12 apostles

Sometimes I can understand why people like to think that teachers have an easy time. All those holidays. Short days. School camps in amazing places. And, as a French teacher, trips to France. I want to add a but to all those things, as teachers do. However, now is not the time, considering I am now on holiday and a week ago I got to spend three days in an incredible part of Victoria.

The Great Ocean Road is an Australian heritage listed stretch of road which runs for 243 kilometres between Torquay and Warrnambool. The road was built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, and is the world's largest war memorial; dedicated to casualties of World War I.

Of greatest tourist appeal are the limestone stacks dubbed the Twelve Apostles in 1922. The formations were originally known as the Sow and Piglets but it was believed the Twelve Apostles had more of a ring to it, despite there only ever being nine stacks.

 This stretch of coastline is also known as the Shipwreck Coast. There are approximately 638 known shipwrecks along Victoria’s coast,although only around 240 of them have been discovered. The Historic Shipwreck Trail along the Shipwreck Coast and the Discovery Coast shows some of the sites where gales, human error and, in some cases, foul play caused these vessels to be wrecked.

 Loch Ard Gorge is the site of possible one of the more cinematic and romantic shipwrecks. The Loch Ard was wrecked at Mutton Bird island after months at sea from England. The only two survivors of the wreck were Eva Carmichael, who survived by clinging to a spar for five hours, and Thomas (Tom) R. Pearce, an apprentice who clung to the overturned hull of a lifeboat. Tom Pearce came ashore first, then heard Eva's shouts and went back into the ocean to rescue her.

A magnificent stand of wind towers dots the coastline near Port Fairy. The Codrington Wind Farm was the first, and at the time of construction, largest wind farm in Victoria. The 34 towers, like sentinels of the coastline, generate 54 GWH annually.

They are an impressive sight and, like much in life, beautiful and mesmerising from a distance, slightly more overwhelming and noisy up close.