Great Ocean Road, Australia

Ocean Out, along the Great Australian South


Twelve Apostles
The most famous setting on the Great Ocean Road, formed by successive cliffs jutting out of the sea.
by the sea
Casal relaxes next to the surf produced by a mixture of Indian and Antarctic oceans.
The Arch
Another work of strong coastal erosion, in the vicinity of the London Bridge that fell a few years ago.
on the way to the rain
Secondary road crosses a swamp and heads into a large mass of moist air.
easy sleep
One of the many koalas that can be seen in eucalyptus groves along the Great Ocean Road.
Campervan snack
Couple enjoy a practical meal in a rented campervan to explore South Australia.
Green yellow
Pond in a vast meadow takes on the same deep hue as the stormy sky in the vicinity of the Twelve Apostles.
Return to base
Bodyboarders return to their campervans after some time in the icy waters of the Antarctic Ocean.
low tide ride
Visitors to the Great Ocean Road walk along a waterfront generated by the receding waters at the foot of the cliffs.
under the arch
Friends pass under The Arch to return to the Great Ocean Road level.
great coast
Landscape of the southern tip of the state of Victoria, near the Twelve Apostles.
Hidden Panorama
Tourist photographs the maritime scenery south of the Great Ocean Road.
Great Ocean Sunset
Sun falls over the horizon, adding color to an inlet west of Pointe Esse.
improvised balcony
Couple photographing friends in the water, on a beach near Warrnambool.
southern twilight
Intense sunsets tint the dramatic, frigid backdrop of the Great Ocean Road with warm hues.
post sunset
Rocky islets dot the sea off Warrnambool in the twilight.
One of the favorite escapes of the Australian state of Victoria, via B100 unveils a sublime coastline that the ocean has shaped. We only needed a few kilometers to understand why it was named The Great Ocean Road.

We had been using the Tim Reynolds hospitality, in his villa in Caulfield, a suburb 12km south-east of Melbourne.

We weren't the only ones. The retired man in his fifties also welcomed Max Weise and Yinka Kehinde, a young German couple like us, discovering Australia.

At one point, Tim excelled in his kindness, with an open heart, without hesitation or embarrassment, as we would come to understand his new way of life: "Want to go for a walk on the Great Ocean Road?" he asks us during a dinner at a Thai restaurant that he had invited his girlfriend of Thai origin to. “I would like you to get to know that down there.

I'll lend you my car but see… bring it in one piece!” For a few seconds, we stared at each other in astonishment, not knowing how to respond in a dignified way.

Finally, we accepted the offer a little awkwardly and we listened to the information and explanations that Tim was keen to add to the challenge, both about his red Ford Fiesta and about the famous Great Ocean Road, one of the really unmissable road routes in the face of Earth.

Porch of Port Campbell National Park, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

Tourist photographs the maritime scenery south of the Great Ocean Road.

Great Ocean Road. A Grand Road in the Bottoms of Australia

Officially referred to as the B100, the Great Ocean Road starts in Torquay. For a winding 243km, it stretches to the west and reveals the Shipwreck Coast, Bass Strait and the Sea of ​​the Great Australian Bay, perched on the somewhat diffuse contact point between the Indian and Antarctic oceans.

As if the fact that Melbourne is considered year after year as one of the three cities in the world with the best quality of life was not enough, the road is only an hour and a half drive from the metropolis.

Accustomed to urban well-being but in a good way ozzy, always eager to be in contact with nature, the inhabitants of Melbourne and the surrounding state of Victoria leave their homes whenever they can towards these grandiose depths of the Australian continent. We soon followed in their footsteps, methodical Max at the wheel.

From Aireys Inlet to Kenneth River Koalas

At Aireys Inlet, we come across the first beaches worthy of a stop and a dip. In those parts, the sophisticated atmosphere of the village contrasts with the volcanic cliffs that hide tidal lagoons along the rugged coastline. And even with the scenarios of the bush Otway Mountain Range, part of a State Park called Angahook-Lorne and the greater Great Otway National Park.

From Lorne to the west, we wind between the sea and the mountain slopes covered with dense eucalyptus trees. In Kenneth River, these eucalyptus trees full of river red gums they turn out to be the homes of lethargic koala communities. We stop at a roadside already prepared to receive curious travelers.

We scrutinize the branches and foliage with eyes to see. It didn't take long to detect some less camouflaged specimens, given over to the sleepy pasture of the foliage, indifferent to the frequent human invasions of its arboreal territory.

Koala, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

One of the many koalas that can be seen in eucalyptus groves along the Great Ocean Road.

