Shipwreck Sojourn

A few days ago I drove along the Shipwreck Coast, the stretch of southern Victoria shoreline that has seen many a vessel come to grief in storm winds, nasty currents, and rocky shorelines.  Even here, at Apollo Bay, there were shipwrecks.  I stayed here 21 years ago, in 1997.  It was so quiet that early on a weekday morning, a dog was sleeping on the sidewalk on the main drag.  It's somewhat busier now, but still beautiful and mellow.  And the beach is fine.

Just west of Apollo Bay, I came upon Maits Rest, in Otway National Park.  A bloke named Maitland, who had a trade route, used this area as a rest stop.  It remains pristine rainforest, with huge gum trees like this one.

Massive ferns dominate the lower story of the forest.

Now I'm at the 12 Apostles, a very famous spot on the coast, used in many Australian tourist commercials.  Though the surrounding countryside is quiet, there are tourons from all over the world here.  But on a weekday, it was no problem getting a parking spot and walking to this really spectacular viewpoint.  In my opinion the vivid colors of the breaking waves are what really makes the picture dynamic.

There are a couple apostles to the east of the viewpoint, with more fine surf breaks.  The coastal rocks are sandstone, easily erodable...so the scene is in flux.  Blow the pic up and you'll see that the right hand apostle is being undercut drastically by the sea, which is almost always rough here as there's no land between here and Antarctica.  That sea stack will topple in hundreds or thousands of years...not millions.

Nearby is the Loch Ard gorge.  This was the scene of a tragic shipwreck in 1878.  The vessel, named Loch Ard, was about to complete a long voyage from England to Melbourne.  There was a party for the passengers celebrating the end of the trip.  But...the seas got rough, and the Loch Ard ran onto a reef near the head  of the gorge and sank.  Out of over fifty people on board, two survived...a young bloke and a young Sheila. The media tried to hook them up but the lady wanted to get back home ASAP, and did.

Inland from the sandy beach at the Loch Ard gorge is a bunch of stalactites...mineral water dripping from the cliffs above.

The beach is really quite nice.  I went down onto it in 1997 and reprised that in 2018.  Sand felt really good on my footsies (left one has a spot of plantar fasciitis) and I even got a bit of slotation in.

I said this coast is changing in the short term as the massive waves batter the sandstone.  This is London Bridge, just W of Loch Ard Gorge.  Until 1990, this was a double arch.  Then the left hand arch fell into the sea, stranding two tourons on the Makai side of the rock.  They were airlifted off by helicopter.  Eventually the Makai arch will also fall into the sea, leaving a couple of new Apostles.