Great Roadtrip of 2015 - Days 5 and 6, Port Campbell, Warrnambool, and Home Sweet Home

The centerpiece of Port Campbell National Park is the Twelve Apostles, sandstone monoliths that stand off the coast that waves and wind have separated from the mainland.  There are other sandstone structures up the coast as you continue westward on the Great Ocean Road, with lots of arches and caves that almost defy gravity the way they balance on small pedestals of rock, or hold giant arches above constantly crashing waves.  You can descend to beach level at the beginning of the park by going down the Gibson Steps, about 90 narrow steps carved into the side of the cliff.  Being at sea level and staring up at these giant objects is awe-inspiring.  My photos cannot come close to capturing how beautiful they are, and how small they made me feel.

The view west of the first of the Twelve Apostles, after climbing down the stairs.

The Twelve Apostles, looking west, at sundown.

We stayed at the Twelve Apostles until sundown, hoping to see the fairy penguin colony that comes ashore at that time.  They finally made an appearance 25 minutes after sundown, but we were so high up on the cliff and it was so dark, all we could see was a teeny line of small black dots making it's way out of the water.  Not worth the wait or the cold.

Further west is the Loch Ard Gorge, where the ship Loch Ard wrecked itself in the late 1800s.

Loch Ard Gorge from the beach

Loch Ard Gorge from the top of the cliff.

The Gorge from further west, looking eastward.

Even further west is the London Bridge, that used to look like this:

(not my photo)

but in 1990 the leftmost arch collapsed, leaving two hikers stranded on the far side.  They had to wait for hours atop what was left for a helicopter rescue.  Now it looks like this:

As you continue out of Port Campbell westward, there is one last scenic overlook looking at the Bay of Islands.  The photo isn't great, but in person it looks like a bunch of little islands just off the coast of Australia, but they're just little sandstone monoliths.

After this stop, the kids rebelled and said "No more hiking!"  I can't blame them - we had been up and down cliffs, lighthouses, steep hiking trails - we were worn out.  We headed to Warrnambool (pronounced WAH-na-bull), also on a bay that was a popular port back in the gold rush days, but also had its share of wrecks at the entrance to the bay.

Warrnambool has a model colonial village called Flagstaff Hill set up for tourists, and it's pretty great - they have old shipbuilding tools, currencies, sewing equipment, printmaking equipment, and blacksmithing equipment.  They built a model wharf and have a few old restored ferries and boats you can explore as well.  The kids had a "passport" to look for clues in the village which kept the kids engaged in looking at everything.

The night we arrived we went to a laser show depicting the wreck of the Loch Ard.  It was a little scary, but very well done.  There were only three survivors of the wreck, an immigrant girl from Ireland, a ship's mate, and this huge porcelain peacock, which is on display in the museum.

They had special classes for kids because it was school holidays.  My kids chose "baking" which the guy at the front desk said would be something like "damper" or pasties.  I thought - terrific!  I don't need to buy them lunch!  Unfortunately, the ovens failed that morning, so instead it was cookie decorating, and we got this instead:

Definitely not lunch material, especially on the last day of Passover.  I did get a chance to learn about royal icing and flooding icing, though.

We stayed at Flagstaff Hill until about 1, then started for home.  It took about 3.5 hours to go back along roads that were so country there was literally nowhere to pull over to stretch, not even anyone's driveway.  It was fields and fields and nothing else, not even sheep.  In a few fields they were burning the already harvested stubble, so we saw flames and smoke - very apocalyptic.  I was so glad to get to Geelong where I finally found a petrol station and could wash the dirt and smoke grime off my windows.

We had a lot of fun on our trip, but are glad to be back. Thanks for reading about our adventures.