Port Campbell National Park and the Twelve Apostles

Following our rest with the Koalas and beach walk, we all crowded back into our respective vans and headed for, what would be, the most beautiful part of the trip -- Port Campbell National Park.


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Port Campbell was great for the close proximity of such amazing natural, coastal features; the first of which you reach driving south, the famous Twelve Apostles.

The Twelve Apostles are the ancient, limestone remains - some rocks dating back 20 million years - of a cave system that, overtime, was carved away by the forces of the ocean to the rock monoliths we see today.

Upon standing at the edge of the cliff looking down, one can comprehend immediately by the intense wind how these limestone formations, coupled with the many waves, were made; the wind was intense, brutal at times, but the beauty of the Twelve Apostles outweighed the nasty weather and we, along with some 2 million visitors a year, dealt with the relentless wind for the view.

 

The wind and ocean still shapes these formations today. A few years ago, one of the limestone pillars fell into the ocean. (Note the foreground in the previous, and next photograph):

The view looking East was almost as amazing. More limestone rocks rose from the ocean and a giant crack in the cliff made me a little uneasy about our stability:

We drove less than two kilometers down the coast before reaching the next scenic limestone formation - the Loch Ard Gorge:

It was great because, unlike the Twelve Apostles, we could walk down to the beach and water!!

A cave was near the water as well and provided nice views of the beach:

Just around the corner from Loch Ard Gorge were some stunning views East:

Now chasing daylight, we drove to the next famous Port Campbell attraction, London Bridge:

 London Bridge used to be more bridge-like until the nineties, when half its span collapsed into the sea:

The final limestone structure to see in Port Campbell was the Arch. We just made it before the sun began to set; the low angle of the sunlight reflecting off the rocks and ocean was amazing:

In under six kilometers along the south of Victoria was all of this. So many beautiful things in such close proximity! It was an amazing day. I'll leave you with a video I put together of all the Video clips I took at Port Campbell: