The magic of sea, mountains and roads

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Not poetry, but real experience. True stories from your own life or eyes; All events filled with joy or success or humane, positive or unexpected. Maximum word count is 600. Stay in the country or abroad; Send with name, address, phone number to: [email protected]

My sister, her family and my own son, daughter live in Australia and visit the country occasionally. This time, a trip to the Great Ocean Road was planned on the initiative of the son and daughter-in-law. This sea-going road is 243 kilometers long, located on the south-west coast of the state of Victoria. It is one of the most marine drives in the world. In 1919, soldiers returning from World War I began excavating the road. It took 13 years to complete the work.

Our journey began on a sunny morning in January 2024. Turkey first from Melbourne. The Great Ocean Road starts from here. A little further beyond Torki, one could see vast pastures on both sides of the road. An exhibition of thousands of Australian cows! The car is running at a speed of about one hundred kilometers. And I am watching the peaceful movement of bowers in the vast land, bowing their heads, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups eating their grass.

The car slowed down a bit. We entered the thick forest path. A winding narrow path between the rain forest on both sides. We are going through the trees. Dense green forest has created a canopy of leaves around it. As soon as I rolled down the window of the car, I heard the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and sometimes the chirping of unknown birds.

the game Meet the long-sought-after wide, smooth Great Ocean Road! What a charm; The creation of nature and man! The blue color is falling from the dark blue sky into the blue sea. The song of the sea could be heard.

We reached a small seaside town called Apollo Bay. Beautiful Apollo Beach surrounded by mountains. This beach is best for surfing, hiking, wildlife spotting and drives. Around the beach there are quite a few restaurants for seafood. We sat at a restaurant near the beach. What could be more delicious than steaming fish and chips wrapped in paper by the beach!

Cars are moving along the beach towards other tourist spots. As you can see many beaches along this road, there are specific places for tourists to enjoy the natural beauty. These are locally known as lookouts. Due to lack of time it was not possible to go to every place.

Now where the car is parked, London Bridge is in front of it. I was a little surprised to hear the name London Bridge in Australia. It is a natural stone bridge. A huge mountain pillar in the middle of the sea is its main attraction. The water is flowing through the hill and the top of the hill looks like a bridge, so this hill is named London Bridge. It is however now also known as London Arch.

Just 10-15 minutes from London Bridge is another great tourist spot, the Bay of Islands. Huge limestone pillars stand in the sea surrounded by dense green forests. Big waves have cut the huge mountains into columns! The specialty of these pillars is that their colors are relatively light, so they take on different colors at different times in the sunlight, which is a special attraction for photographers. The calm buried water here is soothing.

Now our destination is the world famous Twelve Apostles, the biggest attraction of the Great Ocean Road. An average of 12,000 tourists flock here every day just to see it. Although they are called the Twelve Apostles, there were never twelve peaks. Earlier there was information about eight peaks, but currently seven peaks are standing in the ocean. Six peaks stand side by side, side by side, another some distance away—alone, depressed. They were originally associated with the mountains. But as a result of sea erosion, the cliffs gradually deviated from the mountains. This rocky beauty is eroding by two centimeters every day due to the conflicting reaction of the rock with the water. Outside the board beautifully explains how these pillars or pinnacles are getting smaller and smaller as a result of seawater erosion.

It’s time to go back. It is as if some artist has spread a mixture of dark red and dark orange colors in the western sky. And the sun is gradually going down through the gap. I was feeling again and again, the beauty of nature that was revealed in front of my eyes today, it is not easy to grasp it with intuition and hold it in my heart.