Bokhara

...and then there were eight. Another of the "12 Apostles" tumbled into the sea today, on the Great Ocean Road.

crazymina

Oh wow...I don't know the apostles so well as to understand how dramatically this changes the landscape, but I hear that this was a "substantial" one. I'll be driving the great ocean road at the end of the month, so this will be quite interesting.

jacketwatch

Can someone explain this to me? I would like to know. Sounds interesting. Thanks, Larry

shandy

Jacketwatch - the 12 Apostles are large rock formations which stick up out of the sea just alongside the Great Ocean Road (they tend to be tall and skinny). There were orignally 12 of them but are now down to 8 after the latest one collapsing - only the base is left.

Crazymina it won't make much difference to how it looks overall - there is not a great deal of difference between 8 or 9 rock formations sticking up. Hope you enjoy your trip along the GOR. Despite it being winter we have had very little rain and quite a number of clear sunny days of late so you might be lucky weatherwise.

jacketwatch

Thank you Shandy.

Brushtail

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...329331508.html

Before and after shots taken by a tourist. Copy and paste the link.

Lyndie

They are actually pretty boring pieces of previous coastline that has not been eroded by the sea. Go for the magic seascape, the winding road,l the lovely little towns. The Apostles are only a part of the magic that is the Great Ocean Road, one of the world's great coastal drives. The other eight will all fall down, sooner or later!

RalphR

Kind of sad to hear this news. We always tend think of rock formations as permanent fixtures. Definitely not the case, especially along this coast. I remember the collapse of another famous GOR feature, "London Bridge", several years ago. In this case a new "apostle" was created in the process.

Being from the northeast of the USA, the event also makes me think of the recent collapse of the Old Man of the Mountain, the great stone profile and symbol of New Hampshire depicted on NH license plates and coins. For years NH did everything it could to prevent the Old Man from falling down the mountain....wires, cables, gutters, seismic detectors. Now it's gone, some silly state officials have proposed replacing it with a plastic or cement replica, afraid of losing tourist dollars. Mmmm...maybe the 12 Apostles and London Bridge could be restored that way.....

Clifton

Mina, the difference it makes probably comes more from knowing what it looked like already, but it was the closest one in relation to the observation deck and stairs most people see them from.

It would be the closest one to this photo:
http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Oce...hoto204222.htm

And I still think I might stop traveling if I were the tourist who traveled around the world, snapped a photo and had a 40 million year old, world famous landmark fall over immediately after.