The Twelve Apostles, Victoria (36)

Over Christmas 2008, I hiked the Great Ocean Road Walk in Victoria to raise money for the Fred Hollows Foundation. I persuaded two friends, Marisa and Mark, to join me and we set off on Christmas Eve. The walk takes 6 to 7 days and we had to carry all our gear with us (including tents) so our packs were pretty heavy. Mind you, we still managed to fit in a couple of bottles of wine and a few Christmas treats!

The walk takes in some amazing coastal scenery and we were lucky enough to share the first camp (where we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning) with koalas - an animal we don’t see in the wild in WA.

The walk ends at the spectacular Twelve Apostles, giant rock stacks in the Southern Ocean. We reached the end of the walk hot, tired, dirty and hanging out for a cold beer and plate of chips, only to discover that there is no food or drink here, despite the thousands of tourists that visit every day.

The scene in this painting is from a photo I took at the end of the walk. This was my first attempt at using acrylic paints and I found them tricky to use at first as they dry much quicker than oils. It’s interesting to see how the scene evolved as I painted it. I started with the cliff and sand on the right hand side, which are almost abstract, while the sea and the rocks on the left are more realistic.