Home thoughts from abroad is a new series on Travel Words featuring a single photograph that reminds me of a country visited and showing something that uniquely identifies it as being ‘abroad’.
You might be forgiven for mistaking this image for a beach in Cornwall. It certainly looks like the Bedruthan steps. But it isn’t. These two stacks are part of the “Twelve Apostles” along the Great Ocean Road in southern Victoria, Australia. Sadly there are only 8 of these left now, the ninth having collapsed dramatically in July 2005. I was there in March 2000. To get an idea of the epic scale of this place from the wide beach below follow the Gibson Steps 70 metres down the cliff face to the sand, where you’ll be literally dwarfed by a gigantic rock stack.
TRAVEL WORDS 
Impressive indeed, but I would have to have been told it was Australia. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete. x
Could be anywhere that experiences stormy weather!
It could equally well be a scene in the Algarve, Jude, but not today. It’s a grey one. We were painting up on the terrace and a compulsory coffee break has arisen while the shower passes over 😃😃
I recall those types of stacks along the western Algarve beaches.
Beautiful image, Jude. Sadly I didn’t see the 12 Apostles when I visited Australia in 2004. I’m even sadder now knowing that one collapsed a year later.
Time for another visit perhaps?
I would LOVE to go back to Australia. Sigh.
I need to return. Missing my little grandsons and they grow up soooo quickly.
Come baaaaaaaack! I’ll drive you to the Twelve Apostles myself! 🙂
omg – wouldn’t that be amazing?!!
Totally!
I knew immediately where you were for this photo, Jude. Even though there are fewer now, the Apostles are a magnificent sight, especially on a beautiful day like this.
It was a lovely trip from Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians and back to Melbourne. Those steps were quite something though! Luckily I was a lot fitter then!
It’s hard to imagine something like that collapsing isn’t it?
Seeing how high the waves get around here in the winter months I am not at all surprised, the cliffs on the north coast of Cornwall are continually being eroded.
The winds along the Great Ocean Road come straight from the Antarctic and must whip that ocean up. Water erosion just wears away anything in its path.
Predictably, I knew exactly where this is. 🙂 Did you know there are actually five more stacks but they’re under the water about 6km from the shore?
I did not know this. So does this indicate how far the coastline has been eroded?
I don’t completely understand the process. They’re about 60,000 years old. Here’s a news piece on it: https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-10/hidden-apostles-found-underwater-off-great-ocean-road/7234906
It’s pretty amazing. Might also be a tourist option when the last of the above water ones collapses. 😉
Better start building that submarine then H. You’ll make a fortune.
These remind me of formations I saw in New Zealand last year
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2017/06/02/new-zealand-three-faces-of-te-hoho/
and also of some in New Brunswick this year:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2018/07/06/hopewell-rocks/
Now that you’ve alerted us to the Twelve Apostles (minus a few), I’d like to visit them, too.
Stacks with trees growing on top are even more amazing!
Wonderful, get a real sense of their size from this.