After a few more kilometers, we enter Apollo Bay, another fishing village, idolized by the city's vacationers who surrendered to its gentle hills and open white sands.

It is also a perfect base for exploring Otway National Park, Blanket Bay and Cape Otway.

Cape Otway's Southern Threshold

Cape Otway marks the southernmost point of the route. Australia, to the south, only the tasmania island.

From Cape Otway to the west, the beaches rise at the bottom of huge, rugged cliffs, buffeted by waves and currents that we didn't quite know what to expect. Also, with the Australian winter approaching, the water remained icy and – we've known for a long time – probably patrolled by white sharks. The danger they pose forces authorities to frequently close several of the beaches on the Great Ocean Road to bathers.

Aware of the enormous risk we would run when entering that turbulent and suspicious ocean, we continued to postpone the craving bath. Majestic, as grand as its name suggested, and historic to match, the road deserved a better tribute than joining the growing list of victims of white sharks in the offshore seas.

In agreement, we continued to travel, whenever we could, also through the almost secular past of its asphalt.

Great Ocean Road Bypass, Victoria, Australia

Secondary road crosses a swamp and heads into a large mass of moist air.

Great Ocean Road. An Australian Memorial Road

The work that gave rise to the Great Ocean Road began in September 1919. The authorities aussies of Victoria planned it as a “useful” monument that could honor the Allies perished in World War I. At the same time, it should link several still isolated villages in the back of Australia and favor the purposes of the logging industry and tourism.

With these various purposes in view, a group of land prospecting technicians was appointed. Determined and qualified, the team managed to open up the rough territory at an average speed of 3km per month. Three thousand workers followed it, charged with, by hand and with the use of explosives, shovels and picks, wheelbarrows and smaller machinery, to implement the route on the ground.

Over the months, dozens of workers died mainly from landslides in the mountainous sections of the coast. In order to alleviate the discomfort caused by these and other tragedies and difficulties, the management of the work kept available a piano, a gramophone, games, newspapers and magazines, unprecedented luxuries in constructions of this kind.

The "Casino" Wreck. The Unexpected Luck of Great Ocean Road Workers

Still, the feast of festivities washed ashore when, in 1924, a steamboat of his grace “Casino” hit a reef, ran aground near Cape Patton, and dumped five hundred barrels of beer and one hundred and twenty cases of spirits into the sea.

As generous as it was unexpected, the offer forced those responsible to take a two-week break, which is said to have been the approximate time it took the workers to consume the load.

In relative terms, the interruption had little or no delay in the work. The work had been dragging on for a long time. It would only end in 1932. In that year, the Lorne-Apollo Bay section was completed. The long-awaited finish of the project justified a solemn inauguration – bearing in mind the usual Australian revulsion for excessive pomp – of the largest war memorial ever built.

One hundred years later (in 2019), the route of the Great Ocean Road continues to surprise and delight curve after curve, especially from Anglesea, when its semi-urbanized route is left behind.

In this stronghold, the Shipwreck Coast coastline proves more capricious and impressive than ever.

Cliffs of Port Campbell National Park, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

Visitors to the Great Ocean Road walk along a waterfront generated by the receding waters at the foot of the cliffs.

Great Ocean Road and the Nautical Cemetery of shipreck coast

Over time, the inclement end of the sea that left us standing behind claimed several boats. Some were victims of powerful currents, others of fog and sharp reefs. They all sank into history. Almost all of them present exciting challenges for historians and treasure-hunting divers.

In 1878, the “Loch Ard” capsized off Mutton Bird Island on the final night of a long voyage from England. Fifty-three of its 55 passengers lost their lives. THE "Falls of Halladale” – a ferry from Glasgow – got lost on the final leg of its route from New York to Melbourne. Also the British boat “Newfield” and New Zealander “La Bella”, among others, went to the back.

Still on the Shipwreck Coast, we enter the domain of Port Campbell National Park. The most admired stretch of the Great Ocean Road extends there.

Port Campbell National Park is dotted with cliffs, some seventy meters high, excavated many millennia ago by the force of the ocean. It is also adorned with curious rock sculptures left behind by the large island.

The Arch, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

Friends pass under The Arch to return to the Great Ocean Road level.

The Twelve Apostles No Longer Over Eight

These successive rocks and splinters that cause the early break of the waves serve as a landing place for suckers and other marine fauna in the region. The suckers, in particular, justify the presence of the white sharks, the feared kings of the oceans that kept us ashore.

