Great Ocean Road and the 12 Apostles, Victoria, Australia, February 5, 2018

Today we took a bus tour daytrip about 200 miles south and west along the coast of Southern Australia. We left at 10:30am and returned to the hotel about midnight. Quite a long day.

 The Great Ocean Road goes along the south shoreline of Australia.

 Here's the Wikipedia page for the Great Ocean Road.

 There are many, many beaches along the Great Ocean Road.

And many of them are without any people.

Complete solitude.

The typical view as we drove along the Great Ocean Road.

We stopped at the Kafe Koala along the way.  A bottle of water was $3.50.

Polly want a cracker?

A koala up in the tree.

He's a little shy.

 Polly wants a cracker...

 And I have some crackers...

I wish I could take him home.

Judy in the rainforest.

Old growth rainforest trees have places to hide.

Big old trees.

A hundred meters up...

No snakes, but spiders...

Two hundred year old ferns.

Judy in the rainforest.

Judy on the bridge.

Judy with the ancient ferns.

Inside an old ash tree.

Nice pic of a dead tree.

Back on the bus to Loch Ard Gorge.

Read about the story of Tom and Eva on the shipwrecked clipper ship Loch Ard here on this Wikipedia page.

We went down the stairs to investigate.

 At one end there is a cavern.

Judy at Loch Ard.

 The other direction to the beach.

And out to the Southern Ocean.

 The first 2 apostles.

 A closer view.

More apostles at the Razorback.  Here's the Wikipedia page for the Twelve Apostles.

Beautiful pics.

More great pics.

And more.

And more.

And more.

The classic view of the Twelve Apostles near sunset.

A closeup of the beaches.

Another view.

The coastline in the other direction (to the east).

Back looking westward.

Sunset on the Southern Ocean.

The last picture before the long bus ride back to Melbourne.