A quick stop in at the Allansford Cheese Factory (the one we
tried to visit yesterday) to sample the local produce… favourites were the
vintage cheddar and rhubarb and raspberry pickle.
It was then off to the start of
the Great Ocean Road. Having waited so long to do this trip, the anticipation
was quite high. As you can’t see very
much from the road, we stopped in at some of the marked stops and did the short
walks to the coast. After about the fifth stop the boys were over it… I guess
that this was to be expected since when you are 9 and 12 the novelty of looking
at big rocks and rugged coast would fairly easily dissipate!
We had a bit of a
laugh when we visited London Bridge and then just a bit down the road we went
to look at The Arch which looked peculiarly like the other side of London
Bridge (just from a different angle)!!!!! Of all the stops it was probably ‘The
Grotto’ that was the most beautiful and
where you got closest to the amazing formations. After traversing the bush path
across to the coast, we walked down the stairs until we were close to beach
level. From there you looked out to sea through a large oval hole which had
formed in the rock. As the larger waves of each set crashed in, they washed
water up and over the bottom edge of the hole into the pool of calm water. Simply
amazing to see the contrast between forceful, powerful waves smashing against
the rock to the calm waters swirling gently in the pool – all within metres of
one another. I must note however, that as awe-inspiring as this vision of
natural wonder was, it wasn’t long before Bryn was obtaining just as much
enjoyment out of squelching handfuls of clay that he’d discovered in the
embankment behind us…. By the time we
left his hands were a nice hue of terracotta… and I once again sang the praises
of baby wipes!
Upon reaching the world re-known 12? 8? 6? Apostles we were
amazed at just how many tourists there were just at this one spot –
particularly since up the road there were some amazing sites but with hardly
anyone there. Once again, the beauty and
iconic significance was lost on the boys, but it was pretty amazing to see in
real life. Luckily the sun came out for us so that we could see all the
beautiful colours in the rock, and those earthy tones contrasted with the blues
and whites of the foaming wild ocean and sky. Although there used to be 12
formations, and apparently there are now 8, it was a bit difficult to identify
just how many apostles are left – not that it mattered. When I asked the boys what they thought the
12 Apostles were I got some interesting responses such as ‘the first people to
explore this area’ or ‘the first people to travel across Australia’… when
prompted that it had something to do with religion I got ’12 gods’… you can see
then why I am a little concerned about just how Khi is going to cope in the
Catholic Secondary education system with such little religious knowledge,
YIKES!
From Port Campbell we headed inland to do a bit of the 12
Apostles Gourmet Food Trail. First stop was G.O.R.G.E Chocolates which is a
small family business run from a shed on their property. The European style
chocolate was divine and we indulged in a dark chocolate mocha, white hot
chocolate and dark hot chocolate as well as purchasing some small packs of dark
chocolate, white chocolate raspberry licorice pieces and chocolate coated
aniseed rings… we figured we had better get a little bit of chocolate onboard
just in case the bunny doesn’t find us
tonight since we aren’t at home… The garden around the homestead was fantastic –
a mix of veges intertwined with cottage garden. I had to take a few happy snaps
it was so picturesque. It reminded me very much of Jude and Simone’s gardens
which I am always in awe of!
A little further down the road we did a full cheese tasting
at the Apostle Whey Cheese farm including recording which cheeses we all liked
on our tasting sheet. We learned that about 5 of the cheeses we tasted all came
from the base ‘gouda’ cheese. The smoked cheese was interesting as it is made
using the smoke created by burning eucalypts and other local foliage so it had
a distinct taste not dissimilar to the smell of campfire cooked food. We purchased our favourites which were the
Camembert, Blue and Garlic Gouda and then set off back towards the Great Otway
National Park. I was also impressed by
the metal sculptures in the grounds of the cheese farm – reminds me of a
mission I have to enrol in a metal sculpture/welding course… I will have to
make sure that moves up the ‘to do’ list!
Our mission had been to do the Otway Fly Treetop Adventure
but the information suggested it would take about 3.5 hrs if you wanted to do
both the tree surfing and also ziplining. We thought we would just call in and
have a look to see if we should try and come back early next week or to just do
just tree surfing at a place on the other side of the harbour late next week
(which doesn’t have ziplining). You can imagine our delight when we arrived at
3.10 to be told that they had put on a special zip tour at 3.15 and we could
all get on….whoo hooo….the good old ‘Langridge Luck’ at work again heh?
We
quickly paid, stashed our stuff into a locker, borrowed some enclosed shoes for
me and convinced Khi he wouldn’t freeze in his shorts…. It was then into the
briefing room to get fitted out with our harnesses and go over the safety
features and rules… then before we knew it we were walking through the
rainforest to and then climbing a spiral staircase to a platform 10m above
ground and then ‘zipping’ in our harnesses across steel cables from cloud
(platforms that circle a tree) to cloud at a height of 30m above the forest
floor. There were 8 cloud stations which
gave us 6 ‘flights’ with the longest cable (thus flight) being about 120m long…
very scary when initially getting off the cloud, but once you were away – how exhilarating!
It was spectacular to be up so high, and once again, luck was on our side as
the sun came out and the light filtering through the tall straight ghostly
trees was breathtaking. There were also two suspension bridges which we
traversed at our own speed which gave plenty of time to take in the sound of
birds, the smell of the forest and all the lush green tree ferns and trees
surrounding us. The guides were fantastic giving us the history of the forest
and explaining how every structure had been built by hand including by
treeclimbers that climbed adjacent trees and bounced at the top until they had
enough of a sway up to reach and hang a rope from the tree chosen to have a
cloud built on it . Once that initial rope was in place it was then used to
hoist up the necessary building materials. An amazing feat of engineering.
I was so proud of us
all – especially Khi who is not usually the biggest fan of extreme activities,
particularly those involving heights! If you ever get the chance to do this, I
would highly recommend it – very safe and very unique experience. Unfortunately
because it was right on 5pm when we finished zipping we missed out on doing the
tree walk but really, we didn’t feel like we had missed out as we had actually
been up in the trees instead of just looking at them from a footbridge.
Feeling very energised, we bundled ourselves into the car
and set of down the windy road to Apollo Bay. By the time we got there it was
completely dark and completely packed out with people. We found a nice
restaurant called Sandy Feet where we relished succulent steaks, vegetarian
lasagne and crunchy almond chicken topped off with frothy milkshakes and a
glass of shiraz for me!
After dinner we hit the road again, down the longest,
windiest road I can recall… very famous route… you know it – yes, the Great
Ocean Road… the only problem was it was pitch black so we couldn’t see a thing!
Before long the boys and I nodded off and I was ever grateful for Mark getting
us all the way to our accommodation in Queenscliff – safe and sound.
Check-in wasn’t so simple as they had left our cabin keys in
a lock box but the gate pass didn’t work…. NOT what you need after such a big
day. Luckily one of the managers was doing his late night rounds and was able
to issue us with a new one. We were all happy to climb into bed and dream of
our treetop flying adventure.
Great Ocean Road
12 -ish Apostles!
Apostle Whey Cheese Factory
G.O.R.G.E Chocolates
London Bridge
The Arch
The Grotto
Calm....
Bigger waves crashing through...
The Grotto - from above
Otway Fly
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