Ilgali Inyayimanha (Shared Sky), exhibition Ngurra, South Australian Museum, Adelaide

Ligari Lnyayimnha means sharing the sky

We are all sharing the same sky even if we don’t see the same, our world remain equal for all of us. That’s how Aboriginals explain the differences between civilizations.

I decided to re-name the road trip from “the great adventure” to simply “sharing the sky”, because our trip had been different for each of us, even if we stayed in the same places together.. and we shared the sky

 

Few words about the Ocean Road in Australia

Great Ocean Road is 243 km long and it starts at Tourquay beach (a good surfing spot), and continues about 90km after Port Campbell. All along the way, in order to preserve the beauty of nature that has particularly gifted this part of country, the Australian government created many national parks (some of them are offering “official” campings, but there is a lot of terrain remaining to find a free place to stay for a night)

Some stories about Ocean Road

Just about fifty kilometers after Bell’s beach (see my post about Surfing) you can find a place called Twelve apostles .

The “apostles”, so limestone rocks each of different shape, were formed by erosion and they are progressively disappearing as well because of erosion (the natural cycle of life-death)…

A very important thing to say about Great Ocean Road is that in history it became a source for different stories about people who found themselves here for different reasons and  almost died here… The harsh and extreme weather conditions from the Southern Ocean make this place so beautiful and dangereous at the same time. One of the dramatic stories took place at Loch Ard Gorge, three minutes drive west from Twelve Apostles.

The gorge is named after the clipper ship Loch Ard, which approached the coast on 1 June 1878 . Of the fifty-four passengers and crew, only two survived: Tom Pearce, at 19 years of age and Eva Carmichael, an Irishwoman, both emigrating from England to Melbourne. According to memorials at the site, Tom was washed ashore, and rescued Eva  from the water after hearing her cries for help. ( she survived mostly because Tom gave her some brandy to warm her). They were both exhausted but after a few hours of sleep, Tom started to climb out of the gorge and happily he quickly found local pastoralists who immediately came to rescue Eva as well.

Another story took place at the London Bridge – a part of the cliff renamed this way after a big erosion accident from 1990. The rock collapsed before the eyes of two people and trapped the couple for a few hours at this newly created island, until helicopter came to rescue them.  The cliff  looks today indeed a little bit like a bridge (you can judge yourself from the picture).

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 First impressions from our Road Trip

I decided to participated to very spontaneous project that became sincerely one of the best adventures in my life. It was all except BORING!

Our first place to stay on the road was a free camping, just near to a place called “Devil’s kitchen” (don’t know why:)

 

 

We found ‘Wrecks beach”our perfect place to have a dinner and then a sunset was of course amazing, like always.. it is probably the nature’s one of the best spectacles :

Going sleep and waking up  at the cliff and hearing little rain dropping on the tent,  listening to every wave crashing into rocks just behind my back were probably one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had in my life.