Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Journey : Day 3 Australia : Great Ocean Road

Day 3 started off with helping my sister to move some stuffs to her new house and then we're off to see 1 of the most scenic coastline in Australia which is the Great Ocean Road.

Wikipidea : The Great Ocean Road is a 243 km stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Warrnambool. The road was constructed to provide work for returning soldiers and dedicated as a Memorial to those killed in the First World War.
The Great Ocean Road was built by 3000 returned servicemen (or "Diggers") as a war memorial for fellow servicemen who had been killed in the First World War.
The idea for the road was suggested as far back as 1864. Surveying began in 1918 and construction took place between 1919 and 1932.
Parts of the Great Ocean Road run around steep coastal mountains. These were the trickiest and the final sections to be built.
In 1922 the section from Eastern View to Lorne was completed.
In 1932 the section from Lorne to Apollo Bay was finished, thus completing the entire road.

The journey using The Great Ocean Road is not easy as the curves and the slopes are everywhere....as 1 mistake would prove fatal for inexperienced drivers. The view was simply amazing and lot's of historical sites for tourists to stop by to enjoy the story behind the history.
The main attraction at The Great Ocean Road is the Twelve Apostles which by the time we visited left only 7. The Twelve Apostles are a collection of limestones stacks off the shore and was created by waves eroding the cliffs ages ago. As time passes on The Twelve became Seven as it succumbed to its creators as well. Visitors to Victoria should visit this marvel before it all eventually disappears.
Split Point Lightstation

Significant historical site of W.B. Godfrey wreck

The remaining Twelve Apostles

Port Campbell
There is also a historical site where a ship W.B. Godfrey wreckage was still located though we're not lucky to view it as it is only viewable during low tide. We did managed to move about the location to find intriguing colors of rock formation. The wreckage seems to be of significant history to Victorians as this location has also been tragedy to a few other ships which tried to salvage the W.B Godfrey and of course which the remains of W.B. Godfrey still remains.
We never finished the total journey of the Great Ocean Road as it was getting late although the sun is still shining brightly at 6pm. Our last stop was at Port Campbell which is a small town about 10 km from the Twelve Apostles. We order "fish & chips" to go as we try to get back to Melbourne before dark as the journey is quite exhaustive as we took nearly 6 hours to cover almost 3/4 of the road with some stop over for sightseeing.
Althought exhaustive it was a great sight to behold of the old coastline road and it's recommended visitors to at least take 2 days to fully enjoy the whole strecth.
Day 3 Completed





2 comments:

Alice said...

Great Ocean Road sounds like a great place to visit. Must go there one day.

Ray Titus Ong said...

u muz..
how about lets arrange a trip in 2 years time?