The Great Ocean Road ~ Derek's Travels

Knowing that I wouldn't be able to match my close encounter with the koala, I continued along the Great Ocean Road, heading West, excited to see the large cliffs, rock formations and eroded limestone that are the focus of so many pictures and visits every year. As the sun began to set over the endless horizon, I neared the Twelve Apostles, the most popular and ominously named group of sea stacks along the entire coastline. I arrived just before the light left the sky, and I immediately saw the draw of this attraction. Huge, 200 foot limestone walls, drenched in hues of brown, yellow, orange and white fall straight into the blue, white capped water below. Just offshore, huge stacks of the former coastline that have been eroded away stand as sentinels (or apostles), guarding the coastal walls, offering a reminder of the power of the incessant waves below. From the first vantage point, five or six of the huge rock pillars are visible offshore, with two more visible in the opposite direction. It's debatable whether or not there are actually twelve rock formations, but the Twelve Apostles name has much more of a draw than the name used in the 19th century: The Sow and Her Piglets. Watching the photographers take their positions along the wooded walkway, I took a few pictures myself before heading just two minutes back down the road to a pullout that I had spotted before as a great spot for my first night of this road trip. Light rain began to fall, and I snuggled into my sleeping bag. The mattress wasn't as comfortable as the one I had in Willy, and the van didn't offer nearly as much room, but it was a trade off to have a much easier, nicer car to drive during the day.

I set my alarm for the early the next morning, and before I knew it, the beeping woke me up, just a few minutes before sunrise. I quickly dressed and drove back to the Twelve Apostles. I climbed down the steep stairs, consisting of a few switchbacks carved into the limestone walls, and I made my way to the cold, wide sand below, luckily at low tide, allowing me to walk up to the first two apostles for a close up view. We'll call these ones Paul and Steve. From water level, the sea stacks are even more impressive, showing their true immensity. Slowly, the sun came over the back side of the cliffs and illuminated the offshore rocks, while I sat quietly huddled on the rocks, staying warm in spite of the strong winds, cool weather and light drizzle that came and went. I was the only one on the beach, enjoying the solitude and grandeur all at once, before deciding to head back up the steps to view the other apostles and see what else the road had to offer. Just as impressive as before, the light hitting the rocks brought out even more colors as the sun came and went behind the thick clouds that seem to roll in and cover SE Australia this time of year. I eventually forced myself back to my car to see what else the coast had to offer. Despite the Twelve Apostles having all the recognition along the coastline, there were many other impressive sheer cliffs, rock arches and formations in the area. A few signs marked points of shipwrecks and huge swells created grottoes, caves, blowholes, arches and other magnificent features for the next few hours of driving and stopping. Eventually, the road headed back inland, and I used that as my turn-around point, stopping one more time at the Twelve Apostles.

I went into a small town to try to find a place to sleep in the forest and hopefully find something to eat for dinner, otherwise it would be a few peanut butter and honey sandwiches. As I passed along the small road, I saw a sign for a wildlife park, and I debated about how much time I had before the sun went down, leaving me in a much more difficult situation of trying to find an adequate spot in the total darkness of these country roads. I pulled up to the small house and decided that I'd take a quick tour, not being able to resist the prospect of more Australian animals. I found the one worker in the building, paid my money, grabbed a bag of kangaroo food, and off I went. Just moments after walking in the small park, basically the size of a few acre backyard, I saw some beautiful peacocks, but those weren't really interesting to me at the time. Around the first corner, I saw a small wallaby (basically a smaller version of a kangaroo) sitting there on its hind legs, staring at me. I slowly approached it, smiling from ear to ear as I observed the cute, two foot tall animal with its somewhat deer-like face, tiny front paws hanging down, large back legs and strong tail balancing it. I put some of the food in my hand and watched as it gently dove in and ate right from my hand. I moved to the side and it hopped over, wanting more. As I fed more and more, a few of the peacocks began to get jealous and moved in for some food. Not wanting to leave the wallaby, I headed further down the trail and found a group of 3 more wallabies, all clambering for my food. I soon found that these tame ones weren't as shy as they looked. As I fed one, the others would get jealous and literally grab my hands with their tiny paws and long claws, pulling me in their direction. At one point, they were all grabbing at me, and got a hold of my camera cord, so I had to unlatch the little fingers one by one from the cord. Just like a small baby's hand, the tiny fingers and claws wrapped around my hand and held tightly, not wanting to let go until they had more food. The arms looked so puny that I never expected them to be so useful.

The wallabies almost resembled little T-Rex dinosaurs with their big appetites and undersized arms and large claws waving at me, trying to grab hold of the food bag or at least get my attention. Standing high on their back legs, they could also push off with their tails to elevate even higher and get up almost to my level or just hop around to get in closer. I was able to pet a few of them while feeding and felt the tail, which is incredibly thick and muscular, somewhat like the feel of a strong snake. I soon said goodbye to these little guys and closed the gate as they hopped after me, and I found a few larger grey kangaroos behind a fence that were equally eager to be fed. Despite the barrier, they managed to contort themselves and shove their heads through the wide chains to get optimal feeding positions. I then moved on to see the dog-like dingoes, sitting in their cages just like passive, orange husky-like dogs, not looking the least bit dangerous, though these ones are probably much more tame than wild ones. After that, I saw a few more kangaroos, deer, and was disappointed to see a wombat sign but no wombat. As darkness was coming in, I finished my tour with a quick viewing of the koala, though I already had a better view from the day before, up in the tree.

After the wildlife park, I headed to a small town for dinner, and I started reading through a few of my travel books. The guide at the wildlife park and I had been talking about platypuses (or platypi), and he mentioned that there was one random guy that was hard to get a hold of that did some sort of tour, but the animals are extremely elusive and shy, so he couldn't guarantee anything. He told me to check the visitor's center the next day and hope that they would have some information on the guy and/or his tours. Miraculously, my travel book had a tiny listing for the tour and a phone number, so I called him after dinner, surprised to see that the number still worked. It turned out that he was actually having a tour the next morning, beginning at 5:45 am, and there was space for me. Otherwise, I'd have to wait until I could find someone else to go on the tour with me, and it could be weeks before that happened. I jumped at the chance for an opportunity to see a live platypus, and I got directions from him of where to meet. After a few cut-off phone calls, he also informed me that there was a nice parking lot in which I could spend the night right along the lake, so I was really excited and began driving through the dark night in search of Lake Elizabeth.

(The view of some of the Twelve Apostles just before sunset.)

(The next morning, along the beach from Gibson's Steps. For a sense of scale, that rock formation is probably around 150 feet high...strange, it only looks like a couple of inches from here.)