Surf Coast:: Great Ocean Rd

truely: the great ocean road!! just when i thought california's hwy 1 was unbeatable!!

on the second day of the melbourne trip, we out towards the surf coast. the coast spreads wide from geelong to lorne, facing tasmania. in case you haven't guessed yet, it is famous for surfing. due to the arguable confluence of the indian and the pacific oceans, the waves here in summer are phenominally attractive to surfers and surfing contest organizers alike. though we saw a decent number of surfers in angelsea and torquay, having found little evidence to overshadow santa barbara's surfing enthusiasm, we resigned to the fact that its winter, with unamicable weather, and no contests. the scenic beauty through the journey there was compensating enough nonetheless.

the great ocean road starts at surf coast and for most part, hugs the oceans:: first the pacific and then the indian, all the way till adelaide. much like hwy 1, it passes along numerous cliffs, beaches, and small towns. what makes it even more beautiful is contrast of the colors around:: the ocean is a pale transparent green in some places (near beaches), but mostly it is bright blue: the rolling hills are covered with freshly grown light green moss and bright green trees: the cliffs, since the land is young, display peachy yellow sandstone:: making the view greeting-card perfect. dont believe what i am talking about? check this out, or this one, or this one for that matter.

there have been many beautiful towns on the great rd, like the lorne which hosts the erskine falls, lavers hill which has the johanna beach, or cape otway where one of the famous light houses is located. but the one place with exceptional location and unsurpassable beauty that i have ever come across is appollo bay. this place holds so much beauty and instantly captivating warmth that i felt like settling down here. the calmness of the mountains, the grace of the valley, the beauty of the beach coupled with the glory of the ocean made the place magical. this was taken on the way back when we were approaching it from the mountains. *sigh* some day, i'll return.

after we crossed appollo bay, we entered the otways:: vast greenlands with interspersed rain forests. apart from its scenic beauty, the otways boasts of having the worlds longest tree-top walk. yeah, thats exactly what it sounds like, a walk that takes you from the top branches of one tree to another on a man made canopy. though we did not walk it, we took a bunch of pickies of the otways and the great rd:: you can see them here.