Twelve Apostles, 200 cows

Again, the shot everyone gets but look at that view!
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During the night it rained like crazy, probably an inch and a half – later on the TV news they were ecstatic (Victoria is suffering through a 10-year drought). I was impressed by the conservation efforts at our B&B (recycling the wastewater for use in the garden, for example) and in Australia in general.

This was going to be our “relax and not do much day” and as we were in a very remote spot it was easy to do. We are normally “explore the big city” kind of travelers so this was a nice change and very relaxing.

What’s an apostle when you’ve got 11 others?

This is the part (from the Apostles Whey dairy) that looked like England to me.
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We enjoyed a hearty breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast) and decided to hike down to Wreck Beach and see the ocean. It turned out to be about a 3-hour walk, past some dairy cows, interesting plants and trees (met up with the Great Ocean Walk) and finally down some steep steps to the beach. Unfortunately it chose this moment to start sprinkling but it was still a beautiful view of the wild coastline. I decided to stand on a rock and look at the waves – bad idea – a big one came in on cue and drenched me up to my knees. D’oh!

Evening drinks and a pretty sunset.
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We got a pamphlet called "The Shipwreck Coast Historic Shipwreck Trail Guide" from our host that had a lot of information regarding the better-known incidents over the years ("Port Fairy to Moonlight Head" was the one).

Two ships wrecked near this spot, the “Marie Gabrielle” in 1869 and the “Fiji” in 1891, and there are anchors visible at certain times, but we didn’t want to get wetter and explore for them. There is a very remote spot where they buried 12 drowned sailors from the “Fiji” using timbers from the ship to build caskets, but again, it was raining so we didn’t investigate further.

Wet Kurt shows off the shell he found at Shipwreck Beach.
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Of course the “Loch Ard” (1878) is famous for the story of only two of 51 surviving and now has a gorge named for it. We could have easily stayed another couple of days and seen more sights but the small taste we had was satisfying.

Back at the room we cleaned up and then drove west to see the Twelve Apostles. By this time the weather had turned pretty again and we were treated to a beautiful view (and lots of other tourists snapping away, but nothing compared to sunset during the high season). The visitor center was quite nice, with a modern building on the north side of the road and a tunnel leading to the coast, a design that cuts down on the number of people darting across to see the view.

Milkin' time!
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One of the formations crumbled away a couple of years ago but what’s an apostle when you’ve got 11 others?  The coastline is continuously being reshaped by the waves so new apostles are coming (it used to be called "sow and piglets").

We headed farther west to Port Campbell, where we had a burger and fish and chips (an enormous basket of fries), then walked around the waterfront area (lots and lots of seagulls), then bought some wine and snacks to take back to the room.

Although we’d planned to see the lighthouse at Cape Otway, it was getting dark sooner than we’d expected so we went to a place called “Apostles Whey” dairy and cheese making. It was a lot of fun, actually, as we were the only ones there and we got a private tasting.

Twelve Apostles and a bit of the coastline. It's easy to see why there were so many shipwrecks with the treacherous waves.
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We bought some tasty pepper cheese (“Heytesbury Harvest”) and then watched the 4 p.m. milking (Did I mention that this was “relax and not do much day?”). Lots of black and white cows lined up to hop on the circular milking machine and get a snack.

By then it was time to head for the B&B and enjoy the sunset and some sparkling wine (Wyndham Estate 1878; very tasty).  As we drove up the driveway we stopped where we'd been told a mob of wild kangaroos could be seen at dawn and dusk.  What a sight - at least 25 of them all hopping in the twilight - wow!

It was a pretty day by the time we reached Port Campbell for lunch.
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Then we headed back to the “Talk of the Town” for some excellent garlic pizza and some Victoria Bitters – Friday night in the hinterlands.

I had to get up early and do some work remotely on Saturday so it was another early night – relaxing is fun sometimes.