12 Hours to The 12 Apostles

On our one Australian day off, my co-worker and I booked a bus tour along The Great Ocean Road just south and west of Melbourne.  The trip lasted a little over 12 hours.  We started with a break for tea in Torquay (pronounced something like (Taw-kee), the home of many Australian surfers.  Today the water wasn't too ripe for surfing...

 

In Torquay there was a surf festival sale going on where I found and fell in love with this lady's trailer and clothes (check out their facebook page).  Before I even saw what she was selling she came up to me, complimented my outfit and told me I belong here....:

I would have to agree with her

my dream home

I belong in here

 Then we were back on the tour bus headed to Bells Beach, the setting of the 1991 surfer flick, Point Break...

Richard the tour guide, author of many jokes

Bells Beach:

sleepy much?  it was an early day

At the start of the GREAT OCEAN ROAD:

The Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch:

 The Great Ocean Road was built after the first World War.  It is considered a memorial to the WWI veterans and as such it is the largest memorial to WWI veterans.  It also employed WWI veterans to build the memeroial and provided menaingful jobs to the soldiers returning from war.

The road was modeled after California's Pacific Coastal Highway... I think you should be able to see the similarities...

Jimmy, what kind of bird is this?  hard to tell because of the blurr

 Little campgrounds and beach side towns speckle the coastline...

 Stopped for some shots:

the tour group

The sun finally came out for a bit:

Favorite!

This house recently sold for about $4.5 million... It's neat but a little small and I would have to imagine would have some expensive insurance. .. the thing looks like it would easily tip over!

house on a stilt

Then we stopped at a little town called Apollo Bay for lunch

 Apollo Bay

After lunch we headed further down the coast eventually reaching what is know as the Twelve Apostles, these fantastic cliff islands carved out of the coastline.  There are actually only 7 or 8 apostles and a couple of them have since washed away, but whoever came up with the name thought that 12 Apostles seemed much more appealing than 7 or 8.

I was here

cool buds!

wildlife caterpillar!!

Port Campbell beach

It was a chilly, windy day...

 The cemetery....located in the dead center of town...

 ...everyone is dying to get in  (That would be a tour bus driver, Richard, original)