Day 20 The Twelve Apostles and more

Cold morning - 7 degrees

Our plan for the day…

Stay another night where we are and explore the twelve apostles etc just by car - so much easier without the van

Past sheep paddocks

Heading towards point Campbell

Check out these scenic attractions

First one on the list that was actually just down the road from where we are camped is the famous 12 apostles

Which are all part of the Port Campbell National Park we have moved on from the Cape Otway National Park

First stop Gibson steps

Views from the top before descending the steps

This gate was fortunately open for us.

I guess it has to be closed off sometimes with no access to the steps and the beach

On the way down the steps to the beach

A view back up the steps that we have just come down.

we actually counted the steps out of interest - 87 in total

We walked along the beach to the first rock

Took a screenshot of the WikiCamps page to show where we were and interestingly one of the Sunday cycle messages came up on my screenshot.

we have been receiving all the Cycle group messages

We walked along the beach so that we could see the other rock behind the first big one

How lucky are we today that the sun is out and the protrusions look so beautiful in the sunshine

View out to see the second hidden one

A group had walked past the corner we decided to turn back at this point

And head back up the steps

My view of Bill going up the steps

And Bill’s view of me down below

This WikiCamps shot shows where we are heading

There is fresh water flowing down the rock face just near the steps here making it lush green

Bill on his way back up the steps

Linda on her way back up the steps

Even wildflowers on the hillside here

Past an area where there was construction happening this noticeboard explains what the construction is

Next to turn off to the busy car park to the 12 apostles

We had a brief look in the centre before walking out to the lookout

Interesting useful information on the noticeboard outside the centre

Everywhere we have been for the last week or so there have been masses of beautiful fairy wrens

finally managed to get a decent photo of one in the middle of the pathway here. others were just walking past obviously not interested in the birds, more interested in the 12 apostles

And here they are what’s left of them in all their glory

And as I said, so lucky the sun was shining today so they looked quite majestic with the sun shining on them

The obligatory photo standing in front of them

We walked further round to a different lookout spot.

Here we noticed that there was a project to do more work on more look out spots

Where somebody else kindly took photo for us

Needless to say took lots of photos around here

And there were a couple of helicopters flying over they were obviously doing paid helicopter flights for tourists

Tracked on Wikicamps where we walked to Castle Rock look out

On the road again for more viewing of top spots along the coastline

So next spot Loch Ard Gorge

We went to Wreck point first

Had our photo taken yeah we stood either side so that the rocks could be seen

But the person taking the photo insisted we stood together on one side and cuddled

So we obliged

Access to The Razorback was from the same point so we checked that out here too

Next we went to Loch Ard Gorge

Spent ages here as there was so much to see

We counted the steps too there were 79 steps

Back up the steps after we had spent quite some time looking around the area

We drove along the road to access the Thunder Cave but accessed the other viewpoints from the same place

Spotted this Rufous Bristlebird on the path

More helicopters flying overhead

Thunder.cave was amazing - lived up to its name as the waves crashing against the rocks sounded like Thunder

Stood for ages waiting for a chance to video the sound as there were quite a few other people there and they were talking

Moved on to check out broken head

And then around to look out where we could see mutton bird Island

Driving back down the road we saw a sign for the Lochard cemetery

So we went down there to look at the grapes there

This one was the Carmichael family plot

This plaque gives information about the people who died - note the number of the Carmichael family

I was interested in this grave because of the name Robe. there was a Robe family plot in the previous cemetery that we visited and I wondered if it was the same family

Wandered around the cemetery looking at other graves and checking the dates on them

From the cemetery you could see over to the lookout on the Headland on the other side

This headstone explains the story of the Carmichael family

Continuing on the road

Still with great views on our left

We headed in to Port Campbell

Where we found a cafe with great views of the water where we could have a drink and some food

We each had a drink from the local Prickly Moses brewery myself ginger beer and Bill an ale

After lunch we checked out the Port Campbell foreshore

We also called in to the information centre to see if there was anything particularly interesting in Port Campbell for us to see before we moved on

Some interesting information in the information centre about the shipwrecks and some of the items retrieved from them

We went on part of the discovery walk to try to find the suspension bridge that the person in the information centre told us about that had been specially built for people to get across the river

We walked part the way across the suspension bridge but didn’t continue on the discovery walk because it would have taken too long

We walked round past the pier to try to find the two places that have been highlighted on our map by cat from Bimbi Park for us to visit but we couldn’t find either of the places one of them was Sentinel rocks and the other one was Beacon Steps

Saw this bird on our walk around though

Lynda Litz suggested that this may be a juvenile singing honeyeater

And we did find this soldiers Memorial on the headland

Interesting information boards next to the jetty

Interesting that this information board mentions a rescue at beacon steps but we still couldn’t fathom out where this was

Lots of rabbits around this area in fact we have been seeing quite a few rabbits around in our recent travels

We walked out onto the jetty but didn’t stay there long as it was very cold and windy

We drove along some of the tracks towards some headlands on our way back from Port Campbell

Such as this one at Sparkes Gully

We had spotted these wind turbines in the distance earlier on in the day and they looked like they weren’t that far away

And Peak Point

And Bakers oven

Stood there for ages trying to get a photo of the waves crashing through the opening

Another spot we stopped at was the Sherbrooke River

We could see across to the walkway to the Sherbrooke river estuary that we went past early in the day and in this photo you can see somebody standing at the end of that pathway on the rock