The Great Apostle Disaster

 A Photographic disaster strikes

Today we left the van at Princetown Reserve and headed up to the well known 12 apostles for some photo time. We stopped first at a roadside set of steps and there was a nice steep set of steps all the way to the bottom beach which you can walk along and see 2 of the apostles first hand up close and personal. So of course it had to be done.

My Workout for the day!

Having a 3 & 4 year old is the only problem on these big walks. you just have to hope they are in a good frame of mind and ready to go. The beach walk was easily 1\2 a kilometer in the sand but you cannot go to see them and not do it. Most tourists go down the steps and go no further, missing the real cool pictures. The cuttlefish bones were entertaining enough for the girls to stick with us and Heather had some fun with them while i could snap some decent shots. Because we knew the day was going to be a long one I decided to carry them both back up the stairs "together" to save some time and energy. This endeavour i felt that night when we were showered and back at rest.

The girls and I

Difficult exposures with the sun on the Apostle and me in the shade

The seabed used to be at the top of these structures.

On to the Apostle kiosk and viewing area to see the best view of all. The kids were hungry and tired so Heather decided to sit at the kiosk and let me go on to see and photograph the rest of the sights. I spent about 45 minutes running up and down the ramps photographing all the angles i could. When i arrived back at the kiosk i told Heather that the view was not to be missed and whether the kids liked it or not she had to witness the view and these amazing structures, off we went again. A sight not to be missed.

The start of a new apostle

Curious onlookers

 Further up the coast a little where many great inlets with crashing waves and so we chose a couple more and walked all the tracks that led to them.

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 We then jumped in the car headed back to the Princetown Reserve to pack up and thought we would try to get as close to Ballarat as possible and after about 2 hours or more we stopped for lunch at a place called Lismore. A quick picture at the Lismore Bakery for my Brothers sake (he lives in Lismore NSW).

Because the roads were not steep and winding we made excellent time and thought "bugga it" lets go to Ballarat anyway. We arrived in the afternoon and checked into the best caravan park to date. The Gold fields Big 4 caravan park, heated floors in the bathrooms and heaps for the kids to do. Neat and tidy with a close drive to the town centre. Checked in for 3 days with the main attraction for us being Sovereign Hill. Whew what a day!

Disaster strikes! (read the next post to hear about it)

Great Ocean Road- part 1 - 3 Videos

 Great Ocean Road

Rainy Bike Ride

Today started with rain, again.  I did promise the girls a ride on the family bike that you can hire from the caravan park but the weather has kept us indoors for what seems ages. However just as we packed up our unit to leave, the sun popped out and so i decided to stretch our departure out a little and take them for a tour of the park by "Pedal Power".

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Heather needed to be on board with me because the leg power required to push 4 people is pretty heavy. Off we go and the giggles from the girls was non stop from the time we left til the time that mum and dad were exhausted from it and we took the bike back. Through the huge puddles and all around the park extremities. Now we set off for the Great Ocean Road.


King Of The Road

The Road itself is quite thin and care must be taken all the time. Signs everywhere saying "high accident area. take care". Stopping for a couple of pictures at the beginning to record it and also because we were assuming that it may keep raining. Fortunately for us the weather holds and the view is lovely.

Beach Stop photo

Dad & The Kids

Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch

All along the edges are what are called 'cut off areas' and this is for slow vehicles (that means us) to pull off to the side to allow others past. I did capture some video from the drivers seat by holding the camera against the side pillar and driving one handed. This may sound extremely dangerous but in fact as long as you concentrate on only the road and forget the camera, you drive no worse than if you had 2 hands on the wheel. I only captured when there were no other cars oncoming. (see video)

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   Our goal today is Johanna beach camping ground for an unpowered site. 50 sites available with no drinking water, but close to the beach. This also puts us right in the middle of the Otway National Park. Great area for tree top walks, Wilderness walks and Lots of koalas.

The Sun Breaks through

Mia's Windy Lookout!

Catching Salmon, The easy way.

During the trip heather caught sight of some Dolphins jumping in the surf at Apollo bay and so we stopped at the next roadside Cut off. There were 2 other cars there at the time and one of them happened to be a professional fisherman. His wife explained to us that he was using a special lure to catch Salmon off the rocks. I shot some video and if you notice he catches a salmon every cast into the water. His wife offered us some of them and so we took her up on it..  beautiful fresh from the ocean fish for dinner. This irritated me alot because of the luckless fishing attempts i have made along the way. ( see video)

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Salmon Fillets for dinner!

 We make a couple of stops for fuel and sightseeing and arrive at about 3.15pm. After setting up we shoot up the road (about 8kms) to grab some fresh water, coffee and to take a look around.

There is a BIG TREE for viewing at Lavers Hill and so before it gets dark we thought we would take a look. A 45 minute round trip through the very wet and green rain forest we discover that the tree had fallen last year due to wind and erosion so we only got to see the BIG FALLEN TREE, But it was a good energy burner for the girls who walked really well and complained very little. Lily needed a piggy back ride toward the end but all in all a cool little nature walk. As we left it was dark and so back to camp to eat dinner (yummy salmon) and warm up for a chilly night by the sea.