The Great Ocean Road Part 2
Trip Start
Nov 27, 2010
1
50
99
Trip End
Dec 12, 2011
Torquay, Victoria, Australia
Friday, April 15, 2011
Although there was a little rain in the air, we decided to take the Madsens Track Nature Walk, which takes about 35 minutes, mainly because I wanted to see the 'Big Tree' which was over 300 years old. The sign neglected to mention that the so-called 'Big Tree’ appeared to have gone horizontal quite some time ago and would more accurately be described as the ‘Big Stump!".
In amongst the rainforest was the Otway Fly Treetop Walk which seemed like it would be a worthwhile place to stop off. The treetop walk is a 1 hour rainforest walk approximately 2km in length but is 30m up from the forest floor, right up the treetops. It’s the longest and tallest walkway of its type in the world and Nic was a little apprehensive to say the least! Along the walk through the walkway is the kids Prehistoric Path – where model dinosaurs appear around every corner. The kids were loving it but I couldn’t get Nic to pose with any.
The treetop walk itself was pretty special, there is something cool about being up at the top of a forest. Looking down at the forest floor, like so many other places we’d seen in Australia, there was a real Jurassic Park feel, especially with the large Ferns. The Spiral Stair on one of the platforms was a highlight, at 45m high we were right at the top of the canopy and free to look over at the top of the forest. The sheer height made Nic a little uneasy but not as much as the Springboard. The Springboard was a platform at the end of one of the walkways that sways gently in the tree canopy when people rock from side to side. I was loving it but Nic made sure she watched from a safe distance.
One thing which we hadn’t seen, but were definitely hoping to, were some Koalas. We knew that they should inhabit the region that we were in and we hoped we would be able to spot some from the car. As soon as we started passing the yellow road signs to beware of them, Nic had her gaze fixed upwards at the trees looking for the little guys. As we were driving through another stretch of national park a little further down the road Nic suddenly scream "There’s one!” so I pull over the car and we step out to take a closer look. And it was! Just perched on a branch not doing all that much was our first Koala!
The further we went down the road the more koalas seemed to appear in the trees and we could stop off and count them. I think we had about 7 or 8 above our heads at one point, not doing all that much admittedly but it’s still awesome to see them in the wild.
After a lengthy amount of time watching the Koalas we got back into the car to complete the final leg of the Great Ocean Road. With arguably the best actual ‘road’ of the trip so far, we were hugging the coast line and winding around the cliff faces. As we were driving west to east we were on the cliff side of the road to the better option, for the views at least, would be to travel east to west so as to keep the sea on the cars side of the road.
We passed through the small seaside town of Lorne, which Rudyard Kipling apparently travel through once and it inspired him to write a poem, and after visiting the information centre decided to scale the large hill overlooking the town. After a little climb we made it to the top of the hill to look out over Lorne Bay. We were the only two on the hill side and the wind was definitely rolling down the hill that day. Not much to do except enjoy the panoramic view and then make our way back to the car.
We stopped at a few more lookouts but essentially the rest of the journey was just enjoying the drive along the coast as the daylight ebbed away. Our destination for the night was to be Torquay, which was just 21km South of Geelong and made famous by its surf beaches and is home to some of the world's most famous surf, including Rip Curl and Quiksilver. We found our accommodation for the night and went down the street to grab some fish and chips which, being a seaside town, were lovely and fresh. There was in fact due to be a surfing tournament in the town a few days later but alas we would have departed by the time that started which was a shame.
The very last leg of our journey would take us on to Melbourne and a journey of a couple of hours the following day. Darwin and Adelaide seemed like small cities, what would Melbourne be like?
