In the fog - Great Ocean Road, Lock Ard Gorge, Gibson's Steps, Otway Rainforest, Apollo Bay, Cape Patton, Memorial Arch, Lighthouse, Bells Beach Day 2 / 15.01.2019

The next day we had an early start and after breakfast we left at 7:45 am by bus to Lock Ard Gorge. In 1878, a fairly large ship - the Lock Ard - sank there, with only 2 out of 55 passengers surviving - the two 18-year-olds Tom and Ewa. Tom was one of the crew members and swam to shore, and Ewa was a passenger and was later rescued from the sea by Tom on a kind of raft. Unfortunately, there was no love story between the two, as the media wanted it to appear at that time, but the two were said to have been something like soul mates and had a close pen friendship. And even though both had difficult starts in life, they built families for themselves - Tom later lost his two sons at sea and even though he survived 2 more shipwrecks, he died relatively young. However, Ewa had a long and happy life.
Everyone found this story, which we heard from Jude, very exciting and it was very impressive to see the cave where both of them took refuge after the accident up close. The rocks in front of the beach were also beautiful, one could hardly believe that they had caused such a tragedy back then.

After that we went to Gibson's Steps, a staircase carved by human hands into the rock, which leads to the beach. Actually, you can see the 12 Apostles from here, but an impenetrable fog had settled over the coast, so you couldn't see anything at all. Nevertheless, the beach was very beautiful.

Now we also reached the middle part of the Great Ocean Road, the Green Coast. It is called that because there is a piece of rainforest here, not the humid and tropical kind that we had already experienced in Cairns, but a cold kind, which I had never heard of before today. We then took a short hike in the Otway Rainforest, and the dense green foliage and the sun shining through it looked wonderful together.

The next stop was Apollo Bay, where we had our lunch break and could also go swimming in the sea. However, the water was ice cold, so I only put my legs in. Here Jude also told us about her 'Future House', a 3 million-dollar valuable estate with a pool, tennis court, guest house and everything your heart desires. She jokingly told us that she would always provide us with free accommodation if she won the lottery or found a rich man by chance. And she no longer called it a Dream House, because one should believe that things could really happen.

Now we were also on the Surf Coast, where we first visited Cape Patton, the highest point of the entire road and where you had a great view of Apollo Bay's coast. There was also said to have been a shipwreck here, but all passengers could be saved.
Then we went through a small town called Lorne to the Memorial Arch, a wooden gate that was intended to commemorate the soldiers who built the Great Ocean Road after World War I.

Afterwards, we drove to one of the 2 lighthouses on the coast here, because it was believed earlier that another lighthouse would minimize the shipwrecks, which was also true. This lighthouse even appears in an Australian children's series that is well known all over the world, but somehow not so much in Germany. The show is called Round the Twist or something.

Our final stop was the famous Bells Beach, one of the best surfer beaches in the world. Here we watched the surfers for a while, who were waiting outside the last wave breaks for the perfect opportunity.

On the way back to Melbourne, we briefly stopped at a few fields where a few kangaroos were hanging out, which was the perfect end to the tour. And now, after a small farewell, we went back to the hostel, where I was greeted in my room with a big stinky cloud of sweat. Great, good night then.


Song of the day: Surfin' U.S.A. by The Beach Boys, because it felt so familiar to me when Jude played it that I could hum along completely. Mom must have played it back in the day.