The most notorious of these formations, the Twelve Apostles, is today the object of a true international photographic cult.

The nearly two million annual visitors that the four of us join, in turn, have led the authorities in Victoria to provide the surroundings with special infrastructure and visiting conditions: regular scenic flights and the wooden walkways that we traverse above and below of the cliffs, to mention just a few of them.

Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

The most famous setting on the Great Ocean Road, formed by successive cliffs jutting out of the sea.

Until 1922, the formation was known by the name cattle-profano The Saw and the Piglets (The sow and the little pigs). That year, senior tourist concerns and patrons of the Victorian Tourism Entity dictated his rebaptism as Twelve Apostles. This, despite the fact that there are now only nine boulders jutting out of the sea.

As happened many millennia ago, the rocks continued to be at the mercy of the waves, with their bases losing about 2 cm per year.

In July 2005, another collapse of one of them, reduced the set to eight. And yet, in the time we've dedicated to the viewpoints that reveal them from the coast, we've only been able to identify seven.

One of the survivors remained and remains out of reach, unless you take advantage of the beach-sea culmination to descend to the base of the cliffs and explore the sand and rocks. We didn't have time for such a detour.

The Arch, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

Another work of strong coastal erosion, in the vicinity of the London Bridge that fell a few years ago.

From Other Marine Sculptures of PN Port Campbell to Warrnambool's Imminence

We found the next ocean sculptures to the west of Port Campbell. The arched boulder The Arch, opposite Point Esse. And, nearby, London Bridge, another recent victim of erosion.

In the last 12km of the Great Ocean Road the cliffs are greatly reduced in height but the sea remains cold and uninviting, suitable only for surfers and bodyboarders intrepid.

Bodyboarders, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

Bodyboarders return to their campervans after some time in the icy water of the Antarctic ocean

On the edge of one of the softest beaches in these parts, we rested playfully with a young kiwi couple who were picnicking on their box. campervan, a Spartan van, graffiti with art and good mood.

Snack in Campervan, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

Couple enjoy a practical meal in a rented campervan to explore South Australia.

Soon, we reach the vicinity of Warmbol.

There, the Great Ocean Road gave way to the Princess Highway. We, reversed path. We arrived in Caulfied much later than we had planned and saved Tim from his anxiety. It had only been a day.

Sunset, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

Intense sunsets tint the dramatic, frigid backdrop of the Great Ocean Road with warm hues.

One day aussie sped up as the Great Ocean Road demanded.

Florida Keys, USA

The Caribbean Stepping Stone of the USA

Os United States continental islands seem to close to the south in its capricious peninsula of Florida. Don't stop there. More than a hundred islands of coral, sand and mangroves form an eccentric tropical expanse that has long seduced American vacationers.
Banks Peninsula, New Zealand

The Divine Earth Shard of the Banks Peninsula

Seen from the air, the most obvious bulge on the South Island's east coast appears to have imploded again and again. Volcanic but verdant and bucolic, the Banks Peninsula confines in its almost cogwheel geomorphology the essence of the ever enviable New Zealand life.
Perth to Albany, Australia

Across the Far West of Australia

Few people worship evasion like the aussies. With southern summer in full swing and the weekend just around the corner, Perthians are taking refuge from the urban routine in the nation's southwest corner. For our part, without compromise, we explore endless Western Australia to its southern limit.
Melbourne, Australia

An "Asienated" Australia

Cultural capital aussie, Melbourne is also frequently voted the best quality of life city in the world. Nearly a million eastern emigrants took advantage of this immaculate welcome.
Sydney, Australia

From the Exile of Criminals to an Exemplary City

The first of the Australian colonies was built by exiled inmates. Today, Sydney's Aussies boast former convicts of their family tree and pride themselves on the cosmopolitan prosperity of the megalopolis they inhabit.
unmissable roads

Great Routes, Great Trips

With pompous names or mere road codes, certain roads run through really sublime scenarios. From Road 66 to the Great Ocean Road, they are all unmissable adventures behind the wheel.
Discovering tassie, Part 3, Tasmania, Australia

Tasmania from Top to Bottom

The favorite victim of Australian anecdotes has long been the Tasmania never lost the pride in the way aussie ruder to be. Tassie remains shrouded in mystery and mysticism in a kind of hindquarters of the antipodes. In this article, we narrate the peculiar route from Hobart, the capital located in the unlikely south of the island to the north coast, the turn to the Australian continent.
Discovering tassie, Part 1 - Hobart, Australia

