Victoria Day 5 - Gloomy Morning at Port Campbell National Park (Gibson Steps & Twelve Apostles)

Assalamualaikum. G'Day Mate.

Fuh! Puh! Sikit lagi ndak jumpa jalan masuk dalam blog ni. Luckily boleh retrieve password. Lama gila tuan rumah berhibernasi kan. Al-maklumlah too content with life (katanye!). 

Memanglah sah janji tinggal janji. In my last few entries (which was 'few' months ago), punya beria menabur janji pahit cerita Victoria bakalan berakhir before 2018 ends. Harapan! Half leg of the trip pun ndak habis lagi sampai sekarang. Trip since 2015, tapi masih gigih kan mau continue update. Macam rugi pula kalau stop on Day 4 jak. Cerita gantung; bilang orang Sabah. Plus takutlah kenangan indah terlupa-kan. 

Aku memang sejenis suka lepak blog sendiri (kategori syok sendiri tiada berpenghujung) & baca past entries. Mengimbau wei! Juga untuk bagi sedar diri betapa aku ni bertuah; Allah bagi peluang explore dunia luar. Sebab memang terlalu selalu terjun fasa kufur nikmat. Sobs! 

Ok intro berjela as usual. Kasi chance lah kan lama ndak menulis.

Previous post (here).

29 July 2019

That night, I drove along the Great Ocean Road (GOR) for nearly an hour before we reach our accommodation. Sekali sekala nampaklah kereta lain but most of the time, rasanya macam kami jak atas jalan. Masuk jam kedua driving, si Err rasa ngantuk. Mula lah give up mau drive bila tengok GPS; meaning motel jauh lagi. Terus keluar idea mau walk in any guesthouse/motel yang banyak tepi-tepi jalan tu. Signboard jak banyak tepi jalan, the guesthouse actually nun di atas bukit. Samar-samar cahaya nampak dari jalan raya. Surrounded by big trees. 

Come to think of it now, memang sebiji scene horror movie. A group of ladies suddenly jadi bijak & decided untuk tidur di guesthouse yang spooky. Tengah lena tidur, dum dum pintu kena ketuk. Sekali buka, orang bawa chainsaw mau kerat kau & your friends. Erk?!

Aku memang ndak fikir apa masa suggest tu. Yalah sebab aku ngantuk+penat kan. Tapi minah berdua tu tengok aku silih berganti, pastu geleng serentak. Without saying a word. Pehal? Gitu! Sebab aku masih belum dapat tangkap maksud gelengan serentak diorang tu. Nasiblah diorang setegas alam reject idea aku. Else, ada yang bertukar jadi Bella malam tu. Tiberr!

Then, Ms G offered to take over the wheels. Syukur! Tapi bingai muncul. Once turun pangkat jadi co-pilot, automatik mata aku membuntang. Segar bugar, ndak ngantuk. Apalagi, aktiviti paksaan melayan lagu Big Bang bermula. Pasrah jaklah minah berdua tu. Mau tune in local radio station, frequency undetected. Dari bosan dengar angin, baguslah layan lagu. Oklah tu dari aku tukar status jadi 'penyanyi'. Ndak bernanah telinga?

30 July 2015

Port Campbell

Pagi ni bangun dengan semangat. Sebab diri telah menginjak umur baharu. Bless Double Three Bie (tu dia, 4 tahun ke belakang!). Tulah main idea trip Down Under ni pun. Kunun mau ikut jejak langkah si DJ, almost every year trip tiup lilin luar Malaysia katanye. 

Lepas breakfast, kami packing siap-siap. Sebab terus check-out & ndak kembali ke motel ni lagi. Alhamdulillah the night before tidur nyenyak sekalian minah Sabahan. Dengkur bersahut-sahutan; confirmed! 

Aku & Ms H ambil tugas susun barang dalam kereta sebab kami siap awal. Another long journey today, kalau main campak-campak jak barang kesianlah sama penumpang di belakang. Gitu jiwa concern. Masa tu baru perasan, main switch for car heater tu off. No wonder masa drive semalam, albeit banyak kali adjust level heater...tetap al-sejuk al-dingin dalam kereta. Perangai pegawai JPJ betul semua, gigih off-kan main switch. SOP sangat hah! 

Sebab masih awal, pekan Port Campbell masih sunyi. So we decided to check out the National Park first. Ndak sabar tengok laut sebab last night mampu dengar deruan ombak cuma. 

#1 Because we arrived super late the night before, we only managed to take picture of this signboard the next day

#2 Self check-in for late arrival last night. Easy peasy sebab sudah buat payment prior coming tu yang diorang tinggal note & kunci jak

#3 It was a nice motel (complete with everything we needed), unfortunately we only spent a night here. Itinerary membunuh semua mau diterjah, gitulah

Gibson Steps

First point of attraction we went was Gibson Steps. It is an area of cliffs on the south coast of Australia. Said to be the first sightseeing stopoff in the National Park.

