London Bridge has fallen down

We were VERY busy on Sunday. We started the day by going to a small chocolate shop. Then we went to a little cheese factory. So, I was pretty full from all of the taste testing. Then, Richard took us to the Arch. It was a beautiful day to go sight seeing and I got some of the most beautiful pics I've taken since I've been in Australia.

The Arch

Coastline near the Arch

After seeing the Arch, we went to the London Bridge. In the picture below, it looks like the bridge stands alone in the water. However, this is a recent development. About 15-20 years ago, the detached portion was attached to the part of rock on the left. At that time, you could actually walk out on the bridge. Then, one day, the first arch collapsed into the water. Amazingly, no one was injured, but there were two people stranded on the part left in the water. To make it even more interesting--the two people stranded included a man and his mistress! His wife found out he was having an affair only because he and his mistress had to be rescued by helicopter! It is predicted that the other arch will eventually collapse, as well.

Coastline near London Bridge

The Grotto For whatever reason I loved the loch-cow monster at the cheese factory.
After all of the sight seeing, we had a beach picnic and went strawberry picking. I'm pretty sure they were the best strawberries I've ever tasted....and I definitely ate more than I picked!

I had a great weekend and have been busy teaching this week. I was observed by my supervisor from Deakin University today and it went really well! I'm planning to make some Kentucky food for my host family this weekend, so keep your fingers crossed that it's not a disaster...haha. Hopefully I'll have more pics to add soon!

Loch Ard

After visiting the Twelve Apostles, Richard took us to Loch Ard. This is the site of one of the most famous shipwrecks along the Shipwreck Trail. The Loch Ard was a ship travelling in 1878 from England to Melbourne. It ended up sinking in about 15 minutes. One of the crewmen floated on a lifeboat into the gorge. He heard an 18 year old woman screaming, so he swam back out for her. She was unable to swim, but had held onto a spar for four hours. They struggled for an hour in the water, but finally made it to shore. They rested in a cave and used some washed up brandy to recover. Then, the man climbed up the huge cliff to safety and found help. (This was the story I was told, anyway...)

Loch Ard

Notice the cave on the right!



With Charlotte



Huge stalactites



Cave at Loch Ard (we think it's probably the one the shipwreck survivors slept in)

So of course we had to venture in!

From inside the cave

The cliff the crew member supposedly climbed...

I loved hearing the story of this place and climbing the rocks into the cave. I have some beautiful pictures of The Arch, London Bridge, and the Grotto coming very soon!

Port Campbell and the Twelvish Apostles

I just got back from a FABULOUS weekend at Port Campbell. Peter's brother, Richard, lives here with his family. Port Campbell is a quaint little ocean town located on the Great Ocean Road. The picture below shows half of the town.
There are some great sites located near Port Campbell. The largest attraction to the Port Campbell National Park is the "Twelve Apostles". These are huge rock stacks that rise out of the ocean water. Apparently there used to be twelve....but erosion has taken a toll on them and there aren't that many anymore.

The coastline through here is also known as the "shipwreck coastline" because of the treacherous waves and their reputation for causing shipwrecks.

I asked why the Twelve Apostles received their name and I was told it was pretty much just because they stood out so much in the water and there were twelve of them.

You can see some of the Apostles here. The pile of rocks in the forefront is the latest casualty of the Apostles.



Here I am with Jess in front of some of the Apostles. She hates hugs, so I decided to torture her...








An Apostle



Here I am with my host family--Jess, Sam, Helen, and Peter.

Here is the whole Weston crew! Richard and his family were great tour guides.

I had WAY too many pics to put in one blog post, so stay tuned for more. We also visited Loch Ard, which is the site of a famous shipwreck, the Arch, London Bridge (well...what's left of it), and the Grotto. They will be up soon!

Treetop Walk

After surviving the camping trip in the Otways, Blake and Chris decided to take us to see some other great sights in the area.

A piece of advice: DON'T TRUST A TOM TOM! Blake's Tomtom swore this was a real road and that our destination was 50 more meters. Who would have thought Blake's ax would actually come in handy....

The Otways meeting the ocean (look really hard)

Finally, we made it to the Otway Fly Treetop Walk. This is a huge walkway made of steel and located in a temperate rainforest. This is the Boomerang Tree, which is on the path to the steel walkway.

There is also a Prehistoric Path which is a big fern gully. You can find some random dinosaurs too...

This is called "the Big tree." Someone went all out to name it.....

The treetop walk is 25 meters above the forest floor. There are only 3 other steel canopy walks in the world and they're all in Australia! This one has only been open since 2003.

This is the Spiral Tower, which is 47 meters above the forest floor and a great observation point.

More trees....it really felt like we were just walking on top of them.

The steel walkways as seen from the Spiral Tower

This is the forest version of a wishing well. Situated away from the walkway, people toss change on it and try to make it land on top of this huge stump. Even25 meters up you can see heaps (haha...Australians love this word) of coins all over the forest floor. I saw a sign that said they donated all of the money to some kind of children's hospital or something.

Youngs Creek

Underneath the walkway

This hike wasn't as adventurous as the previous day's hike, but there also weren't any machetes involved. It was great to see a different part of Australia and remember that it's not all beaches. I have been very busy at school, but I will try to post some things about what I'm doing there and my upcoming weekend trip to Port Campbell. I hope you're not snowed in!

Camping in the Otways

Charlotte (the student teacher from Auburn) lives in a host family that has a 23 year old son. Chris has been very nice and included us in several things with his friends. This weekend, he and a friend took us to the Otway National Park.

A view of the Otways

Chris' friend, Blake, came very prepared. Among other things, he brought a compass, map, ax, machete, rope, survival kit, bow and arrows, and several knives.

After FINALLY setting up Chris' tent.

When asked if I wanted to go camping and hiking, I assumed we would be on hiking trails. WRONG. Blake and company had other plans. Instead, we literally went bushwalking. We went down a very steep hill. Chris led with his favorite new toy--the machete. The rest of us just tried not to roll down on top of each other...although that did happen several times...

Chris enjoyed his job a little too much.

Once we reached the bottom, there were some really pretty views.

Charlotte--those arms actually pushed an entire tree over. Luckily, no one was in its way.

I totally ended up stepping in the creek while crossing on the stones, which made for a soggy climb back.

On the way back up, it was too steep for us to walk, so Blake and Chris tied a rope for us to use as we climbed.

My favorite pair of tennis shoes :( The water and terrain weren't kind to them. Right after I took this picture, I pulled them off and found a leech on my ankle. Chris had to use a lighter to burn it off. Good times!

This is near our campsite. As you can see here, some of the forest has been logged pretty heavily. We also saw a wallaby in this area, but it was too fast for me to get a picture. End of the day....we had a great campfire and stars, but neither showed up well in pictures. One thing that is interesting about the stars is that I get to see a whole different set of them since Australia is in the southern hemisphere.

All of these pictures were taken on Saturday. Sunday's adventures in the Otways are soon to come!