The Great Ocean Road

So ... how do you top koalas in the wild? Simple. You do not.

So - I am getting more and more behind on blogs - I believe I have 5 that I could post today had I wanted to - but thankfully for you - I will post just one. The original reason for our Saturday outing: to photograph The Great Ocean Road - and it's rock formations.

Saw a lighthouse - and no, it is not the 'infamous lighthouse' having never taken a photo of that one - the whole reason we got to see the koalas, this was earlier:

We then arrived at "Loch Ard Gorge" (I think that is how it is spelled). The Loch Ard being a ship that famously wrecked right here and only 4 bodies were ever recovered it was so difficult getting down to the water (1800's):

We then spied this rock formation - which we believe it one of the "12 Apostles":

From the "12 Apostles" lookout - looking left:

The "12 Apostles" lookout looking right:

We never did count a total of 12 - knowing that the most we could get was 11 since one (a wee nubbin there after the big fat guy) famously collapsed (and, alas drowned) a while ago ....

This is not my photo, but a photo of "London Bridge" - our next stop - pre June 2009 - since part of it collapsed last year:

London Bridge today:

A panorama from the "London Bridge" lookout:

Next stop "The Grotto":

And our final stop is unnamed - it is not listed on the map I have and I cannot for the life of me remember what the sign said - I need to start doing what I used to do and take a photo of the sign as I enter an area so I know what I am photographing:

As you can clearly see in the above photograph and the panorama of the same unnamed area below - the sun was getting low on the horizon so we decided to race back to the 12 Apostles (the most famous of the rock formations) and take photos at sunset:

Unimpressive, no? We were disappointed at the lack of oomph in the sunset:

So .... I cheated:

All in all a lovely day and since I had experienced my 'Perfect Koala Moment' I was on cloud nine for the entire drive home. We had left at 5:00am and arrived back at the Marriott at 11:30 - and just like kids on Christmas morning - we couldn't wait until morning to look at our koala photos on larger screens, so Gary and I each downloaded our photos onto our laptops and oohed and awed our way into Sunday morning at 12:45 am!