The Great Ocean Road: Day 2

Another bright and early start on day 2 led us to Mait’s Rest Rainforest wherein reside carnivorous black slugs and 300-year-old trees. Our drive took us away from the coast and into the rolling hills just a few kilometers parallel.

Walter’s driving is a thing of beauty. Thousands of repetitions have given him the ability to pull even the sharpest curves smoothly and at top velocity. Our little mini-bus hugged curves, passed station wagons, practically flying through the Otway Forest and back to the coast by mid-morning.

Where the Twelve Apostles waited:

"Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb? When I made the clouds its garment; when I
wrapped it in thick darkness; when I fixed limits for it; when I set its doors and bars in place; when I said, "This far you
may come and NO FARTHER. Here is where your proud waves halt."

Above is not actually an apostle, but the Salt and Pepper Shakers.

Actually, there are only eight left standing—or seven, or nine, depending on who you ask. And the name “The Apostles,” created by the Australian government in 1922 when it decided sailors’ name “Sow and Piglets” didn’t have the right feel, carries very little actual significance. Coincidentally enough, though, they are falling one by one as the waves slowly wear cracks into them until they collapse into the sea. But by that same order, the waves will continue to create new apostles. Surely there’s a Biblical metaphor in there somewhere.

Don't remember this formation's name. Perhaps "Wall"?

Loch and Gorge is host to a shipwreck and the cave that hosted the only two survivors of said shipwreck—Tom and Eva. The cave, to which I didn’t bring my camera for fear of getting it wet, would have made my 12^th grade English teacher proud, as it perfectly demonstrated what Plato’s Cave was supposed to describe. Plus there were cool shells!

The remaining stops were similarly beautiful, but I have no stories to tell about them. Pictures, I think, will suffice.

Rebecca and Luciane - my two mates on tour . . . who happened to be Brazilian

Upon this rock I will build my church?

London Bridge's first arch fell down, creating only one little island arch instead of the previous two. Apparently when the other arch fell a few years ago, a couple had been parked on what is now an island. They had to be rescued off the
suddenly-created island by helicopter. At first thought to simply be camera-shy, it transpired that the couple was
conducting an affair and the publicity of their "accident" outed them. Justice?

Shipwreck coast (wonder why).