Miso Soup
Question: When are there not twelve apostles? Answer: When there are seven of them. But that truth did not stop us from driving a few hours along the coast to see them. The twelve apostles is a strange name for seven bits of rock sticking out of the sea. There were nine. Two have fallen over in the last twenty years. But there were never twelve. They have had other names, like the pig and piglets. I suppose the twelve apostles does lend a certain gravitas to the location even if it does present a numerical idiosyncrasy. All that aside, we arrived at the stunning location and yet again, were bowled over at not having to pay to park the car. We started by making our way to Gibson's Steps. We never found out who Mr. or Mrs. Gibson are, but they certainly do a crackin step. Or 86 of them to be precise. Without them, getting from the cliff top to the beach would have been possible only for rock climbers. The view from both the cliff top and the beach was truly stunning. It felt ridiculously remote. Here, nature was very much in charge. Thunderous waves, forceful gusts of wind and only that which could withstand such elemental forces left clinging on. Including us and a huge number of Chinese. The area was busy but I reckon 98% of the tourists present were Chinese. We completed our experience of the twelve apostles by going to the cliff top where a cantilevered section of walkway stuck out over the rocks which had everyone's phones out. Some people are so 'snap happy' that I wonder if they ever see anything IRL? (in real life)
When entering the path to the sights, I was intrigued to see the sign, "No Dogs or Cats". I wonder if it just used to say No Dogs, so people thought, right, I'll bring my cat?
Now we were hungry. Apart from oversized and overpriced sandwiches at the visitors centre, there was nothing. I spotted a café down the road intriguingly named, 'Clean Cravings'. Time to check it out whether our cravings were clean or not.
What a place! It was a log cabin style place down a short dirt track. The vibe was established from the word go with 'Chilli Peppers' style music and guys in beanies with short beards who exuded cool.
The food was vegetarian which always scares me. I have to say it was excellent. The cabin had chairs and tables including some arm chairs in front of a blazing log stove. On the best seat in the house was a cat. Fast asleep. Everybody photographed him but nobody moved him.
Kate had pumpkin and miso soup. (I'm not saying anything) I finished my meal with a cookie which both looked and tasted delicious. I wouldn't have gone near it if I'd known it was made with sweet potato!
Time for more excitement. This came in the form of walking on the highest and longest treetop walkway in the world. At the highest point, you are 45 metres above the ground and the walkway is two kilometres long. It wobbles and shakes and Kate had some overcoming of fear to do before embarking on it. Overcome, she did. It was utterly exhilarating. Even then, we didn't reach the full height of many of the trees. When we passed one sign for the walkway, we thought there was a stuffed bird sat on the signpost as a tourist gimmick. Then it moved. We went right up to it and took a photo. It was a Kookaburra. Interestingly, the vast majority of visitors to this sight were Indian. Horses for courses, I suppose...
When we left the Otway treetop walk, we thought that was it for adrenaline for the day. But no. The drive home provided more. There were times when we felt like we were driving the treetop walk. We spent over half an hour driving on small roads over remote mountain passes, surrounded by enormous trees with steep ravines going down sheer to the roadside as we switchbacked our way over a road strewn with the bark which the gum trees shed regularly throughout their lives. We passed two cars. I tried not to imagine the consequences of bashing the car or breaking down in this remote spot.
Eight hours later, we returned home. After a couple of rounds of toast and a cuppa, we hope to watch something on tv to unwind. We had been told that Australian TV isn't great. But last night, they put on Vera. How wrong can you be!!
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I’m with Kate, having a fear of heights, I don’t understand the need to see VERY tall trees from above!
ReplyDeleteGoogle is wonderful thing - found this.
Gibson Steps .
Hugh Gibson, a settler, carved the steps in 1869 to get to his favourite fishing spots. Must have liked fish a lot!