Tag: Southern Ocean

T: Twelve Apostles

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The draw card of the Port Campbell National Park is the 12 Apostles. These rock stacks are spectacular popping out of the Southern Ocean. To me they look like they are standing guard over the shoreline. Initially, there were 9 of these rock stacks (never 12 as the name suggests.) However, due to the violent treacherous waves of the area, 2 have disappeared forever into the ocean. The first time our family visited was 20 years ago and there was a seal swimming around one of the rock stacks. The kids called him Sammy and would often talk about him.

Today the whole area looks very different. It is now a very large tourist attraction with a lot of development to really make the most of the natural beauty of the area and support tourism. The 12 Apostles are so internationally renown that the visitors centre is the first place in Australia that I saw an Asian style toilet. As we visited in the week that Australia opened its international borders again the tourist were slowly coming back.

C: Cape Otway Lightstation

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Described as Australia’s most significant lighthouse, Cape Otway Lightstation is full of history. It includes not just the lighthouse but also the surrounding buildings and areas. It is Australia’s oldest lighthouse.

Built where Bass Strait meets the Southern Ocean it was sailors first contact with Australia. Actually is was also their first contact with land since leaving their departure port. This was also a very dangerous area. To travel around mainland Australia there was a very narrow opening of 84 kilometres known as the Eye of the Needle. This is between Cape Otway and Cape Wickham on King Island. Captains who misjudged this space ended up shipwrecked.

The photos below were taken from the top of the old lighthouse. We could walk all the way around however when on the southern side over the ocean we thought we would be blown off. The wind gusts were huge so we could get a real sense of how hard and isolating it would have been.

The above photo gives an indication of how amazing the old stone work was in the lighthouse.

Cape Otway lightstation included a telegraph station. Built in 1859 it was the first attempt at linking communication between mainland Australia and Tasmania. After this failed it began communication with every ship’s captain that passed Cape Otway. It’s task was to separate the healthy and unhealthy ships before they landed in Melbourne.

Another hidden aspect of the area during World War 2 was a radar bunker. It was so secret that when it informed about an enemy vessel it wasn’t believed. I love finding these surprising stories of our history on our travels.

Unfortunately during our visit we were told that this amazing piece of Australian history is to be sold. Let’s hope common sense changes the government’s mind.

O – Oceans

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I love spending time staring at the ocean. It relaxes me and reminds me how vast the world really is. Over my life I am excited to have seen the top 4 of the 5 oceans of the world which in ranked order are:

  1. Pacific
  2. Atlantic
  3. Indian
  4. Southern
  5. Arctic

Growing up I lived 20 minutes from the Pacific Ocean on the east coast of Australia and loved going to the beach. Whether it was for a swim, to build a sandcastle or go for a walk give me the opportunity and I would be there. When I was 16 I traveled across Australia and got to lookout and swim in the Indian Ocean. I remember this experience began to give me a sense of how big the world’s oceans were. Then in 2000, just as it was officially recognised as an ocean, I was able to look out across the Great Australian Bight onto the Southern Ocean. I remember thinking that at this point that there was nothing between me and Antarctica, which felt very special.

Then in November 2014, the next stage of my ocean journey was revealed, as from the coast of Newfoundland I saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. She was beautiful even in winter and the thing that disappointed me the most was that although it wasn’t far from St Johns, we couldn’t get to the most easterly point of Canada because it was winter. Personally, I would have loved to have stated that I had been to and possibly even dipped my toe in, the most easterly point of Canada as well as Australia.

One of these days I plan on completing the last two goals of my world ocean journey list — to lookout over the Arctic and to cruise across the Atlantic following a similar journey to the Titanic. I don’t know about you but for me the following Jacques Cousteau quote is definitely true. What do you think?

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