This is a prayer I've always liked. I saw it in the movie W. about George Bush, as he had it on a plaque on his desk in the film. I think about it all the time, anytime I have an overwhelming task, but especially when I get to witness things that show me just how big the world is. Yesterday was a 14 hour example of the latter.
Germany and I booked a tour to drive down Great Ocean Road, which, as you can probably tell by the name, means the long road along the coast. We boarded a bus bright and early at 7 am with 22 other tourists and set off. The weather was beautiful and clear the whole day and we saw A LOT!
We drove to the famous surf beach, Bells Beach, and watched the early morning crew take on massive waves from the top of the cliff. Took some pictures too and enjoyed a morning tea provided by the tour guide, Matt. The sun wasn't too high in the sky yet and it was really beautiful.
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| The little dots are surfers! |
Next we travelled through several small towns to get to a wildlife sanctuary and hostel. There we saw koalas lazing in trees (SO adorable), colourful parrots, and ducks and their ducklings. The highlight though was definitely seeing a Kookaburra! The man who owned an ice cream shop nearby was feeding two of them. I have to say, they are the coolest looking birds with heads nearly the size of their bodies.
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| kookaburra |
Next it was onto Otway Lighthouse, which was a big deal for me. I grew up in a small town on Lake Erie that just happens to contain Canada's oldest wooden lighthouse, that I once worked in. This lighthouse was made out of stone and quite a bit bigger, but reminded me a lot of home non the less. We were also lucky enough to come across and echinda, which is like a porcupine but with a long nose. Our tour guide told us they are one of the rare mammals that lay eggs. I think they're amazing.
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| Echinda |
After lunch at the lighthouse we reached our final destination, The Twelve Apostles. They are tiny islands along the coast that are grouped together and look like giant stone fingers coming out of the ocean. They are not made out of volcanic rock and it's quite amazing that they have survived the years of being pounded by waves 24/7.
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| 5 of the apostles |
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| the top of the hill all along are PEOPLE- to show size |
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| very informative sign |
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| 2 more apostles |
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| Kissing aus goodbye (it's actually a mile away) |
Near the Apostles are Gibsons Steps, which are 86 steps carved out of the rock by a fisherman, not surprisingly, named Gibson! They take you from the top all the way down to the water for miles and miles of sand and surf.
The final and coolest part (in my opinion) of the whole trip was visiting Loch Ard Gorge. This is, obviously a gorge, which is filled with caves and rocks and beach. The exciting part though is the story. A shipwreck occured back in the day (no idea what year, so don't judge my reading comprehension), and there were only 2 survivors, a man and a woman. The woman was the daughter of a rich doctor and the man was a ship hand. The man and woman floated into the gorge and the man saved the woman (classic). He made a ladder out of debris and climbed up the cliff face to go to the nearest farmers house (the Gibson guy from earlier) who came down and helped to revive the woman, saving her life. A while after that the man sent the woman a letter proposing to her- and she turned him down!! Saying that she was too high class for him. Like wow, he saved your freakin life lady, the least you can do is marry the guy! Anyways, it was kinda cool to go down there and run around and be where that actually happened.
Then we had a 2 hour and 40 minute drive back into the city. It was an amazing day with so much to see. I think I may actually miss this place. 19 days til home... and counting.
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