Road Trip! Exploring the Great Ocean Road

This morning, we got up bright and early to do another hike in the Grampians before we made our way along the Great Ocean Road, a hike that proved to be equally as challenging as yesterdays but with a more glorious view to reward our hard work.  Not everyone made it to the top of the craggy mountaintop so I felt a certain pleasure in being counted as one of the few to make it.  Balanced on the perch of a rock, I leaned back on my backpack and with feet stretched out in front of me, I took in the 360 degree views of lake and mountain, only to feel a few drops of water hit me.  It was threatening to rain, not a good thing when loads of slippery rock stand in your way of the dirt path down the mountain. 

Our break was cut short and we carefully hustled down the rocks, sliding down if necessary (after all, that’s why we have rumps, right?), and got back to the path.  As if we weren’t motivated enough to get down the mountain, a hint of smoke filled our nostrils and posted signs telling of a controlled burn caught our eye.  Thankfully, we made it down safely and headed back to our accommodations to pack up.  On our walk back, we saw kangaroos in the park nearby and one of them had a joey, a baby kangaroo in her pouch!  Colorful parrots of green, red, and blue congregated around them while foreign birdcalls filled the air, a great way to end our hike and say goodbye to the Grampians.

Once packed and loaded into the bus, we grabbed lunch on the go at Subway and headed towards the coast and the Great Ocean Road. A stretch of two-lane road that runs along a portion of the state of Victoria, the Great Ocean Road is comparable to the Pacific Coast Highway in California, specifically the area of Big Sur and Carmel.  However, it has things this stretch of California does not – rainforest, warm weather, and signs that remind tourists to drive on the left-hand side of the road.  Driving on a scenic highway while keeping your eyes on the road is hard enough let alone having someone enjoying the view and driving straight at you!  You can tell this happens often.

 More importantly, the road holds one more distinction – it is a war memorial for those World War I soldiers who lost their lives.  When WWI ended, thousands of soldiers returned home only to find Australia in a depression and themselves without a job.  The country put their returning soldiers to work by building the Great Ocean Road.  Beginning in 1919, they chipped and chiseled away by hand, completing it in 1932.  A wood sign at the beginning of the road acts as the official tribute.  Before that, the coast earned a reputation of having a hauntingly treacherous past of harsh weather, violent seas, and lost lives, as I’d soon discover.  Each curve of the road had more meaning when viewed in this light. 

At the first of five stops today, the Bay of Islands, salty sea air filled my nostrils, a smell I missed that reminded me of home.  The Bay of Islands used to be connected until the cliffs eroded it away causing islands to form. However, such disaster did leave beauty in its wake.

Zigzagging our way up the coast, we reached the Bay of Martyrs, given this unfortunate name due to the masses of aboriginal people who were killed here by the European settlers.  Australia has a similar past to the US with the story of the white man persecuting the natives.  Many tribes lived in what is now the state of Victoria but many were forced to relocate or were massacred.  The view, however beautiful, seems tainted by its regretful past.  What’s interesting though is that in many parts of the country, there is a plan in place which allows some of the aboriginal people the ability to take back some of their land in which the government leases the land from the tribes.  This is the case for the National Park at Uluru.

Australia, a virtual no man’s land and an open frontier, like the US, caught the attention of many countries as a good place to settle and therefore sent immigrants by ship to make a new home for themselves.  However, many sea captains underestimated the rugged coastline, which devoured their ships and all life on them with the following exception.

It is at our third stop, Loch Ard Gorge where a shipwreck occurred leaving two survivors – a crewmember and a teenage girl whose family perished with the ship.  Held up in a cave to weather out the elements, the man climbed out of the steep, craggy gorge and sought help for the young girl, an amazing feat when looking at it from the beach where they washed ashore.  Many wonder if they got together in this new land.  After all, they lost all they held dear, are in a strange land, and he did rescue her.  How romantic would that be?!  Unfortunately, the girl returned to England to be with family and the man continued his nautical career in Australia, unfortunately with a few more shipwrecks under his belt.  I know, not the Hollywood ending one would hope for with such tragedy amidst them.

Moving on along the coast, we came to some famous steps, which I was especially keen to walk down – the Gibson Steps.  Originally chiseled out of the side of the cliff by the aborigines, these steps, now concrete take you down to the beach where you can come up close and personal to one of the 12 Apostles, a series of huge, rock formations.  Interestingly enough, there are not twelve of them and they have nothing to do with apostles. There were nine but one eroded away.  Their original name was the Sow and Piglets but in the 1950’s, the name was changed to the 12 Apostles to attract more tourists. After all, who would drive all that way to see a Sow and Piglets? 

Ben with his boots off

People eagerly came down the steps, threw their shoes off and dug their feet into the fine, white sand to take a stroll along the beach.  Even Ben, our American jeans and t-shirt rancher, took off his cowboy boots, the boots that got him the nickname “Mountain Goat” due to climbing rocks with them, and joined in on the action.

With a bit of drizzle, we set out anyway to view the sunset of the 12 Apostles.  Since the sun was not visible, it did not have the opportunity to change the rocks magnificent colors as one would hope for or expect.  No, the transformation into twilight was subtle and the ocean calm.  The grayish blue of the ocean began to turn beautiful hues of blue swirled with purple, a fine view for which to take in on the way back to our accommodations in Port Campbell.  Accompanied by a communal rendition of the “gum tree” song,  “YMCA,” and countless karaoke opportunities along the way of the 80’s and 90’s classics, my heart music, it crossed cultural boundaries and unified the group even further.

Kristi at the 12 Apostles

Many of us joined our tour guide for a drink at the local pub where I tried my first Aussie beer, “Pure Blonde,” and chatted more with my tour mates.  I especially enjoyed getting to know Monica “Mo” and Justin, Americans who live in the Cayman Islands where Justin is from.  They both were fed up with their jobs and barely had time to see each other.  When they re-evaluated their lives, they decided to quit their jobs and are now traveling for a few months as they consider their next steps.

As I left the pub to call it a night, I felt like I was on a road trip with friends I didn’t know I had and was thankful to get to know them a bit better.