Port Campbell and Bay of Islands National Parks

The next section of the Great Ocean Road was the Shipwreck Coast which is famous for its rugged coastline and, um, shipwrecks....  It is possibly even more famous for the 12 Apostles and Bay of Islands sea stacks.

These sea stacks have been abandoned to the sea by the retreating headlands as waves and tides crash against the soft limestone rock, undercutting, eroding and carving out rock stacks, gorges, arches and blow holes.  And every couple of decades the sea claims another one of these stacks, while more are being created.

An Australian Black Swan with its chicks on a nest near Princetown in Port Campbell National Park

Geoff down on Gibson's Beach

Some of the most famous features are the 12 Apostles, London bridge, the Arch and Loch Ard Gorge.  The 12 Apostles were impressive to look at, but puzzling in name.  The thing is that there aren't 12 'apostles' or sea stacks.  Nobody can really give you an answer, but most said that there were between 9 and 11.  The general answer was "It depends on where you look from".  Now here's the odd part.  They were originally called the Sow and Piglets, but sometime in the '60s somebody (nobody knows who)  felt that they would attract more tourists if they had a more austere name, so they were renamed The Apostles. Sometime later someone else decided that since Apostles seem to come by the dozen, they should be called The 12 Apostles.  Now they are the most photographed part of the Great Ocean Road!

Some of the 12 Apostles

The fact that these sea stacks are even standing is amazing considering the beating they were taking from the rough surf.

The eroded coast line

No kidding about what message this sign's trying to get across!

Mutton Bird Island (a mutton bird is the local name for a Shearwater).

The razorback

The Shipwreck Coast was often the first land sighted by ships travelling from Europe to Melbourne or Sydney.  It is so rugged that between 1830 and 1930 over 200 ships came to grief on this 150km stretch of coastline!  One of the most famous wrecks was that of the Loch Ard, an iron-hulled clipper which sank on her last night at sea on the voyage from England.  Of the 56 people on board, the only 2 survivors were washed into the calmer waters of a cliff rimmed inlet.  Help was raised after one of the survivors scaled the limestone cliff.  The inlet is now known as Loch Ard Gorge.

The beautifully protected bay of Loch Ard Gorge

London Bridge - well, half of it anyway.... the 2nd arch (next to Lucy's head) collapsed in 1990 leaving two surprised tourists stranded on the worlds newest island.

Unfortunately the weather closed in and we only caught glimpses of the Bay of Islands, so we headed on through the towns of Port Campbell, Warrnambool, Port Fairy and Portland to Cape Bridgewater.  We'd heard there was a petrified forest there and a beautiful 4km long beach, so we raced the sinking sun to get there.  What a stunning beach!  Geoff rates it at one of the best he's ever been on.

The long white curve of beach in Bridgewarer Bay

A Pied Oystercatcher looking for dinner.

The road continues on to Cape Duquesne where we walked out in the fading light to see a blowhole and the 'petrified forest'.  It looks like the trunks of trees that were buried in soil or sand and then became petrified - hence the name "petrified forest'.  It is actually a series of tubes, and not trunks and there didn't seem to be any consensus at the site as to the actual cause. One theory is that the bases of tree ferns caused lime to be deposited around the bark of the trunk "freezing" its profile while the rest of the tree disintegrated. Alternatively, these 1-3m tall pipes could be the result of chemical deposition around the sides of ancient water channels through limestone.  We couldn't find much more of an explanation!

Lucy could almost fit inside the "tree-trunks". Note the wind power turbines in the background. These littered the coastline east of the apostles.

Nothing inside, but a very tree like outline kept us puzzled until we found an information board,

Regardless of the explanation for the "forest" it was a very interesting and beautiful spot.