The 243 km Great Ocean Road in southeastern Australia boasts some of the most beautiful coastal scenery in the world. Photos by Mu Qian / China Daily

 

A trip along the Great Ocean Road in Australia was colder than expected, but a feast for the eyes, Mu Qian discovers.

Setting out for Melbourne in mid-December, from Beijing, I hesitated whether to take my down jacket as I thought it would be sunny Southern Hemisphere weather. I'm glad I did as it rained every day and strolling along Logans Beach in Warrnambool was a chilly experience because of the biting wind.

Shy kangaroos keep a wary eye on humans.

I was told summer would only begin after Christmas in south Australia. As opposed to China, in Australia, the further south you go, the colder it gets.

I was traveling with a group on the Great Ocean Road, a 243 km stretch along the southeastern coast of Australia that is reputed to have some of the most beautiful coastal scenery in the world.

Logans Beach is a good site to spot Southern Right Whales in winter, when females and their calves stay close to shore, but now they were further to the south.

Australia is a haven for wild animals. When we stopped at a picnic site to eat, emus came looking for something too. In the trees, koalas were sleeping - they do so for up to 20 hours in a day - but we also saw one koala walking on the road.

We took a walk into the mountain behind the picnic site and a group of kangaroos watched us from a distance, some with joeys, or baby kangaroos.

This was the first time I had seen kangaroos, though I saw their images everywhere in Australia - souvenir shops, bookstores, and even on the menu of a Chinese restaurant which serves "stewed kangaroo meat with Sichuan spices". Not sure how many people would enjoy that.

Much of the Great Ocean Road is along cliffs composed of limestone and sandstone formed between 10 and 25 million years ago, when it was under the sea. The sea retreated and deep vertical joints formed in the rock. Rainwater and spray percolated down the joints, dissolving the rock and widening the cracks.

The sea advanced again at the end of the last Ice Age, reaching its present level about 6,000 years ago. Since then, waves have been attacking and undermining the rock, thereby producing the cliffs.

We enjoyed Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, the Grotto and London Bridge, but the most famous site on Great Ocean Road is Twelve Apostles, a series of rocky stacks that have been abandoned to the ocean by the retreating headland.

Walking along a timber boardwalk we arrived at the viewing platform for a panoramic view of the "apostles" and the Southern Sea.

Here on the clifftop we could see a great distance into the sea, where waves came into being and ran towards the shore. Those who made it to the cliff were sculpting the next Apostle, which takes thousands of years to finish.

Our group had deliberately arrived at sunset in order to avoid the crowds and we had the sights to ourselves. Dumbstruck by the spectacular view, we were immersed in cosmologic thoughts. It felt like the end of time and space.