Day 20 – Cape Otway.

A bit of an interesting night.  The group across the road, didn’t end up being as bad as expected.  The group beside us made up for them.  In the end they were both better than we feared.

After breakfast we figure we’ll drive to Cape Otway and the lighthouse.  There is a caravan park not far from there that seems OK.  We’re still working out what to do. As we leave it’s clear the group opposite are leaving.  That’s something.

We drive to Cape Otway, there is a sign that the lighthouse is closed, fine our plan wasn’t to go for a tour anyway.  We arrive at the carpark, there are quite a few cars here, but no Lighthouse.  It’s not just the tours that are closed, it’s the whole headland that’s closed, you can’t see the lighthouse at all.   You can do a walk to “distant views of the lighthouse” this is pretty crap, there would be two dozen cars here, and I doubt any of them drove all this way to do a walk to “Distant Views”  This should have been clearer.   It’s the signature icon for this area and you can’t walk in and see the damn thing.

Leaving we drive by the other van park, it’s kinda cute, but it will probably only be for 1 night and the road in was pretty hilly and narrow, and it’s not like we can see the lighthouse in the morning.    So it’s unlikely we’ll move here tonight.

We hit the main road again, we’re only 20 odd KM from Apollo Bay, we really need fuel, so we’ll head that way.    Along the road we see a sign to “Mait’s Rest”, which is this fantastic short rainforest walk.    

Finally into Apollo bay, Fuel up and we have some lunch at a place called “Georges”, then the kids have a play in the park on the foreshore.    As we now have service, we look up the campground online, almost all the sites around us are available to book, so that must mean both groups will have left by the time we get back.   The weather was meant to be raining, but the forecast is now better than expected.   Bugger it, we’ll stay another night at Aire River, then move onto around Lorne and have two nights, rather than one, there.

Being one who does not like to take the same road twice, and the fact that we’ll be back on this road in a day’s time we decide to take the top road back to the van.  We drive through to Skenes Creek, then turn inland towards a place called Forrest.   Eventually the signs tell us to turn off towards Beech Forest on a Road call “Turton’s Track”, the road has a barrier that can be closed and a sign that says “No Caravans or Coaches”, Mmmm.   This is one of the narrowest and windy sealed roads I can every recall.  The speed limit is 40kp/h . On a couple of occasions we come across oncoming traffic and we both stop to a crawl and twice I elected to pull the dumbo mirrors in to make it easier.  A little over halfway we need to pull over as everyone is feeling a little “green”.   The bad section ends up only being about 10-15km long and we pass through the gate at the other end and the road starts getting better.   Shortly we turn off this road down a forestry road to the falls.  Past a forestry vehicle, then a second one that indicates for us to stop “I’ve got a wide load coming through, can you pull over on the next straight” that might have been the case, but this huge truck with a larger excavator on the back is just about to barrel around the corner.  I’ll get off the road right where I am.

Into the tiny carpark for the falls and it is packed, where the hell did all these people come from?   We start the walk down to the falls, it becomes clear pretty quickly that a lot of steps are going to be involved in this walk (198 the kids count on the way out).   At the end of the track is this small platform, maybe 4 x 4 mts, and there maybe 10 or more people here so it feels more than a bit cosy. Most people are pretty polite about taking turns to get a good photo without the crowd, then there are just the selfish P*%&$ks that don’t give a stuff about anyone else here too.   The falls are pretty sensational and we find that the falls are on the Aire River, which from here drop about 500mts to the sea where we’re staying. We slowly walk back out, with lots of stops to look at the sensational views (and to rest our legs)

We drive back through Beech Forest, a place Justine recalls being, many years ago.  Through Lavers hill, still no diesel, and this time we take the right turnoff in and come in from the west. 

As we enter the campground we can see both earlier groups have gone.  Another group is starting to setup next to us, but we just get the immediate feeling these will be OK.

We all take a trip over to the toilets, and on the way back Justine is looking in the trees for these Red and Blue birds, then right in front of us in this tree hanging over the carpark is this Koala!   To say a bit of excitement overcame us is a bit of an understatement.   This is the first one the kids have seen in the wild, and the first one Justine and I can remember seeing in decades.   Unlike in Zoos where most Koalas seem to be in a coma, this one seems pretty animated and is have a great feed.  Grabbing at branches and tucking into the leaves.  We watch him for ages.    On another trip a bit later, Justine and Caitlin actually seem him jump from one branch to another.

We take a walk to the bridge and the water is so calm you can see the reflection of the hills.

We leave the firepit next to us to the new group, and we use the one across the track.   I get it going while Justine gets dinner ready.    We’re just about to sit down and it starts to rain, not heavy, but consistent and soon it’s obvious it going to be too wet to have a fire.   I rescue a couple of large bits of wood I’ve just put on for use another day and we retreat inside.

The rain only lasts about 20min then stars and a clear sky, crap!   So much for getting it going early…..

3 Replies to “Day 20 – Cape Otway.”

  1. Beautiful photo of Caitlin………..I’m guessing that’s Justine’s work? How fabulous that you saw the

    koala! Amazing…….shame about your fire.

    Hugs

    Pauly x

  2. Oh, oh, oh much excitement a “wild” koala, you were so lucky.
    I would love to be wandering in the rain forest and going down to the falls, well worth the walk. The kids were well rugged up, looks like it was cold there.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *