We arrived in the area with the 12 Apostles by mid morning with grey skies, shower squalls flowing in from the ocean
There's a platform to view the Apostles west along the coast. The scenery really is amazing.
The 12 Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park & coastline, right next to the Great Ocean Road.
They were named 12 Apostles in the 1920's even though there were only 9 stacks. Now there's only 8 stacks & with erosion more will collapse like the last 1 did in 2005.
Most of the stacks are approximately 50 m high, the same height as the limestone cliffs on the coast line.
The forces of the powerful waves of the Southern Ocean forms caves, the caves become larger to form bridges & eventually the land form will separate from the mainland forming an island & eventual stack.
The rate of erosion is approximately 2cms per year.
Firstly that's the coast to the east just before the 12 Apostles - called Gibson Steps..
That small piece of rock in the water in the foreground is what's left of the 9th Apostle. As you can see a couple of the stacks are diminishing in size. The weather is very windy with rain squalls rolling into the coast. We get a little wet despite wearing a rain jacket.
Out of curiosity we decided to walk into the building where the helicopter flights base their office for bookings to check on the cost of the flights. We could see that the sky was clearing somewhat & there was a flight free in 15 mins time & the cost fitted our budget, so we booked ourselves for a joy flight.
We took the 25 min flight & we were blessed to have the clouds clear a little more before our flight started.....what luck.
As I had the camera, I took the front seat.
Wow, the scenery is stunning in the air. I must have taken more than 200 photos.
The flight takes us down to the Bay of Islands about 45 kms to the west along the coast.
For the cost of our tickets, we also received a video of the trip as per what can be seen on that screen.
After we landed the weather was still clear enough with short periods of sunshine for us to take another walk back to the viewing platform for clearer views of the 12 - 8 Apostles.
At the front of the information building at the 12 Apostles was a guide for the other attractions along the coast towards the Bay of Islands.
As we drive the route, I take photos of each of the attractions for descriptions of each.....so there's no need for more words...........just enjoy the views too.
Some of the London Bridge has broken due to erosion.
Wow what an amazing day we had, 1 of the most scenic packed days we've been on since touring Australia in 2011.
