This is the fourth of a eight parts series. Check out the others Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 5, Day 6,Day 7, Day 8.
Calling it blandly a 'road' gives it an impression of a tame pathway, even with the 'Great' tacked on to it. It was more than just a path and it was to take us on a wonderful journey. In retrospect and in a much Anne Shirley-ish way I'd like to rename it the Brown Way of Delight!
This road (I have to use this generic for want of a better one) has a multitude of little stops along the way - usually they are lookout points offering a grand (and sometimes not so grand) view of the Southern Ocean, or they are little paths leading to little beaches or they lead the way to some historic spot.
The first turn we took brought us to the Split Point Lighthouse at a little town called Airey's Inlet. If we had a helicopter, maybe we could've seen the 'split point' for ourselves I believe. As it is, we just saw this medium sized light house. Nearby in the sea, there were huge rock formations - one of them named the Table Rock and the other, Eagle Rock.
Walking back, we came upon a Tea Room which displayed handwritten notices that they serve light meals as well. So in we went. It was a cottage converted into an eatery. Tables and chairs were laid in the garden amidst rose bushes and other flowering plants. We entered inside to place our order and the room we entered into must have been the kitchen. What I presumed to be a family consisting of a mother, father and a grown up son were in charge of the place.
It was particularly delightful to sit in that homely surroundings and munch on delicious sandwiches.
I have to pass lightly over the various stops we made at various 'scenic lookout' points. To say it in a line - they offered scenic view of the ocean. Oh, how lame that sounds! I'm hampered by not having words powerful enough to describe the beauty the actual view offered.
Into every ointment, a fly must fall. And in ours, not one but hordes of flies fell. At every stop, once we were out of the car, about a million friendly flies came to greet us. And what an effusive greeting it was! They were everywhere at once - any part of us which was not covered were claimed by the flies as their dancing ground. I'm sure we presented a comical sight to the other travellers - waving our hands about and doing all sorts of gyrations to remove the flies from our persons - had the other travellers time enough to stop their gyrations to take a look at us!
A beautiful river (the Cumberland River), a not-so-beautiful falls (Erskine Falls) and a scenic lookout spot with a cute name (Teddy's Lookout) were visually taken in by us next. Then it was onward for the most famous of them all - The Twelve Apostles. Man, they totally deserve those capitals. The geography lesson is in that Wikipedia article. All I have to offer in addition is one huge 'WOW'.
And it was between the Apostles and the Loch Ard Gorge nearby, we played pendulums. After the apostles, we took ourselves off to see the Gorge, making a mental note to be back to see the sunset with the Apostles. If I ever have a 'Things to see before I die' list, I can now blissfully put a tick next to 'Watch sunset with the Apostles'. It was definitely worth more than the drive back from the Gorge.
After the sunset, we drove again to the Gorge because the beach there stuck snugly between the humungous rocks was too attractive to be missed. After dipping our feet in that ice cold water, we scrambled up and drove back (again) to the Apostles to find a place to stay the night.
After some search, we finally chanced upon the romantically named Summer's Rest near the Port Campbell town. We caught the Filipino owner eagerly watching the final minutes of an Australian Open game - and were thankful for her interest in tennis without which she would've gone home earlier locking the place up!
She suggested we hie ourselves at the blink of an eye to the town if we wanted to see any trace of dinner. Hie we did. And entered Waves just before they closed the doors. The harried waiter firmly told us that the only thing he can get us late comers will be Veg Curry or Chicken Curry with Rice and Dahl. (Not Dal or Dhal. Dahl).
We happily couldn't believe our ears. We never expected to be presented with our good old rice, dal (though it was Dahl) and curry in a tiny Australian town. If the waiter thought we would be disappointed at not getting the more exotic fares at Waves, he was sadly mistaken!
The simple but nice meal was over and we were back to our refuge for the night - a cute and cheerfully appointed apartment with all necessary comforts packed in that single room. With that, the fourth day came to a rest at Summer's Rest.
The morrow was to bring us penguins, a long drive, a ferry ride and night halt at a Bed & Breakfast, the likes of which we had never seen before. And that is in the next post.
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