Melbourne Vacation-Day 4

We started our morning off early as we had a long drive today out on the Great Ocean Road (Australian National Heritage listed 243 kilometres stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia). Our first stop was to Bells Beach where they were having a huge surfing competition going on.




We all enjoyed a quick game of hide & seek here!


Watching the surfers


Amazing house along the walkway

Back on the road, we saw the Split Point Lighthouse on Aireys Inlet and made our way to it.

Constructed in 1891, it was one of the last major investments by the colony of Victoria to safeguard navigation through the treacherous waters of Bass Strait.
                    
Stunning panoramic vistas! Here we see Eagle Rock and Table Rock. Table Rock has been leveled by incessant waves whereas Eagle Rock is a tall volcanic stack capped by limestone.







Back on the road…this was a long and winding road, but there were so many amazing and beautiful things to see!

GOR commemorative sign and an unbelievable house on stilts…now they’ve got a great view!
                            



Stopping for a picnic lunch in Lorne.  This was a great town (there were so many along the way) and we would have loved to spend more time here.  After lunch, we checked out Lorne's historic swing bridge built in 1937.
                                   




We then headed toward the Cape Otway Lightstation and were treated to a beautiful road full of wild koalas in the trees.



On our way out on Otway Lighthouse Road, we spotted these kangaroos in the field.

An extra special treat was seeing the joey!

Our last stop for the day was to the Twelve Apostles in Port Campbell.

It started to rain a little bit, but not enough to dampen our spirits!  The girls were so excited (maybe a little too excited) to run around with their umbrellas!
                                       
Our first look at this amazing wonder! Breathtaking!
These rock stacks are the temporary remnants of a retreating limestone coastline formed from a mixture of sand and sea-shells deposited in an ancient seabed, and later compressed millions of years ago. Under constant attack by the sea, the cliff faces are being eroded at a rate of about 2cm per year. Beneath these Twelve Apostles is an underwater world of spectacular color and many diverse marine species. These marine communities in Australia's southern waters are unique with around 90% of the plants and animals found nowhere else.


                                 
We walked out to the point to get great views of both sides





The other side, where Brian and I walked down on to the beach after this.


The rest of the crew stayed in the car as it was getting dark, but Brian and I walked down the (86) Gibson Steps to be dwarfed by the 230- foot high vertical cliffline and to get a different view of the Apostles.






Then it was on to our accommodation for the night, about an hour away.  We arrived in the dark and didn’t have an exact address to go by, but we found it! It was a cute, older home with a bit of style and a lot of red!