Sunday, July 07, 2013
After exploring Apollo Bay, we continued our drive down the Great Ocean Road. Luckily, today was a gorgeous day. Our stops and their respective photos are listed below (just too hard to put in any kind of interesting narrative).
Apollo Bay
Marriners & Cape Patton Lookout, Artillary Rocks, and the W.B. Godfrey 1891 Shipwreck Site
Interesting fact: nobody perished in this shipwreck originally, but six different people wound up dying trying to reclaim the wreckage booty.
 |
| Love this shot! |
Cumberland River
We loved seeing the river flow into the ocean.
Sheoak Falls
This hike was pretty muddy and slick, but it was but a short hike.
We next explored the town of Lorne and got some meat pie takeaway for lunch before hiking to Erskine Falls (both the upper and lower view).
There are a massive quantity of stairs required to go to the lower overlook. Man was I huffing and puffing when I returned.
The Great Ocean Road is definitely worth driving. Just hope for good weather.
Geelong (pronounced Ja long) is a big city that ended our travels on the Great Ocean Road. We headed to the waterfront to see some of the Geelong Bollards created by Jan Mitchell.
These bollards are tall, round wooden sculptures that look like thick posts. There are 104 painted bollards in Geelong. They depict important people or industry important to Geelong. I would have done the walking tour to see them all, but Kris would likely throttle me. He didn't really see the appeal.
Bollards we viewed:
We saw the Geelong Volunteer Rifle Band playing "The Geelong Polka", swimmers representing the Geelong Baths Swimming Club, a WWII couple representing the Sailors' Rest Building, a tram conductress from 1940, a Scallop Fisherman and some ladies representing the heavy fish/crustacean trade in Geelong, and some swimmers representing the Western Beach Sea Bathing Company of 1872.
Near the waterfront, Geelong has a really large Wool Museum. We took a tour of this complex facility.
Making wool used to be a primary industry in Geelong, and the building we toured was the primary factory. The industry has largely closed in Geelong now, but they still make some products at the museum using large machinery programmed with the Jacquard punch card system.
The displays were very interesting and showed the entire process of shearing sheep, processing the wool, and making fabrics.
There were even recreation homes of sheep shearers and wool makers. One display even had the lyrics to "Waltzin' Matilda". I find the lyrics and their definitions fascinating. I've never tried to analyze "Waltzin' Matilda" before.
Kris and I were especially fond of the hands on exhibits.
Sometimes Kris takes the terms "hands on" a little too far.
Upstairs, they had a scarf exhibit. Some were crazy and elaborate.
The bottom floor was about Geelong and featured some art from a local competition.
We saw the final bollard, in memory of Jan Mitchell, before leaving.
Our overnight this evening was at an ensuite accommodation called Eldorado Tourist Park. Ensuites seem to be common in Australian tourist parks and provide you a bathroom to yourself instead of having to share a communal bathroom. It's atypical that you can get an ensuite for only one evening. I liked it.
Kris also relented to buying a small $14 heater for the car. I didn't have to sleep in my hat, gloves, and jacket!
