Today we got up hideously early to make it into the city by 7:15, which wasn’t easy but we did it and boarded the mini van bound for the 12 Apostles. Ever since I first saw the 12 Apostles in an Olivia Newton John video back in 1988 I have wanted to go there.
Our first stop was at Split Point lighthouse where we got to experience Vegemite, tea from a traditional billy and lamingtons for morning tea and we learnt loads about the famous Victoria bush fires.
We drove along the Great Ocean Road and stopped at Apollo Bay for lunch. Along the way we also stopped at Bells Beach a famous surf beach and the Memorial Arch (at the start of the Great Ocean Rd to remember the soldiers who dug the road after the war.
We also stopped where Koalas can be found in the wild – this was amazing as I’ve only seen one Koala in real life and that was in a zoo in Sydney. Also there were very friendly birds that land on you (my brother was covered with about 11 of them at one point)
After lunch we drove inland and went on a guided walk through a temperate rain forest at Maits Rest where some of the tallest trees in Australia live. I was really surprised by how green the whole area was.
Around 2:30 at long last we saw the first of the limestone stacks known as the 12 Apostles. We even got to go down the stairs onto the beach and see an Apostle up close.
There were three more stops to see the Apostles, the next one was the best lookout point, followed by another chance to go down on to the beach in Locah Ard Gorge where we learnt of a tragic shipwreck story that made the whole experience even more amazing.
Our last stop at the Apostles was the London Bridge, which is the one I was most keen to see because of the Olivia video, sadly one of the arches collapsed several years ago and it doesn’t look anything like the London Bridge anymore.
After we stopped at a small fishing village for dinner called Port Campbell. We made it back to the city at about 8:30. It was an awesome tour and I got to tick another thing off my bucket list!
