Day 37: 6/2/13
Up at 6:30 this morning. It takes an hour for a group to get ready, have breakfast and pack the trailer. We did a hike then to Chataqua peak in the mountains around. The path mostly wound around gently uphill so wasnt too strenuous. When we got to the top you could walk out over the rocks to the actual tip of the peak. We went a little bit of the way and thought it was too steep so we turned back! You could see a good view from where we were anyway. On the way up we saw a wallaby in the bushes. On the way down there were two kangaroos on the path! So that was cool!
After that we went to a Cultural centre in the village. They had lots of jnformation about the aboriginals in the area. They call the Grampian mountains Gariwerd. They have 6 seasons in their year- all categorised by various plants an animals. It said in one section that a former cricket captain got his team to play the football his people played to toughen them up an he mixed it with rugby. This was afl- so it sounds like afl came from the aborigines?? I will have to look that up. As it is so like our football I would have presumed it came from us/Britain.
In another part of the centre we watched a video about the creation of Gariwerd. There's a whole long story about how the creator created them. But then there was this big emu that lived here and when a crow was trying to tap open his egg he chased him and knocked lots of rocks over tryin to find the crow which shows how some parts of the mountains are formed. Two brothers that were put in charge of the area came to kill the emu and when they did its blood ran out, making one of the streams in the area. The brothers plucked the feathers off the emu and made two piles- they turned these into make and female emus that were smaller and made them have smaller eggs so that they wouldn't be so jealous over them anymore. Everything in aboriginal culture has a creation story like this.
Outside the theatre there was some more information about how the aboriginals are living on this land longer than anyone in the planet has been living in one area. When white people arrived, the new government spent a lot of time trying to get rid of them. Actually our last guide told us that it took years to get them off the flora and fauna list- the white people considered them animals. People were evacuated from their homes and also children were taken away from their parents to be brought up in the Western style. Whenever I read stuff like that I'm always wondering who the hell the British thought they were coming into a country and getting rid of the people that were there before. Could you imagine walking into a house, deciding you like it and telling the previous owners to get out- they have some cheek!!
We got back on the bus then and suddenly had to jam on the brakes as there was an emu on the road! We drove to Tower Hill which is an extinct volcano. We got a nice view of the lakes inside the crater and then we drove down into it to have lunch there. There were emus wandering around while we had lunch and there was a koala in a nearby tree!! It was cool but I had left my camera in the bus!!
We stopped in a town after that for a shop. One of the guys bought a can of beer and opened it and we were all surprised to learn that you cannot drink alcohol in a moving vehicle so he had to finish it before we could take off!
Then we finally got to the Great Ocean road- the whole point of the trip! First we stopped at the Bay of islands. all of this landscape used to be under the ocean. Over time the rocks were exposed and the waves carve away t the rock leaving islands of rock in the ocean. It was really beautiful.
Next was the Bay of martyrs. it was quite like the bay of islands but had a beach aswell as rocks. They Found aboriginal bones there so they named it the bay of martyrs, although there may not have been any martyrs.
After that we stopped at the London bridge. This was an arch of rock stretching out into the ocean. There were two arches there but one of them collapsed years ago. When it did there were two people out on the other arch so they were trapped and had no way back. When other tourists came a few hours later they rang for help. The first thing to arrive though was a channel 7 news helicopter. The couple were trying to hide from the camera though as it turna out it was a business man and his secretary who were both cheating in their respective partners!!
We stopped in a town called Port Campbell then which had a lovely beach and a cafe. We spent about an hour there so had enough time to sit at the beach for a while and drink some tea!!
The next stop was the main highlight- the 12 apostles. It used to be called the sow and the 18 piglets, but as the islads of rock kept breaking and there were only 12 they thought the 12 apostles were a more tourist friendly name!! There are only about 8 now though, although its hard to see where the 8 are! So they will have to change the name again soon! They were very pretty- just these pillars of rock in the sea! The sun was quite strong when we were there so the pictures aren't great!
The next stop in the great ocean road was Gibsons steps. Many years ago there was a man called Gibson out for a walk here and he noticed a lot of people at the bottom of the cliffs. they had been shipwrecked. he went home and got some tools and managed to carve out steps in the cliff and saved over a 100 people. The original steps aren't there but there are steps down to the beach. Each spot looks just as pretty as the last!
We went to Princetown then which is the little village we are staying in tonight. We had a pub dinner of chicken and chips there which wasn't great- pure grease!
We went back to the twelve apostles then to watch sunset. As you can tell from the picture it was a good sunset! There were a good few clouds which makes good colours as the sun reflects through them. It was one of the girls birthdays- she was turning 19! So the guide had a cake and some champagne at ye sunset for her, which was really sweet! The colours of the sunset just got nicer and nicer so I have a million photos!
We went back to the hostel afterwards. There is a proper hostel there but we were actually staying in what used to be the owners house which meant there were just bunk beds all over the place! It was squishy! We sat outside for a little while talking. I happened to sit near German speakers. They spoke English for a good while in fairness but eventually took off in German. So I went to bed!