Wet weekend, 12 apostles and London Bridge

Further down the GOR now and still taking in some breathtaking rugged landscape, we are getting closer to the 12 apostles. A bunch of limestones stacks that were once attached to Victoria, but due to land erosion, they now stand on their own, close to the shoreline.



At this point it was absolutely chucking it down, however, i still managed to get some good shots.



The last stop off point for our GOR tour was a limestone stack called 'London bridge' (see above), so called because it looked like London Bridge. That was until 1990 when a large section of it collapsed (where the gap is between the land and the stack).

There is an interesting story surrounding this piece of land. Right before it collapsed there was three tourists in the area. An elderly couple and a younger couple. The younger couple had walked right out to the edge of London bridge and the elderly couple had just made it back on land. When the piece of stack collapsed, the young couple had to hang on for their lives when the backwash of the ocean covered them. However they survived.

People in the vacinity rang 000 (emergency services), and explained that "London Bridge had fallen down" - the people who rang in were told to stop wasting emergency service time by making hoax calls. It took so long to get through to the emergency services that this was real, and in the end they sent up a local policeman to check it out. To his disbelief the claims were true and a rescue operation ensued. However, as well as the mobilisation of the emergency services, the press were also called, and the rescue was not to commence until they had arrived (about 4 hours from Melbourne!) All this time the young couple were stranded on this piece of limestone.

When they were eventually rescued by helicopter and the drama had been caught on film, they landed back in the carpark and the press surrounded them looking for an interview. In a strange turn of events, the couple threw their coats over their heads, jumped into their car and drove non-stop back to Melbourne leaving the press people scratching their heads. However, as it turns out, the young couple were supposed to be on a business trip to Adelaide, and they were actually not married to each other, but had been having an affair and a sneaky holiday together!! Where was the false nose and glasses when they needed it??!?!

By the time i had seen this sight, i was soaked right through to my undercrackers, but the wild weather added to the experience of the 'Shipwreck coast', as it is known, and i had a great day. I slept all the way back home to Melbourne and we arrived back in the city at about 9pm.