How many Apostles?

One of the most famous and most visited parts of the Great Ocean Road is the Twelve Apostles. These are small but tall rocks out from the mainland that they were once part of. And no there isn't 12 of them. There never was. I think there's 8 or 7. Plenty of bus loads of tourists stop here to take photos. They do look impressive but it's all subjective. I thought other parts of the coast looked better. The rocks used to be called the Pig and Sows. This didn't sound to great so for marketing purposes they came up with the new poetically licensed name of the 12 apostles. It worked too. Huge amounts of people visit here daily whereas other parts of the gorgeous coastline are totally empty.
By the way, at this point we were in another Australian state, Victoria. The slogan for this state is 'The place to be'. For once it actually seems to ring true. The tourism machine is well organised and the places we've been are great.
On we go through a few towns. Notably we stop at a nice place called Aireys Inlet. Every town we visit we're told to visit the lighthouse, being the shipwreck coast it's unsurprising that they all have lighthouses. But the one at Aireys was a bit different. One because it was in excellent condition but mainly because it featured in an odd children's TV show I used to watch when I was a kid, 'Around the twist'. The place and the beaches along both sides were nice places to be and a real friendly town with locals saying hello to us on their way back from the pub and so on.
Just before Aireys is the most photographed stretch of the road which was the main part that was actually right near the ocean. It was a really good drive, it looked even better for all the sports cars and motor bikes. Thankfully, everyone was heading the opposite way to us and it looked really busy, it's supposed to be worse in summer.
We pulled up at great photo opportunity spot and were joined by a group of hippie-type dudes that pulled up in their campervan with music, the doors, blaring out and cans of beer falling from the inside. It was like the 1960's all over again, I presume. Beards everywhere, superb.
We took in a couple of waterfalls and forest walks along the way to Torquay, the home of Australian surfing. This is where Rip Curl and Quicksilver are based and were founded. It's also home to the longest running annual world surf contest at Bells Beach. We went to take a look at the point where the serious surfers do their thing. I was dying to have a go, until I saw Winki Pop(?). This is the name of the rocky point where the main surfing goes on. It´s a rocky point to say the least and surfers have a walk over slippery harsh rock to get out to the surf. It looked pretty shallow too, black rock just beneath the surface. Not for the likes of me.
Be we did get out surfing for the first time in Oz just round the corner at Front Beach. It was amazing. I had the waves to myself and the beach was fairly quiet. The water was see-through and the sun was glorious in an unclouded sky. Shame the water was absolutely freezing but the wetsuits we hired were really good. A cracking day.
We also got to look round the surf museum in Torquay, which was really cool in itself. Another classic Aussie quote came from the guy at the surf hire shop when I asked where all the Aborigines where in Victoria. He said, 'Ah we killed them all years ago'. He was a nice guy though and I think some Australians are slightly embarrassed by their history. He also, as he told us, got some stick in Sydney for looking like an Italian or Greek, which he did but it does show there's still a bit of an issue for non true-blue Aussies(as they are called). More of that soon.
I really liked Torquay though. Surf shops everywhere, although non cheap like I'd presumed!
So we leave surf central and head to Geelong, the official end of the Great Ocean Road. The road has been a great experience and definitely worth a visit. I think I'll go back and do it the other way. There's loads to see and loads of great walks and, when I go back and hire a bike, cycle tracks. A beautiful place. The place to be.