Australia's Backdoor

Hobart, the capital of Tasmania and the southernmost of Australia, was colonized by thousands of convicts from England. Unsurprisingly, its population maintains a strong admiration for marginal ways of life.
Alice Springs to Darwin, Australia

Stuart Road, on its way to Australia's Top End

Do Red Center to the tropical Top End, the Stuart Highway road travels more than 1.500km lonely through Australia. Along this route, the Northern Territory radically changes its look but remains faithful to its rugged soul.
Perth, Australia

The Oceania Cowboys

Texas is on the other side of the world, but there is no shortage of cowboys in the country of koalas and kangaroos. Outback rodeos recreate the original version and 8 seconds lasts no less in the Australian Western.
Big Sur, USA

The Coast of All Refuges

Over 150km, the Californian coast is subjected to a vastness of mountains, ocean and fog. In this epic setting, hundreds of tormented souls follow in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and Henri Miller.
Masai Mara Reservation, Masai Land Travel, Kenya, Masai Convivial
Safari
Masai Mara, Kenya

A Journey Through the Masai Lands

The Mara savannah became famous for the confrontation between millions of herbivores and their predators. But, in a reckless communion with wildlife, it is the Masai humans who stand out there.
Hikers on the Ice Lake Trail, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 7th - Braga - Ice Lake, Nepal

Annapurna Circuit – The Painful Acclimatization of the Ice Lake

On the way up to the Ghyaru village, we had a first and unexpected show of how ecstatic the Annapurna Circuit can be tasted. Nine kilometers later, in Braga, due to the need to acclimatize, we climbed from 3.470m from Braga to 4.600m from Lake Kicho Tal. We only felt some expected tiredness and the increase in the wonder of the Annapurna Mountains.
The Little-Big Senglea II
Architecture & Design
Senglea, Malta

An Overcrowded Malta

At the turn of the 8.000th century, Senglea housed 0.2 inhabitants in 2 km3.000, a European record, today, it has “only” XNUMX neighborhood Christians. It is the smallest, most overcrowded and genuine of the Maltese cities.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Adventure
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
Camel Racing, Desert Festival, Sam Sam Dunes, Rajasthan, India
Ceremonies and Festivities
Jaisalmer, India

There's a Feast in the Thar Desert

As soon as the short winter breaks, Jaisalmer indulges in parades, camel races, and turban and mustache competitions. Its walls, alleys and surrounding dunes take on more color than ever. During the three days of the event, natives and outsiders watch, dazzled, as the vast and inhospitable Thar finally shines through.
Yucatan Peninsula, Mérida City, Mexico, Cabildo
Cities
Mérida, Mexico

The Most Exuberant of Meridas

In 25 BC, the Romans founded Emerita Augusta, capital of Lusitania. The Spanish expansion generated three other Méridas in the world. Of the four, the Yucatan capital is the most colorful and lively, resplendent with Hispanic colonial heritage and multi-ethnic life.
Obese resident of Tupola Tapaau, a small island in Western Samoa.
Meal
Tonga, Western Samoa, Polynesia

XXL Pacific

For centuries, the natives of the Polynesian islands subsisted on land and sea. Until the intrusion of colonial powers and the subsequent introduction of fatty pieces of meat, fast food and sugary drinks have spawned a plague of diabetes and obesity. Today, while much of Tonga's national GDP, Western Samoa and neighbors is wasted on these “western poisons”, fishermen barely manage to sell their fish.
Culture
Competitions

Man: an Ever Tested Species

It's in our genes. For the pleasure of participating, for titles, honor or money, competitions give meaning to the world. Some are more eccentric than others.
Reindeer Racing, Kings Cup, Inari, Finland
Sport
Inari, Finland

The Wackiest Race on the Top of the World

Finland's Lapps have been competing in the tow of their reindeer for centuries. In the final of the Kings Cup - Porokuninkuusajot - , they face each other at great speed, well above the Arctic Circle and well below zero.
Jeep crosses Damaraland, Namibia
Traveling
damaraland, Namíbia

Namibia On the Rocks

Hundreds of kilometers north of Swakopmund, many more of Sossuvlei's iconic dunes, Damaraland is home to deserts interspersed with red rocky hills, the young nation's highest mountain and ancient rock art. the settlers South Africans they named this region after the Damara, one of the Namibian ethnic groups. Only these and other inhabitants prove that it remains on Earth.
Ethnic
Nelson to Wharariki, Abel Tasman NP, New Zealand

