Date: 23rd Jan - 26th Jan 2010
Flying Hours: 9 hours 15 mins
(GMT +1100)
It was my short stay in Melbourne arriving 0830 at Sofitel Melbourne on 24th Jan and leaving on 25th Jan at 2325. I did some research at home before I flew there and there're few places that I wanted to go which includes the Twelve Apostles (my top priority), Rialto Towers Observation Deck, Melbourne Zoo, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Parliament House of Victoria, Phillip Island, Puffing Billy Steam Train and Skydeck 88.
I checked the Great Ocean Road Tour which includes the visit to the Twelve Apostles online costs AUD100 over and it's gonna take approximately 13 hours, departing Melbourne at 0700 and arriving at 2000, since my pickup time from the hotel will be 2325, I kept thinking whether I should go and worrying at the same time whether am I able to come back on time, knowing it's gonna be 4 hours drive from Melbourne, any possible delays or unexpectations will gonna cause me MISS my duty.
After sleeping for few hours until 1500, I woke up and decided to walk around the Melbourne downtown to hunt for food. After eating, I walked on the Chinatown area and passed by Extragreen Tour Agency and saw the poster of the Twelve Apostles, and the AUD45 caught my eyes. I went in to check for more information about the tour and the AUD45 special promotion rate is only for tour departing on every Saturday, sadly the day I wanna join will be a Monday and the price is AUD69, but it's still way cheaper than what I checked from the internet. After they told me the latest the van will drop us back in Melbourne at 1930, I decided to join the tour.
It was a sleepless night for me and I did not know why, I slept at 2230 and woke up at 0100, from then onwards I couldn't sleep at all only until 0430, then I fell asleep and my alarm clock rang at 0630 as I need to be at the entrance of Extragreen Tour Agency by 0745 for my tour pickup.
Extragreen Travel Agency Website: http://extragreen.com.au/index.htm
Apollo Bay is a coastal town in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the eastern side of Cape Otway, along the edge of the Barham River and on the Great Ocean Road, in the Colac Otway Shire. The town has a population of 1777.
It now makes an income from tourism, though it is smaller and quieter than other tourist destinations such as Lorne. It is also host to the annual Apollo Bay Music Festival and the Great Ocean Sports Festival.
The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park, by the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. Their proximity to one another has made the site a popular tourist attraction. Originally the site was called the Sow and Piglets. Muttonbird Island near Loch And Gorge was the ‘Sow’ and the smaller rock stacks the 'Piglets'. The name was changed in the 1950s to present the name recalling the biblical The Twelve Apostles. This was done to lure more visitors to the state. Despite the name there are not twelve individual stacks visible in any one location.
The stacks have been formed by erosion, and are all different heights and thicknesses. A number have fallen over entirely as waves continually erode their bases.A 50-metre tall Apostle collapsed on July 3, 2005. Although it was initially thought that one of the Twelve Apostles fell on September 25, 2009 it was later revealed that it was one of the smaller stacks knowns as The Three Sisters. Other well-known features in Port Campbell National Park created by erosion are the London Arch, Loch Ard Gorge and the Island Archway. The rate of erosion at the base of the limestone pillars is approximately 2 cm per year. Unfortunately after years of erosion, it has only 7 apostles left when I visited this time. This is a heavenly beautiful place that one must visit before all the stacks collapse.
This is by far the most spectacular and facsinating view which I have ever seen in my entire life, I was blown away totally.
A worthwhile 4 hours of tiring journey from Melbourne
The scenic lookout of The Amazing Twelve Apostles
A jump shot to show my excitement of reaching this place
If it's not of the extremely limited time given by my tour guide, I would have jumped into the water just like the 2 caucasians behind. Of course, I would love to tan for an hour or two. But those were just IF ....
London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down ~~~
Some clips which I have recorded, click PLAY below:
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