#4 Its name refers to the staircase leading down to the stretch of beach. We didn't get down though because we're still not ready for any leg stretching activity. Dasar pemalas kan masing-masing 

#5 From the cliff, we could see some of the limestone stack

#6 As Gibson Steps is only a couple of minutes away from the famous Twelve Apostles, I reckoned those stacks are among the Twelve

#7 Strong wind, gloomy skies welcomed us that morning. Pun gagah mau posing

Twelve Apostles

Next destination, one of the highlight for our Port Campbell's itinerary. 

"The famous Twelve Apostles magnificent rock stacks that rise up majestically from the Southern Ocean on Victoria's dramatic coastline. They were created by constant erosion of the limestone cliffs of the mainland beginning 10-20 million years ago! The stormy Southern Ocean & blasting winds gradually eroded the softer limestone forming caves in the cliffs; which eventually became arches. When they collapsed, rock stacks up to 45 metres high were isolated from the shore. And called Apostels"

It was already drizzling when we're about to leave Gibson Steps. And heavy rain came not long after. Terpaksalah tiga wanita jelita melepak dalam kereta. Layan mata & anganan while waiting for the rain to stop. Masa ni hujan main peek-a-boo gitu. Kejap lebat, kejap renyai, kejap stop, kejap hujan lagi. 

#8 Sejenis comel. Road trip naik van macam ni memang best. Rasanya minah-minah Saleh tu tidur dalam ni

#9 Burung camar terbang menghiasi awan

#10 Underground passage from the car park to Twelve Apostles viewing area

#11 Note the 2 red arrows (the underground passage in picture #10) 

Basically memang kena walkertapaki sikit dari parking area. Explained why we have to wait for the rain to stop completely because there's no shelter that we could run to should it rain again. 

#12 Bukan selalu sampai, jadi marilah abadikan kenangan (kataku!)

#13 Memang semata-mata route macam ni, hujan kalu terus bermemori daun pisang lah kau di situ

#14 No blue skies for beautiful view like the ones I always see in the internet. Redha, sudah menjejak ni pun harus bersyukur

# 15 Akhirnya, my very own picture of the Apostles

As I went there 4 years ago, I don't know how they look like now. Some said, the erosion worsened the shape of the stacks. And I read somewhere, ada few stacks sudah rebah ke laut. 

#17 Ones of His many magnificent creations

#18 Yang sentiasa berzikir padaNya 

#20 Incomplete group photo; Mak Jemah minus two

#21 Alhamdulillah ada orang mau tolong ambilkan gambar. Maybe kesian tengok kami ber-handpod terpaksa take berkali-kali (almaklum ahli expert ndak join)

#22 Rasa habis comel lah tu posing gitu. Layan jaklah (burpday kan??!!)

#23 Bila kau rendang, kawan kau tripod 

#24 Tengok balik gambar-gambar trip Down Under ni, banyak pula aku selca gini. Salah satu tips untuk effect selimsadisshady

Sudah explore lebih kurang, we made our move to the parking area. It started raining again when we reached our rented car. Nasib sempat masuk, kalau ndak harus kuyup. But the heavy rain lasted for a good 5 minutes. Macam hujan hai-hai-bye-bye. 

Where to next? Jamu perut. Semua kelaparan tiada sempadan sudah. So back to the pekan we went.

#25 To the right, to the right

#26 Port Campbell. Macam pekan hantu pun ada, pekan replika pun iya juga, pekan Roswell pun boleh

#27 Rarely they were people seen here. Ntah-ntah semua dalam building jak, sunlight kills them (suddenly Edward-vibes)

#28 Benda gini pun jadi photoop juga for tourist like us *flip tudung*

Sebenarnya masa sampai Port Campbell ni, most of the shops / restaurants haven't open yet. Still so early according to the gas station attendant at the one-and-only gas station there. In order to kill time, we wandered around the small town. By foot of course. Al-malas cari parking. 

By 10am, baru nampak few cafes letak Open signage outside their shop. Terjah lah tiap yang buka, dengan niat mau cari kek untuk yang naik umur tu. Sebab mau tiup lilin katanye. Choices of cakes adalah tidak berapa menarik di mata si Err (yang sweet tooth itu). And eventually she settled with a cake; yet because it was years ago she forgot its name. Lain kali updatelah lepas 10 tahun ah Bie. 

We decided to dine at this restaurant recommended in TA. Turned out the owner / chef  of the restaurant is also the owner / gas station attendant. Impressed gitu kami bertiga. Multi tasking sungguh kau! 

Apa menu brunch kami? Well, that have to wait until my next entry. Semoga roh rajin masih dalam diri. This is already too long an entry for a warm up after my super long hibernation period. Lebih dari melembutkan jemari sudah ni. 

Till then, wassalam.

eryantierdabdulkarim