GREAT OCEAN ROAD

Ishicilelwe: 12.12.2017

From 4.10- 6.10 I spontaneously got Monday off and joined a group of four other AuPairs who went to the GREAT OCEAN ROAD, which I had only briefly seen with my family so far. One of the girls has her own car from her host family and we all set off together on Saturday morning!

- This post will mostly contain pictures instead of text, because I think that's the best way to get the best impression of this beautiful area -

We stayed in the town of Apollo Bay, which is located right at the beginning of the Great Ocean Road, at the 'Surfside Backpacker' hostel. The hostel wasn't very big, it had a kind of 'living room atmosphere' and even electric blankets on the big beds;)

http://surfsidebackpacker.com/ - Here you can see a few more pictures!

DAY ONE

After we arrived at the hostel on Saturday afternoon, settled into our room and the bed assignments were clear, we started exploring the beach in Apollo Bay. It was a super cozy evening in our hostel, as all of us were pretty tired from the long drive and wanted to leave early the next day.

DAY TWO

Sunday was our day to drive the Great Ocean Road and visit all the sights there.

After we stopped at the Split Point Lighthouse again (post 'Little Great Ocean Road Trip'), so that the others could also enjoy the viewpoints, we continued to one of the landmarks of the GOR, the big 'entrance sign'.

The car ride was continuously fun and talkative, I once again got to know new people from different parts of Germany. We were able to talk very well about our Au Pair time here in Australia and it became clearer and clearer to me how different it can be. However, we also recognized many similarities and were able to exchange many ideas, for example for excursions with the children or general activities for the day :)

Next stop: The 12 Apostles

The 12 Apostles (name since 1950) are located in Port Campbell National Park and are cliffs made of limestone, the highest of which is about 60 meters high. They were formed by the erosion of the sea and now there are only eight apostles left. The apostles form a kind of 'road' on the coast, which is really beautiful to look at and an impressive example of the power of nature, especially the sea. They are said to be visited by over 1.7 million tourists every year and on October 5th we were part of them! As you can see from the pictures, it was quite windy on the coast that weekend, but the sun was often shining :)

At the beach just before the 12 Apostles

A few kilometers west of the 12 Apostles is the Loch Ard Gorge. This is a gorge where the cliff, or rather the archway Island Archway, used to be before it collapsed in 2009. The gorge was named after a sailing ship that sank there in 1878 with 54 passengers. Only two young people, Eva and Tom, survived the tragedy. Tom saved Eva after she had been swimming in the water and calling for help for several hours by looking for and finding the farmers living there. After the collapse of the Island Archway, only two pillars can be seen, which are now called Eva and Tom.

Then we continued to the London Bridge (also: London Arch), an arch made of limestone that was also worn away by erosion. Until 1990, there was a double arch there, until the arch that connected to the mainland collapsed. This incident was extensively reported in the media at that time, as there were still tourists on the bridge at the time of the collapse who had to be rescued by a helicopter.