It' salty and slight bitter. If you really want to try it, remeber not to spread Vegemete too much.

After the short break at Bells Beach, we continue our way along the coast.

Due to the time, some scenes could only be took through the window.

That's why someone drives on his own. You could stop anywhere as you wish.

The driver introduces the features along the Great Ocean Roa with an interesting tone.

That sounds like the speech in the competition with perfect pronunciation and emotions.

There is a memorial arch located on Eastern View when the bus pass the lonely Angelsea which is a popular town in summer.

A memorial statue stands at the left side of the arch. This statue is built in memory of the 3000 soldiers who built Great Ocean Road and the location is also meaningful as the start of the first Great Ocean Road with the end at Lorne.

You could walk to the beach via the track but you have to hurry because the bus only stops here for a few minutes.

Such as I told above, the long distance is a disadvantage of the day trip.

Most of the time is spent on the bus and the time for each attracton is not so long that you could enjoy it in a slow pace.

Thanks God that the window is quite clear, or it would be a problem to take photos on the car.

About noon, we have our lunch at Apollo Bay.

Apollo Bay is a small and quiet town with restaurants, shops and a beach.

Apollo Bay Music Festival is held here every year.

Because I want to walk around the main street and the beach, I walk quickly to the restaurant and order the sandwich-like dish with my lunch ticket.

I really think that it would be much relaxing to drive along Great Ocean Road for at least two days.

Actually, there is a tour company running the two-day trip of Great Ocean Road. Unfortunately, they don't run the business on Augest every year.

In the group travel, the free time is always limited. Thus, I choose to finish my lunch quickly.

Walking along the beach, this period of time may be the most enjoyable moment to me.

When I return to the main street, I find a lovely baby Husky with a cute smile.

The owner says this little Husky is about three months old.

Wow, it's my first time to meet a baby Hunkyand he is very friendly and active.

Apollo Bay suddently becomes a memorial place to me.

Other tourists also love to take photos of him.

About 1:20 p.m, we leave Apollo Bay and enter the foest area of Great Otway National Park.

The driver says, it's possible to find wild koalas on the tree if we are lucky.

Besides, it's also said that the branch going southward to the light house is a good place for watching wild koalas (if you drive on your own).

I think someone should have found koalas at the right side of the bus but they could only watch koals through the window.

The rugged road makes me sleepy. When I awake, we are near the most popular section of Great Ocean Road, Port Campbell National Park.

The famous attractions in this region includes Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, London Arch and other geographic features. You could not miss them in your Great Ocean Road trip.

The helicopter flight is an optioanl activity, but I think it's worth to watch the coastal scenery in the sky.

I rush to the helicopter office after getting off at the car park.

It's the only way to taking the helicopter and watching scenery in the viewing platforms during the limited time.

My seat is not so ideal but better than the middle seat.

Besides, the window is not the dome glass as the helicopter in Uluru. Thus, it's a little diffcult to take photos. You have to choose the corrrect angle to avoid the reflection.

The helicopter flys counterclockwise from Twelve Apostles .

If you are familir with the features of these geographic attractions, you may find Twelve Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge.

As for the most beautiful scene, it should be the coastal line. Such scenery is what you could not feel on the ground and this is the unique thing of Great Ocean Road. Otherwise, you could always find more beautiful scenes in another place.

Though the scenery in the sky is pretty amazing, I still want to take photos of Twelve Apostles on the ground.

Running! Running! Running! This is the only description for me in the afternoon.

Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore with an average height of 45 m.

These stacks were a part of the coast long time ago but eroded by the harsh weather condition from Southern Ocean.

It's a good day today, the driver says. It's sunny and the temperature is also comfortable.

However, the sunny day is always good when the attactions are in the same direction with the sun.

Because of the sunlight, the stack looks like a big shadow.

Are there really twelve stacks off the shore since the name "Twelve Apostles" should imply the number?

Actually, there are only nine stacks. Twelve Apostles is named in the tourism purpose.

In July 3rd 2005, one of the stacks fell down because of the erosion.

It's said that these stacks are under the erosion of 2 cm each year.

Therefore, Twelve Apostles will become the attractions in the history one day, but there will be new stacks appearing from the eroded coast. That may be a story thousands million years later.

Runnung along the boardwalk for any possible angle of viewing, I finally have some nice works of these stacks.

I find a map behind the tourist center. You may count how many stacks you have found.

The next stop is Gibson's Steps where you could walk down the steps and watch the stacks on the beach.

It's easy to walk down but tiring when you climb upwards.

The quality of photos is much better but not so ideal as I wish.

It's really recommended to visit these attractions in the morning or in the cloudy day, and if you want to do so, staying at Port Campbell would be a good choice.

Loch Ard Gorge is the last attraction we visit.

The name "Lord Ard" is in memory of the shipreck in 1878.

Loch Ard is the name of a clipper ship that departed from England to Melbourne. Of fifty foru passengers and crew, only two survived. The two survivals climbed out of the cliff for help but we don't have to do that nowadays.

Except for reaching the beach at the bottom via the steps, there are two boardwalks leading to the viewing platforms.

Actually, there is still another attraction in this national park: London Bridge.

Due to the limited time, we don't visit there.

London Bridge may reminds you of the song "London Bridge is falling down" that is translated in different languages.

It's interesting that this London Bridge in South Australia was named after the original arch was broken into two spans in 1990. So, you may not find a real London Birdge in London, but there is a natural borken London Bridge in Australia.