Melbourne, Australia- Part 3. The Great Ocean Road

Not wishing to rent a car, we opted to travel the Great Ocean Road on a long day bus trip. We were picked up at 7 am and returned to the hotel about 13 hours later. It was a very long day but included a lot of sitting on our double-decker bus.

Our itinerary for the day followed this map.

A little while into our trip we stopped to sample "billy tea." As the story goes, soldiers were shipped meats in metal cans. As some point someone said, "\Why don't we wash these out and make tea in them?" So, our driver brewed up "billy tea" in what looked like paint cans.

The hot sweet tea was served with lamingtons. In this case chocolate lamingtons. Another story: a lady of high standing (can't remember who) got served a piece of cake. Being a lady, she would not remove her gloves in order to eat the cakes. She asked if something couldn't be done so her gloves didn't get dirty. Someone suggested coating the small cakes in flaked coconut. Viola! No more dirty gloves. We see lamingtons being made on Australian and New Zealand cooking shows. One of these days I will try to make lamingtons!

The weather was pretty changing on this day. You can tell that from the photos.

What's the Great Ocean Road? Here's the story. In September 1919, over 3000 (we were told 4000) returned Australian soldiers were put to work building the road using mostly hand explosives, picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. They worked 8 hrs a day. The first section opened in 1922. Soon after the opening, a toll was put on use of the road: cars paid 1/5 as much as wagons with more than 2 horses!
It was completed and the official opening of the completed road was held in 1932. It is recognized as the longest war memorial. We learned that several sections have collapsed and had to be repaired and permanently supported.

One of the high points on the trip is seeing the Twelve Apostles. These are limestone shapes formed from the coastal cliffs. The cliffs are constantly changing due to seeping rain water. Waves weaken the cliffs creating arches and tunnels. Older formations collapse and disappear as new ones are formed. The formations erode and retreat at a rate of slightly less than 1 inch per year.

These formations were not always called the Twelve Apostles. Originally there were 18 of the formations and they were called "The Piglets." A much larger formation was mamma piggy. As parts fell off, 6 were lost and the grouping was renamed Twelve Apostles.

We also stopped at Loch Ard George. This spot is famous for the clipper ship of the same name that sank in 1878. Of a crew of 54, only 2 survived.

Shots from the drive along the coast.

 In the next two photos you can see the actual Road.

In this shot the road is in the little divot in the top line of trees.

It's dangerous swimming in some of these spots.
This is the view down from a fairly elevated section of the road.

Later in the day the bus turned inland.

We did see kangaroos in several of the cow pastures. They were pretty far away, but they were probably kangaroos as opposed to wallabys. Diary farms are huge in this area. After WWII, the government wanted to have people settle in this area. They gave a soldier 100 acres. The next step was to clear it. Once cleared, the soldier could buy the land for about $1 AU.  Most of the 100 acre plots had between 25-35 cows. From this the diary business was formed.

The fields went on for miles and miles. Along the way we saw a few flocks of cockatoos- especially as the sun set. We also saw cows, sheep and alpaca.

On the inland trip home, we watched the "true story" of a dog that wasn't really appreciated much until he managed to keep foxes off a small island in Australia. Keeping the foxes away allowed fairy penguins to nest on the island once again. The name of the movie is "Oddball." If you can find it anywhere, it's interesting.

Here are a couple of miscellaneous photos from this day trip. The first one is just a very strange looking plant.

 The second? A sign at one of the stops where we were walking all around. No snakes spotted.