January 22-27, 2024

Finished with lunch, we climbed back on board the van and drove a short distance inland to Maits Rest Rainforest Walk, a half mile circuit through a cool temperate rainforest in the Otway Ranges in Great Otway National Park.  It contains towering myrtle beech trees, some 300 years-old, and an understory of lush greenery and tree ferns.  The area was named after the Otway region’s first forestry officer Maitland Bryant, and the track was opened in 1993.

From there it would take us about an hour to get to what many would consider to be the highlight of the entire day, that is a stop to view the famous Twelve Apostles, a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of Port Campbell National Park and located on the traditional lands of the Eastern Maar peoples.  Eight of the original nine stacks remain standing at the Twelve Apostles’ viewpoint, after one collapsed in July 2005.  

The limestone unit that forms The Twelve Apostles is referred to as the Port Campbell Limestone, and they were formed by erosion.  The harsh and extreme weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually erode the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then become arches that eventually collapse, leaving rock stacks up to 160 feet high.  Due to wave action eroding the cliffs, existing headlands are expected to become new limestone stacks in the future.

We all walked out to the viewpoint overlooking the apostles and then I returned to the visitors center to wait while the others made the hike down to the beach to view the formations at ground level.  When they returned, we met up with the group and made our way another couple of miles to Loch and Gorge, our final stop of the day.  The gorge is named after the clipper Loch Ard that was shipwrecked on June 1, 1878, near the end of a three-month journey from England to Melbourne.  Of 54 passengers and crew, only two survived: Thomas Pearce, one of the ship’s apprentices; and Eva Carmichael, an Irishwoman emigrating with her family.  Pearce and Carmichael were each 19 years old. 

This stop signaled the end of our time on the Ocean Road and the tour’s route now would take us north and east in a more direct fashion back to Melbourne.  On the way we stopped for dinner in the small town of Colac where Bev, Joanna and I opted to try out the McDonald’s there.  It was crowded for that time of day, a testament to the universal appeal of this global colossus, where the food was what we expected and fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of view, no pictures exist of that evening’s meal to share with our faithful followers. 

We made one final impromptu stop on the way back in the small-town of Winchelsea on the Barwon River for a restroom break that put us near a grove of trees full of hundreds of some member of the cockatoo family, all chattering at an incredible volume.  We lingered for a few moments to take in this spectacle, one of those random moments that although not the original focus of your venture, create a memory that stays with you a long time. 

We had one of those it was funny afterwards moments at the end of the tour when we were dropped off around the corner from the original pick-up spot in front of the hotel.  We now encountered one of the hazards of using Uber or Lyft in that the pick-up location can be imprecise (our situation) or crowded with many other people (post-concert or event).  We were notified that our driver had arrived, and we could see him, across the divided multi-lane street we were on. 

If you wait too long to connect with the driver they are authorized to leave and you get charged for the ride regardless, so it was imperative to reach him.  And so, bad hip and all, I raced across the street hoping to beat a traffic coming in each direction to flag him down.  Which worked.  Whew!  Then we all climbed into his Highlander and had many moments of confusion in that he would not leave until we were all seat buckled in, made more complicated by our numbers in the car and the fact that he had installed after-market seat covers which tended to obscure the bottom halves of the seat belts.  We eventually got it all together and to our relief were soon unlocking the door to the apartment and heading to bed, tired but happy of a long and rewarding day. 

The next day would be a quiet hang out day as we had another full day excursion scheduled for the one following.  While the others went out to tour Fitzroy Gardens, I went across the street for a massage I had booked the day before, hoping that it would provide some measure of relief to the discomfort being generated by my left hip, which had been plaguing me since the start of the trip and which I would eventually replace five months later.  Unfortunately, it didn’t help as much as I had hoped it would but one doesn’t know until one tries out an idea. 

Later we all spent a couple of hours riding the Free Tram Zone, also known as the City Circle (Route 35).  This zero-fare tram (a portion of which we took to get to the tennis tournament) runs along the city center’s outermost thoroughfares and passes many Melbourne attractions including Parliament House, the Old Treasury Building and the developing Docklands waterfront precinct.  Since October 2023, it operates in a clockwise direction only.

The City Circle route is operated with heritage W class trams (a family of electric trams built by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) between 1923 and 1956) restored to original condition as part of W8 upgrade campaign of the early 2000’s.  As of 2020, these are the only W-class trams on the system, and there are no plans to retire them.  The City Circle trams originally sported a unique maroon livery promoting the service, however as part of the W8 upgrade the trams were restored back to their original green and cream livery.

We circled the route and after getting dropped off at our starting point, Joanna and I gimped back to the apartment stopping in at Docklands Den to split a sandwich,  while the others hit a market a couple of blocks away, provisioning for the dinner we would enjoy that night, roast chicken, pita, tzatziki and salad.  We did some laundry, worked on the blog and generally relaxed, a nice way to end the day. 

Links

Maits Rest Rainforest Walk: https://www.visitmelbourne.com/regions/great-ocean-road/see-and-do/outdoor-and-adventure/walking-and-hiking/vv-maits-rest-rainforest-trail

Twelve Apostles: https://www.australia.com/en-us/places/melbourne-and-surrounds/guide-to-the-12-apostles.html

Loch and Gorge: https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to-see/parks/port-campbell-national-park/things-to-do/loch-ard-gorge

Free Tram Zone: https://www.melbourne.crowneplaza.com/free-tram-zone/