You’ve heard of the elf on the shelf.

You’ve probably even heard of Snape on a grape(Harry potter memes and all….)

Now, get ready for…

-50 if you say propose on a kangaroo(Big brain time, mate:))

-100 if you say, ‘Love in Australia’.

+750 if you say a valentine on an Australian road sign.

Disclaimer: The blogger of this blog is not responsible for heartbreaks. Do not try this joke at home.

hehehehehehe….

Said every ‘single’ person on Valentine’s Day ever.

hehe.

Waking up from a long hibernation, I thought it would be a swell idea to get the new year started, exactly one and a half months after its arrival(hehe), so here I am, with a fusion of the old and the new, for those of us who look forward to all that the new year has to bring, while dealing with the fact that a quarter of the century is already over.

Imma continue with my Australia theme, and begin a new series, which will take ye wee folks down the Great Ocean Road. It will be a three part series, covering the Loch Ard Gorge and Razorback, The Twelve Apostles, Apollo Bay and a blog about the various stopping points along the Road.

In this blog, we are gonna start off, nice and early, and head to the Loch Ard Gorge and Razorback. So, without further ado, let’s get the ocean on the road.

hehehehe….

The Great Ocean Road tour that I went on, started from Melbourne at around six in the morning. Of course, the city was fast asleep, when my mum and I boarded the bus, but to say that the two of us were wide awake would be…..stretching the truth, slightly.

Hehe.

Our tour did the Great Ocean Road backwards, that is, we started off with the Loch Ard Gorge and finished up with Apollo Bay and the Split Point Lighthouse. The trip is nearly fifteen to sixteen hours long, going through lush countryside, scrubs, forests and the titular ocean which exudes a colossal power.

The moment the bus left the city and headed into the open country, our drowsiness melted into a cosy, warm feeling of being right at home, amongst beings that are the epitome of harmony. That is to say wildlife and nature. I took this picture of grazing cattle, just as the bus meandered past lush fields. The scene looks like a postcard, and I have actually never seen so many cows grazing together, so it was rather exciting for me. I also love the colour scheme going on out here, with black, white, beige and green forming a rather vibrant palette.

Australia has a fairly large dairy industry and the state of Victoria is one of the biggest dairy producers in the continent, so these wee cows are actually helping in building a continent.

Affirmation for the day: Cows are supreme. Cows are cool.

hehe.

The day was rather cloudy at the beginning and this sort of gloomy weather is very historically significant, because this road leads towards the ocean and talk of oceans immediately leads to talk of sailing and voyages. I will be talking about that later in the blog, but bear in mind, wee folks, that gloomy weather and voyages are an instant left swipe.

Vile Valentine’s joke: √

hehe.

Ok, so I consider myself to be a very exact person(in my dreams) and I expect things to be exact, so when I signed up to go on a Great Ocean Road tour and the first thing that I saw was cows and a McDonalds, my eyebrows creased in scepticism and I said to meself, said I, ‘Is this the Great Ocean Road or the Great Cow and McChicken road?’

Just as my eyebrows knitted themselves into a cynical pattern, I looked out the window and glimpsed, drum roll, the Southern Ocean.

Frolicking waves, crashing upon sand and rocks, just beyond a path of scrub and bush, dazzling in a steely green ensemble.

For those of you who are as exact as me, hehe, let me tell you that the ocean is around 3 hours away from the city of Melbourne, so if one does fancy a nap, straight after boarding the bus, I would recommend taking the nap as cat-napping is a useful skill on this trip and it really provides energy for the actual spots where one has to explore.

Now, before I get to yapping about the Loch Ard Gorge, I want to take a while to marvel at Australia’s efforts towards conserving their wildlife. The country is one of the most biodiverse places in the world, with such unique and beautiful creations living in every crevice of the place. So, one thing that I saw along all the sightseeing points in the Great Ocean Road, is that every place is a part of a protected national park, with a strong boundary maintained between humanity deriving pleasure and nature and wildlife freely living in their habitat.

The Loch Ard Gorge and the Twelve Apostles are a part of the Port Campbell National Park and it is a very well maintained National Park, which makes one truly respect the planet that we share with so many other creations.

Here is a glimpse of the rock formations lining the ocean. I love how the land, sea and sky, all sort of merge in this picture. I really like how the path to the ocean is basically a mini forested land. It kind of reminds me of the Happy Valley in Rebecca, minus the rhododendrons. Readers of the book will know that Happy Valley was a rather tragic sort of a valley, but I just love the gothic and poetic vibe that such a rustic terrain brings in.

Once again, lemme draw your attention to the heavy sky that is drooping perilously low, over the crashing waves. It is kind of the reason how the Loch Ard Gorge got its name.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, the Loch Ard Gorge.

The ocean looks so crystalline, almost like liquid emerald, as it laps up the sand, but here is a place echoing with the ghosts of a tragedy that remains immortalised among the laments of the breeze and the dust carried by the waves.

