Victoria’s
rugged shoreline stretching the length of the Great Ocean Road from Torquay to
the 12 Apostles goes by any number of names from Surf Coast, to Shipwreck
Coast. All are truisms, yet from the road rolling hills and dense forest often
screens off the terrain between the black top and the deep blue. Motorists only
ever get to see a fraction of the awaiting grandeur.
The
Twelve Apostles never fail to impress. The weather beaten sandstone formations
are as iconic a landmark as Uluru or the Great Barrier Reef to Australia’s
litany of natural wonders. Rounding a bend on the last day of the Great Ocean
Walk (GOW), to the sight of the Twelve Apostles still some ten kilometers down
the coast is worth the previous five days tramping alone.
Sitting
defiant against the tireless ocean and the tides of tourists descending Gibson
Steps to pop beached there done that snap shots, the allure of their dramatic
eons-long slow crumble, is both metaphoric and universal.
Torn
from the Bass Strait, Victoria’s western coastline bears the brunt of
relentless wave offensives. From exposed viewpoints, strafing salt spray casts
into soft focus, the endless run of headlands and cliffs as they descend in
staggered, ragged lines to the curve of the horizon.
Those
famous offshore sentinels mark the end of the trail. The bustling carpark will
feel like rush hour after five previous days of peace. The cries of cockatiels
and crows, the shredding sounds of koala’s in gum trees and the booming surf
will give way –all too soon- to foreign voices excitedly ordering ice creams.
Lets not get there too quickly.
The
GOW was officially launched in 2006. It traces -as close as humanly possible-
100 kilometres of coastline from Apollo Bay in the east to Glenample adjacent
to the Apostles. While
Ocean maybe the operative word, one of the best and surprising aspects of the
track is the variety of rain forest, coastal scrub and the mega sized gum
groves of the Great Otway and Point Campbell National Parks.
For
the most part cell phone coverage is at best intermittent and a palpable sense
of being marooned pervades.
In is often hard to imagine that a world renown-driving
route, busy with day trippers and tourist buses is sometimes less than three clicks inland.
Amongst the gnarled and tangled forest there is only now and the footsteps of your tramping buddy.
As Mark at Walk 91 (they organised our itinerary) said, "You timed it right." The tides were in our favour
and we could amble around Storm Point, The Blowhole and
Three Creeks Beach -lonely empty beaches- without ever having to consider the
perils of pounding surf on a rising tide.
The weather was changeable but when you live on an island between two oceans anyway, you get used to that.
©burgseye 2012
