The ship lands, lightning strikes the night. The air is filled with foam blown in the bed of the wind. After three months of sailing between England and Melbourne, the Loch Ard clipper wrecked ashore. The death toll is high, 52 dead and a sad record for the country’s deadliest shipwreck.
Ever since that night in June 1878, the erosion has been at work. A deep limestone recess, Loch Ard Gorge, now hides a rather deserted beach. A tribute to this sunken boat and its only two survivors, a sailor and a young passenger, whom we will romance. The morning calm gives way, 3 kilometers to the east, to a stream of travelers gathered in front of the Twelve Apostles, an iconic image of Australia’s far south-east. The pythons escaped from the cliff, torn by sand, waves and spray. The Needle digs antipodes.
It is along this coast, so jagged that one would hardly be surprised by the number of shipwrecks there, that Agatha Christie…
Source: Le Figaro
