Friday 19/01
Vlog by Ludivine: see below.
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By me:
Wake up around 8am. I didn’t sleep very well.
Isabelle does a bit of yoga while I write the summary of yesterday; kids are still sleeping.
We take the breakfast at 9am (in the tent, to avoid the flies); we want to leave not too late today. We have a great sight to see: the famous Twelve Apostles!
We leave a bit after 9:30am.
We stop on the road to do a (2 km) walk in the forest, in Melba Gully). It’s a dense rainforest with an understorey of low ferns and mosses. It’s refreshing.
We stop briefly in Princetown. We wanted to buy a few things for lunch but the only shop of this village doesn’t even have bread… We buy a few tomatoes and apples.
We reach the Twelve Apostles at around 1pm. One of the most well-known highlights of the Great Ocean Road, The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks (pillars) that rise up majestically from the Southern Ocean on Victoria’s dramatic coastline. Their proximity to one another has made the site a popular tourist attraction. There are eight Apostles left, the ninth having collapsed in 2005. Created by the constant erosion of the limestone cliffs of the mainland, the stormy Southern Ocean and blasting winds gradually eroded the softer limestone, forming caves in the cliffs. The caves eventually became arches and when they collapsed, rock stacks up to 45 metres high were left isolated from the shore. It’s amazingly beautiful.
We eat in the parking of the site. We empty the fridge and still manage to have a decent lunch. Our “big” Woolies (300 $) manages to feed us during 4 full days. Not bad!
We reach our camping site in Port Campbell around 3pm. We’ll stay 2 nights here. Kids do one homeschooling session. I go to the local supermarket to buy groceries mainly for breakfast (fruits and cereals). I also buy lamb chops for tomorrow barbie.
A bit after 6pm, we go back with the camper towards the Twelve Apostles. We want to see a few lookouts on the road and then attend the sunset on the Twelve Apostles. But the weather, who was so nice until 4pm, is not that great (grey sky and even low temperature; strange after the warmth of yesterday…). We decide to go back to the camping area.
We take a good warm shower. The sanitary block is very clean.
At 8pm, we go to the restaurant; it has been quite a while (5 days) that we haven’t been to a restaurant. We select (among the 5 restaurants of the town) a typical fish and chips. You order your food at the counter of the kitchen and you order your beer at the bar. The specialty of this town is the cray fish so we don’t resist and order one (plus traditional fish and chips). It’s delicious.
At 10pm, everybody is in bed. I wanted to go and work in the common area but it closes at 10pm… So I sit in front of the camper (on Isabelle’s seat) and work on the blog, while the kids are sleeping (I sleep with Isabelle in the tent again tonight).
