The Great Ocean Road Form Port Campbell to Warrnambool

Back tracked down the road to Gibson Steps on the Ocean Road. We walked down the step to the beach which gave us our first brilliant views of the Twelve Apostles. With the morning lighting them up from behind. Hannah loved the beach and she watched the waves crashing on to the beach. The sea was starting to move inland. So we got our first pictures of the Twelve Apostles and made our way to the back. The Twelve Apostles are line stone stacks standing upright in the sea. They were once part of the mainland but sea, time and the weather have eroded from the land. Both of us are fascinated by them. At our next stop was the Twelve Apostles visitors centre. We got some really good pictures and spent a lot of time looking at the Apostles, at where some had fallen down and just at the land scape.
We got to Loch Ard Gorge. This is where 1 of the many ship wreaks happened along the coast. Its the most famous because there were 52 people on board by only 2 survived, Tom Pearce and Eva Carmichael, both aged 18. The locals at the time wanted them to marry. But Eva left to go home back to Ireland. I really enjoyed Loch Ard Gorge. I really got in to the local history. The story says that the compass was faulty an d the ship hit a small island off the coast and the 2 survivors washed up in the gorge. Tom climbed out to get help for Eva and had to walk about 5 miles bare foot. We walked around the area of the gorge, went to the cemetery. But only 4 other bodies were found from the wreak. They now lay in the cemetery with a remembrance area for all lost on that day. We saw where the boat may have hit the island just off shore.
Then we looked at all the different rock formations and the cliffs. The locals have named a few such as the Blow hole, Razor back and Thunder cave all for the right reasons. Water blows out the blow hole, the weather has made a sharp looking razor on the rocks and the waves wash into Thunder cave on a stormy day and the locals say its like thunder.

In the afternoon we saw rock formations called The Arch, London Bridge and the Grotto. All were spectacular to see. Then drove to the bay of Martyrs and the bay of Islands. At the bay of Islands we got a few pictures that once home we are going to get produced and framed. So you'll have to wait and see those.

We had a really great day today, but to finish off the day we went to a night-time show of the ship wreak Loch Ard. Its called "Shipwrecked". Its all about the experience of being on the ship and they play part of the scenes on a movie screen. But the best bit as that we were taken outside, to a model village called Flagstaff. Then seated in front of a lake. The next bit was to experience the stormy seas and the wreak itself. The water from the lake is sprayed into the air and the movie is played on the water spray in front of us. An EXCELLENT night. We both really loved it.