The 12 Apostles

Day 121 – Apollo Bay, Australia

Edit: I’m coming back to add to my few words with more details and pictures. And typo correction, since writing from my computer offers a lot more visibility on my writings than on my phone.

I got up almost with the sun, to find that since I had found a quiet place in the camping, wedged between a tree, a fence, and lots of space on the other two sides, other campers thought a great idea to pitch their tent behind my van halfway under the trees. Too bad for them if my slamming the sliding door woke them up.

I went back to the Apostles (picture above) while the morning sun was shining, going down to the beach and walking by the pounding surf. While last night I was in the middle of a crowd, this morning I had the site almost to myself. No need to wait to go to the best vantage point, no ducking around fellow tourists taking selfies.

From the top of the cliff, you can take pictures facing West and East to snap the rocks (the Apostles) standing there. Last night, I was therefore facing the sun on the Western side, and this morning on the Eastern side. It provides me with two sets of pictures with different lightning.

A bit further East, the Gibson Steps allow one to climb down to the beach.

The Twelve Apostles – From the beach at the bottom of Gibson Steps – Morning sunlight

The Apostles are rocks separated from the cliff through erosion, both from the waves sapping the base of the cliffs and the rain infiltrating in crevices and eroding the stone. Their number come and go, they aren’t twelve now, but new ones will emerge and old ones disappear.

The Twelve Apostles – See how the rain has carved an arch above a crack in the rock. The arch will crumble one day, the crack will widen, look like the left side of the rock, and the pounding sea will crumble each peak one day.

I love the sea, and the Southern Ocean is blue-green, beautiful in the sunlight. I love watching the heavy swells turns into waves whose crests fall down under their height in a crashing sound. I love the plumes of droplets when the sea surges against a rock. 

My second stop of the day was Crayfish Bay at Cap Otway, where I stayed transfixed on the beach watching waves for almost an hour. If not for the wind and tide, I could have stayed a lot longer.

Crayfish Bay

An anchor was rusting a bit further on the beach, and since it had a plaque with the name of two people, I guess it is a memento for people lost at sea.

I had a lot of fun walking on the rocks, approaching the waves and avoiding getting wet.

I took to the roads again and stopped by chance a bit further on a rainforest rest area with a walk among gigantic ferns and mossy trees. (“By chance” meaning that I liked the name on the signpost and decided to turn there.)

Maits Rainforest Walk

I had been driving through the rainforest, but I hadn’t actually stopped to check the vegetation, so I was half-surprised by the rainforest itself. (Only half because I had read about the great walks in the forest here at the Great Otway National Park, so I knew it was something to do.)

It’s a cool rainforest, meaning that it is green and damp and has all the hallmarks of a rainforest, several stages depending on the size of the trees and so on. But it is also cold!

I’ve always had a thing for ferns, and tree ferns in particular, so being in a forest of such plants made my day.

Maits Rainforest Walk

On the road again, I drove to Apollo Bay, the town just after Cap Otway, and the visitor centre to get a map or three. I also got a (greatly) reduced ticket to Otway Fly Treetop Adventures, but that’s a story for tomorrow.

I found the direction for a free camping site, so I took the time to eat a hot fish and chips in town before driving in the middle of nowhere. Of course, when your GPS tells you “one hour”, offers a slightly different way to go that is only 3 min longer and takes you along a different road than the one you have already taken today, it’s a bad, bad idea to think “great, let’s take it”. Because it is an unsealed road, and I’m not driving 80km/h on it, especially in the twilight (even though it is the speed limit), and the GPS keeps asking me to turn on muddy, four-wheel drive only side roads, and I ended up arriving at the campground in total darkness, half an hour later than I should have, and feeling totally freaked out because if the campground is empty, no way I’m sleeping in a dark forest by myself where I don’t have phone reception.

I was lucky and parked between two camping cars. I have the routine pat down by now and transform the back seats into a sleeping bed in less than 5 minutes, then I lock myself inside, get into my PJs and sleep.

Sleeping in the rainforest means the soft patter of rain on the roof all night, and a cleaner car in the morning.

Tomorrow, more walks in the rainforest, a canopy walk, and hopefully more sea! And if I’m lucky, koalas, but no guarantees.