On 31st May 1878, the Loch Ard, a ship from London, headed towards Port Phillips Head, held a celebration on deck, marking the near end of their three month voyage from England to Australia. However, that night, cloudy skies and a missed lighthouse signal led the ship to run aground at this gorge, and meet a tragic end.

The ocean in this area is rather deceptive in therms of depth. It seems as though there is plenty of depth for a ship to pass, but the waves hide the base of rocky cliffs under their foamy bodices. This makes the area very dangerous for ships, especially under cloudy skies and fog, which is why I said that the gloomy weather is very historically significant.

There’s multiple stops along this coastline, taking one through all the wreck points of the Loch Ard, but I personally do not like sites of tragedy, which is why I simply stayed here and took in the silence, echoes of the memorial.

One thing that gave me goose pimples was that I visited the Loch Ard Gorge on the 31st of May, last year. This was a complete co-incidence and when I read that it was actually the 147th anniversary of the tragedy, I had to shut my eyes and give in to the eerie shock that I received. It was very wistful and also a powerful reminder that Nature is always the dominant force and that even the slightest bit of negligence while traversing through Nature in its most raw form can lead to immense tragedy.

This is the Tom and Eva Lookout, just by the Loch Ard Gorge. It is named after the two survivors of the wreck, namely Tom and Eva.

The intensity of the waves is really something that makes one hold their breath. The Southern Ocean seems raging in a calm way and that exudes a sort of an eerie but reverent dominance. I love how the colour of the ocean seems to be a steely grey from a distance but rather crystalline when it comes closer to the shore.

This lookout is often confused to be the Loch Ard Gorge. So the Loch Ard Gorge has a wee bit of beach on it, while this is simply oceans and rocks.

It is very hypnotic, to simply stand there and watch the ocean, taking in all its vitality. The ocean here also has many spots where there are marine national parks, so these waves are home to vibrant marine life. One can actually see seaweed at some points and it is really fun to imagine some sort of an Atlantis-like world, below the surface.

This is a closer shot of the Loch Ard Gorge. There’s so much seaweed here, right where the ocean meets the sand and watching the seaweed move with the waves was really fascinating and a sort of a visual therapy, hehe.

The ocean is rather deep, even close to the shore, so swimming is dangerous here. The conditions of the ocean change almost instantaneously, so at one moment, it might look as though the waters are calm and welcoming but the next moment can see one drifting away towards the ends of the Earth.

Its really best to admire all these sights from a distance because Mother Nature is not all in her cuddly Mama bear vibe here. She is a patient, yet strict mother who respects her boundaries.

We all love a queen with boundaries.

hehe.

No, really, do not swim here.

The scrubs in the area are alive with marsupials and insects, unimaginable to the human mind. I am in absolute awe of how every little life claims space upon the planet, in its own rightful empire. I think it is such a privilege to be alive amongst something so miraculous and beautiful.

This picture is one of my favourites. It has a wee snail, simply resting upon a shrub branch. I have always been fascinated by snails. They are such endearing little critters and I just know that every snail has a cute little baby voice, when it talks to the rest of its clan.

hehe.

One of my main goals in Australia was to spot its endemic species out in the wild, so whenever I came across any sort of fauna, my heart simply indulged in the richness of the sight and did a happy dance:)

This is the Razorback, named because of its jagged top that resembles the blade of a razor. Personally, this was my favourite rock formation throughout the Great Ocean Road, simply because it is such a powerful one-man show. It is completely surrounded by oceans and its presence sort of moderates the raging waves, that mellow into a rushing runoff, the moment it crashes at the Razorback.

The ocean is rather deep here, bringing home its very deceptive quality of illusion in depth. I also love the turquoise tinge in the water. It looks so mystical, and kind of reminds me of Narnia.

The colour scheme of the limestone that makes the Razorback reminds me of a tiramisu, hehe. I wonder how it’d be if this was actually a giant tiramisu, just beckoning one to relish it.

Disclaimer: Acting on such intrusive thoughts may get the said actor eaten by sharks. The blogger of this blog is not responsible for memorial nomenclature borne out of reckless acts.

hehe.

This rock was a bit too close to be renamed as Ms Yours Truly Rock.

hehe.

Here is another glimpse of the beach at Loch Ard Gorge, showing some of its cliffs and caves in the rock formation. The caves are so fantastical, and I feel they hide a mermaid’s grotto or some sort of pool made of a special elixir.

hehe. There is a cave called Thunder Cave, a little away from this spot, where the ocean literally crashes into the cave. I did not see it this time round, but I will definitely be visiting this place many more times. It is impossible to explore everything properly in one trip, so it is best done in multiple rounds and let the place work its magic on you each time you visit:)

This is a glimpse of the coastline and the Loch Ard Gorge, along with some more limestone rock formations. The sky did open up here, and the feeble sun rays made the ocean look like its three different colours. The rocks here are every changing, owing to the erosion caused by the ocean, which is why this exact glimpse might look very different in a few years time. I love the fusion of fluidity and rigidity here, in the interplay of rocks and ocean.

More on the fluidity in the next blog, where I will take ye wee folks to the Twelve Apostles.

And that is a wrap.

Until next time.

Sea Ya:)