The Great Ocean Road Trip 2 -Lorne to Port MacDonnell

Main sign at the entrance to the 12 apostles

A continuing saga of our great trip part 2 has us heading off from Lorne. This is where you really get into the sights the Great Ocean Road has to offer. All the tourist specials, like the 12 Apostles, London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge, The Grotto, are on the next leg of this trip. In our case it meant parking somewhere and walking into the area in order to view these famous spots. I must say they were easy enough and everything is catered with board walks, steps, signs, and the views were fantastic. Knowing where everything is helps so you are aware of what is coming up. Some signs aren't easy to catch as you drive along.

There they are not many left, only 9 originally now 7

First up was Apollo Bay with a quick look around  the 12 apostles, on our way for our nights stop at Port Campbell. Not a long drive really only a little more than 2 hours, but the stopping and looking takes its time. Unfortunately there was a great deal of mist, at the Apostles,  which for the photographers wasn't very good.

Nice helpful tourist from Germany took this.

Lunch stop was by the car, this was at the catered area for the 12 apostles stop. Many, many cars, tourists and buses, quite a large space set aside, along with toilets, cafe, tourist information.

Just enough room to get the chairs and picnic lunch out.

 Luckily our stop was by a garden bed.

 

  I reckon this would have been the most photographed sign, waited in line just to take it.

Thunder Cave, we walked further down and heard the noise of the water entering giving its name.

  This beach caught our eye from one of the lookouts. We think different  tourists have added to it at various times.

Our first reaction was "What Is It?"

Another "amazing" sight.

Fallen ones?

Very Clever

The arch part to the left of London Arch fell into the water and left two people stranded on the remaining part for a couple of hours, while they organized  a helicopter to get them off. It fell about 3 minutes after the walked over it. No-one was hurt.

  

What is left of The London Arch

 The most fascinating one of all I think for me was the Loch Ard Gorge. Where the shipwreck The Loch Ard  lies just off from this area.

 

 We actually went down all the steps and looked at the tiny beach, and the waves washing in.

This was amazing.

The first survivor from the ship wreck the Loch Ard, Tom Pearce swam ashore somewhere, after hanging on to an upturned lifeboat. He then heard the 2nd survivor Eve Carmichael, who had hung onto a spar for 5 hours, calling for help, and swam out again, where they both then, came into this area.  Imagine very high waves, because of a severe storm, dark and scary, and exhausted. The noise of the larger waves coming in is like a train.

 Some visitors were sun baking, on this beach,  and  at the back was the little cave the 2 survivors stayed in after the Loch Ard was wrecked. I could just imagine it all. The water I paddled in was very cold.

Eventually Tom left Eva here while he climbed up the huge high cliff to get help.

Which way do we go?

Port Campbell for the night, and fairly tired after walking up and down steps and beach, all day, and then putting the van up and getting dinner ready. Luckily I had downloaded my favorite series The Ancient Future  by Traci Harding onto my kindle and relaxed with a few chapters, before sleep.

Next morning packed up the van and off again to view this time The Arch, London Bridge and the Grotto, more up and down steps and walks to the clifftops.

The Arch

The water is mesmerizing.

Photo from the lonely planet  of the area from the air.

More Stairs

Every where you go there is always a set of steps being such a rugged coastline, with very high cliffs.

Very serene and beautiful Grotto.

We also visited the Flagstaff Hill Marine Museum at Warrnambool and I just loved the  Peacock that was rescued from the Loch Ard wreck.

Peacock amongst a collection of Minton Porcelain, bound for the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880

A Gold watch found on Eva's mother.

A very interesting museum featuring quite a few shipwrecks off the great Ocean Road Coast, and I highly recommend it. Attached to it was an historic village also very good.

Just part of this large village, had a long chat to the dressmaker, on historic clothing.Not all shops were staffed.

Ours  stop for the 2nd night  was Port MacDonnell a lovely beach side caravan park & the southern most town in SA, and as we had left very early in the morning from Lorne, we left our van there at about 3pm and went to Mount Gambier, just 25mins away, where I also did 2 years of schooling. We visited the famous Blue Lake, and looked at the sunken garden in the township, and looked around the area before heading back to Port MacDonnell and putting the van up for the night. The weather was against us as it was quite cold and some soft rain.

Blue Lake. Area around now very different from when I was there.

Sunken Garden in the middle of town, that was a sink hole. Underwater divers have gone down there on a regular basis.

A circular ramp goes down this the sunken garden and roses are planted around the top.

Part of a sink hole recovered from a dump site, on the edge of town, and landscaped, with mainly  hydrangeas.

I find myself reading every night before going to sleep. We are doing very long drives and lots of walking and starting to get a bit weary by this time.

Next time leaving for Adelaide.