The Maori coastline on which Europeans landed

Abel Janszoon Tasman explored more of the newly mapped and mythical "Terra australis" when a mistake soured the contact with natives of an unknown island. The episode inaugurated the colonial history of the New Zealand. Today, both the divine coast on which the episode took place and the surrounding seas evoke the Dutch navigator.
Sunset, Avenue of Baobabs, Madagascar
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio

days like so many others

History
Castles and Fortresses

A Defending World: Castles and Fortresses that Resist

Under threat from enemies from the end of time, the leaders of villages and nations built castles and fortresses. All over the place, military monuments like these continue to resist.
Shuri Castle in Naha, Okinawa the Empire of the Sun, Japan
Islands
Okinawa, Japan

The Little Empire of the Sun

Risen from the devastation caused by World War II, Okinawa has regained the heritage of its secular Ryukyu civilization. Today, this archipelago south of Kyushu is home to a Japan on the shore, anchored by a turquoise Pacific ocean and bathed in a peculiar Japanese tropicalism.
ala juumajarvi lake, oulanka national park, finland
Winter White
Kuusamo ao PN Oulanka, Finland

Under the Arctic's Icy Spell

We are at 66º North and at the gates of Lapland. In these parts, the white landscape belongs to everyone and to no one like the snow-covered trees, the atrocious cold and the endless night.
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida, United States
Literature
Key West, United States

Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
Dead Sea, Surface of Water, Lower Land, Israel, rest
Nature
Dead Sea, Israel

Afloat, in the Depths of the Earth

It is the lowest place on the surface of the planet and the scene of several biblical narratives. But the Dead Sea is also special because of the concentration of salt that makes life unfeasible but sustains those who bathe in it.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
On hold, Mauna Kea volcano in space, Big Island, Hawaii
Natural Parks
Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Mauna Kea: the Volcano with an Eye out in Space

The roof of Hawaii was off-limits to natives because it housed benevolent deities. But since 1968, several nations sacrificed the peace of the gods and built the greatest astronomical station on the face of the Earth.
Willemstad, Curacao, Punda, Handelskade
UNESCO World Heritage
Willemstad, Curaçao

The Multicultural Heart of Curaçao

A Dutch colony in the Caribbean became a major slave hub. It welcomed Sephardic Jews who had taken refuge from the Iberia Inquisition in Amsterdam and Recife. And it assimilated influences from the Portuguese and Spanish villages with which it traded. At the heart of this secular cultural fusion has always been its old capital: Willemstad.
aggie gray, Samoa, South Pacific, Marlon Brando Fale
Characters
Apia, Western Samoa

The Host of the South Pacific

She sold burguês to GI's in World War II and opened a hotel that hosted Marlon Brando and Gary Cooper. Aggie Gray passed away in 2. Her legacy lives on in the South Pacific.
La Digue, Seychelles, Anse d'Argent
Beaches
La Digue, Seychelles

Monumental Tropical Granite

Beaches hidden by lush jungle, made of coral sand washed by a turquoise-emerald sea are anything but rare in the Indian Ocean. La Digue recreated itself. Around its coastline, massive boulders sprout that erosion has carved as an eccentric and solid tribute of time to the Nature.
Young people walk the main street in Chame, Nepal
Religion
Annapurna Circuit: 1th - Pokhara a Chame, Nepal

Finally, on the way

After several days of preparation in Pokhara, we left towards the Himalayas. The walking route only starts in Chame, at 2670 meters of altitude, with the snowy peaks of the Annapurna mountain range already in sight. Until then, we complete a painful but necessary road preamble to its subtropical base.
white pass yukon train, Skagway, Gold Route, Alaska, USA
On Rails
Skagway, Alaska

A Klondike's Gold Fever Variant

The last great American gold rush is long over. These days, hundreds of cruise ships each summer pour thousands of well-heeled visitors into the shop-lined streets of Skagway.
In elevator kimono, Osaka, Japan
Society
Osaka, Japan

In the Company of Mayu

Japanese nightlife is a multi-faceted, multi-billion business. In Osaka, an enigmatic couchsurfing hostess welcomes us, somewhere between the geisha and the luxury escort.
Daily life
Arduous Professions

the bread the devil kneaded

Work is essential to most lives. But, certain jobs impose a degree of effort, monotony or danger that only a few chosen ones can measure up to.
Amboseli National Park, Mount Kilimanjaro, Normatior Hill
Wildlife
Amboseli National Park, Kenya

A Gift from the Kilimanjaro

The first European to venture into these Masai haunts was stunned by what he found. And even today, large herds of elephants and other herbivores roam the pastures irrigated by the snow of Africa's biggest mountain.
Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.
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