Saturday, April 29, 2017

Cape Otway


Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Love the cabin as it poured rain all night and was cold and windy in the morning.  Winter has hit in Australia as the temperature dived to 12 C, but we did have the good fortune of sunny skies everytime we got out of the vehicle.  We headed out to do the Walk and Waterfall driving loop.  Our first stop was at Mait’s Rest, which is a one kilometer hike through rain forest.  Incredible the size of the gum trees.  Their bark strips off and drops to the ground, with a whopping 40 tonnes of biomass falling per hectare per year.  We then drove on to the Otway Bay Lighthouse.  Built in 1840’s, it has been instrumental in preventing disasters at the meeting of the Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean.  Great views from the top of the lighthouse, but breezy and cold with 80 km winds.  We then moved on and drove the loop.  On the way out we had the good fortune of seeing two koala’s in the wild.  The last part of the drive was 20 km through thick rain forest on an exceptionally windy one lane wide road with all blind corners meant for two way traffic.  Glad there were no posted logging trucks on the road, as I have no idea how that would have worked.  Guessing it would better for the logging truck than for our little SUV.  Finally back home and back inside in time for the rain to start again.  The entire drive, whether on the ocean or not, was spectacular.  Unlike other drives (such as the Garden Route in South Africa) that will have a break in the spectacular views, this was not stop amazing.  And we have been told it only gets more spectatular as we move west.  Cannot wait for the drive tomorrow when we hit the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge.


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