steve comes to visit

My brother Steve spend a week of his three week Aussie adventure with us down in the tempermental south. There was a biting cold wind from the Antarctic when we hit the Great Ocean Road but 35 degree Celius weather a day or two later. However, he persevered despite Mother Nature's inconsistencies and his bum foot to clamber over the tidal pools at Anglesea, meet salty old lighthouse keepers, feed cute as possums, and pose in front of the iconic not-quite-12-anymore Apostles. We kept him readily supplied with cheap wine and tim tams. Or so we would have you believe. Fun was had by all.

We do have friends!

Screw you guys back home for not visiting us! At least we now know who our friends are - Darren & Kelly made the trip from Sydney down to see us for a four day weekend back on August 24th. One of those days was spent spanking a record hangover...damn you beer, wine, shots, highballs...

So where'd we take our visiting Aussies? To our favorite spots on the Great Ocean Road. Wreck Beach, The Koala Drive where you are sure to spot a plethora of koalas in the wild up close and personal, and, of course, the 12 apostles (well, only 9 remaining, those apostles keep dropping like, well, apostles being persecuted by the Romans.)

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end!

Cape Otway & The Shipwreck Coast

On January 17, 2006 we hit the Shipwreck Coast along the Great Ocean road. The first part of the trip we did a major hike to access a couple of shipwrecks (Nico already mentioned earlier) at Moonlight Head - the Fiji (1891) and Marie Gabrielle (1880.) All that's left of either wreck are the anchors. The sign claims it's 366 steps but we counted and they lied. It's really 380. Because of the long hike and the inaccessibility of Moonlight Head (only accessible via a long dirt road) we only saw three other people our entire time on the beach. The beach is dotted with rocks and you have to be careful navigating the rock shelves.

To combat the phenomenon of wrecks a lighthouse was erected at the northern tip of the Eye of The Needle - an 84 KM gap between King Island and Cape Otway - in 1848 (nearly 50 years after the first ship entered the straight.) How can an 84 KM gap be called the eye of the needle? Well, if you think about it in nautical terms (1000's of KMs) 84 KM is a tiny space to fit a boat through without hitting something in the dead of night and without modern technology.

I can't imagine being the lighthouse keeper in that era...utlimate isolation...beyond that which even than the basement Damo would desire. The only contact with the outside world occurred every 6 to 12 months when supplies were delivered. It wasn't until the 1930's that it was accessible overland by road. The second lighthouse keeper

Even today it seems so isolated on the tip of the second most southern point in Australia with cliffs dropping away to trecherous ocean. Rock shelves and breaking waves even a kilometer out. One could see how shipwrecks happened a lot. The views from the lighthouse and the point itself were stunning and its well worth the admission fee of $11.50 Aus.

the great ocean road

January 16th-18th

Here's the winding road along the cliffside--one of the world's most spectacular (and fun) drives.

The anchor is from a shipwreak of the Marie Gabrielle in 1880, one of two wreaks at Moonlight Head and among oodles of others along this stretch of coast. We walked down and up 380 steps to get down to the beach!





The limstone cliffs are at Loch Ard Gorge and the rock formations are the remains of the Twelve Apostles (apparently in this story the apostles are picked off one at a time instead of Jebas - only 7 or so are left.) It's still so pretty!