Friday, November 4, 2016

Melbourne's Great Ocean Road

We ventured out to the 'Great Ocean Road' to see some of Australia's beautiful southern coastline. It's a 250 km 'ocean' road that nears the ocean for only about 50 km but when it does, it can take your breath away:



Ever hear of Australia's Twelve Apostles? They are huge rocks jutting out of the ocean that are limestone stack formations from millions of years ago:


If you can only count 8 in the two pictures, that's because there are only 8 still standing (apparently there were 12 some time ago). 

Going further along, there is what the Aussies call the 'London Bridge' formation. This stack was formed by a gradual process of erosion- again over million of years- and until 1990 formed a complete double-span natural bridge:

But the middle collapsed and here's a great trivia question and answer to store in your brain. In case you're ever asked this question "why do they call it a bridge, I don't see a bridge", the arch closest to the shoreline collapsed unexpectedly in 1990 leaving 2 tourists on the outer span (true story and they were successfully rescued).

Finally, there is another grouping of limestone formations called the Bay of Islands:

Because this rock grouping is in a bay, it got that naming. This area is also known for its fierce wind at times and when we were there, it was pretty bad yet back in Melbourne a few hours later it was perfect, calm weather. Amazing.

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