Aussirose Travel and Photography: The Big Lap

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Ahhh, The 12 Apostles! Well not quite 12 now. Another 'bucket list' adventure.

More about that later.

TIMBOON

I had originally had us staying at Terang, but we drove past Terang and checked out the Caravan Park and it looked too difficult to get in and out of. We also drove through Timboon and went to the Cheesery which was fabulous! See pic below, or check out the full story on my Koroit page.

Timboon is a little dairy town with attractions in and around like the Ice Creamery, Cheesery, Dairylicious Farm Fudge, Chocolate Factory, Berry Farm and it even has a Distillery in the middle of town. Timboon had so much going for it that I changed my mind and we decided to stay at the Recreation Reserve close to town which was only $20 a night.

So we have a fantastic site at the Rec Reserve in Timboon with bush surroundings and backing onto the Golf Course, and Corona just went to the next level. We were feeling vanerable as the Government just shifted the 6 months top up Corona Virus shot from 6 months to 5 and then 4 which meant that we were due for our top up shot. It was also revealed that unless we got this top up shot, we were prone to being affected more severely by the virus. So I got to it and googled and phoned every place I could think of. No doubt thousands of other people were doing the same thing. Finally, I got us into Strathford Medical Clinic a couple of weeks away and in the eastern side of Victoria.

So this meant that for the next almost month, by the time that you add a couple of weeks after the shot to make us fully vacinated ...... this meant that we would be in the southern part of New South Wales around the Bega area. This also meant that we could not enjoy all of these wonderful things to do around Timboon. 😢 ...As well as other places we would have liked to have experienced.

I was looking forward to having lunch and tastings at the Timboon Distillery and also a wine and cheese tasting at the Cheesery. Hubby wanted to have berry pancakes at the Berry Farm.

So sad. 😭

So, we had to be content with going to places that we knew we would have minimal contact with people. 12 Apostles.

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LOCH ARD GORGE

Timboon is only 15 minutes from the coast, the closest town being Port Campbell. Port Campbell is a pretty little town coastal tourist village with lots of accommodation, gift shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants. Our plan was to see bits and pieces of the Great Ocean Road whilst basing ourselves a bit inland where it is cheaper to stay.

We had already driven the start of the Great Ocean Road from the Caravan Park in Koroit and visited the Bay of Islands which looks similar to the 12 Apostles. So this time we planned to visit Port Campbell and the 12 Apostles.

There are a couple of other things to do here too. The first one being Loch Ard Gorge. We took the track towards Thunder Cave and Sherbrook River. It's 1km round trip easy walk with nice views.

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12 APOSTLES

We decided to visit the 12 Apostles early in the morning in order to avoid the crowds and hopefully get in a nice sunrise.

Well we did avoid the crowds, only being joined by one other photographer who comes here regularly. He showed us a pic that he took one winter of sunrise with the sun burst in between the rocks. An amazing shot!

No sunrise today though. It was just a mass of hazy fog and we had light drizzle so I had to put a plastic bag over the camera for protection. It took a bit of post processing manipulation to reduce the fog a bit and bring out the clarity in the rocks. What do you think?

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GIBSON STEPS

Eric, the other photographer told us about this place and urged us to check it out. The Gibson Steps are only about 200 metres down the road from the Apostles. These steps are built into the side of the rock, an amazing feat in itself. Hubby's virtigo was going through the roof and walking back up almost did us both in. We had to stop near the top and sit down on a bench to catch our breath.

Getting old is not fun. 😕

But is was totally worth it and afforded us some fabulous shots.