Great Ocean Road Trip 2014

Day 2

Apollo Bay - Maits Rest - Cape Otway - Melba Gully - Lavers Hill - Triplet Falls - Marengo - Apollo Bay

"Starfish...were meant to fly...." Ok a little ad lib for this one!

Today we swapped thongs for hiking boots. The weather continued to be cloudy and it was in fact a good day to be exploring the Great Otway National Park.

We left Apollo Bay heading toward the Cape Otway lighthouse stopping basically whenever we saw something interesting. Our first stop was at Maits Rest where we walked an 800m round track and we immersed ourselves in temperate rainforest the minute we left the car park. Tall timbers and large sprawling ferns cover the landscape here and the temperature dropped quickly. Smaller ferns cover most ground level and fallen timber here.

From there we drove onto the Cape Otway point and out to the lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1848 and is the oldest lighthouse on mainland Australia. It was in operation continually until 1994 when modern GPS and satellite took over. It even has its own ghost - The lady in Grey who often visits the area. In WW2 its grounds housed a radar station (still there) to help track German Minelayers off the coast. Lovely views from the top out 180 degrees of cliff edge and coastline.

From the lighthouse we backtracked the Cape Otway Lighthouse Road and lucky we did as we saw about 10 koalas in the gum trees as we drove back. I've never seen a koala colony in the wild before so it was great to see so many all together.

We drove on to Lavers Hill where the temperature dropped to 11 degrees and the hungry hoards don't mind paying $6 for a meat pie! Lucky they were good gourmet ones too so it was only the price we had to grumble over! May as well have been at the cricket or at ANZ stadium for those prices .

Back in the warmer Disco we drove out to Melba Gully to look at a tree that had a supposedly 27 metre girth. Well we found the tree - it fell down in 2009 and left a massive hole in the landscape -but there was no way it was 27m! We found a much bigger one about 50m further along the track that had again fallen down that you could basically walk into and see way out the other end. Melba Gully was named after Dame Nellie in the 1920s and used to house several tea houses. Today it is just a picnic spot - again with the temperate rainforest.... and a shrunken tree!?

From Melba we drove onto Triplet Falls where we walked the 2k round trip out through gum trees that tower over 100m above you - and lots of them too! We were in awe as to how wide these trees were and how tall. Some are dated back over 300 years old - and still growing!

The Triplet falls themselves are lovely. They have a constant water supply as well.

From Triplet, we meandered our way back through the now misty rainforest drive on skinny wet roads, twisting and turning all the way back down the escarpment towards the Great Ocean Road. The narrow road seems to continue forever whilst you are ensconced by the overpowering rainforest all around you.

We came out of our spiral at Skeenes Creek and drove on the 5ks into Apollo Bay to refuel.

We wandered the shopping strip at Apollo Bay and then went back to the van to rearrange our travel schedule (now the Grampians are mostly blackened) and to think about dinner.

Our itinerary sorted, we drove a short distance west to Marengo which has hundred of rock pools on a large rock platform next to the beach. We all spent about an hour poking around the rock holes. The kids found lots of pretty starfish and sea urchins to collect and play with in the crystal clear waters.

Fish and chips was decided for dinner and so it was then back to Apollo Bay for dinner followed by a walk along the beach and play in the water.

"Training" is apparently back on again on the morning so Cayla says - so we'll be over the road for a run and swim first up. Cayden is adamant he is going for a body board too.

We will pack up in the morning and re-drive some of our travels today as we head for Port Campbell tomorrow night.