Day 40

12 March 2013

Today we were day tripping it to do a bit of exploring between Apollo Bay and Johanna.

First headed back to Apollo Bay to the information centre. Got a map and a few tips on the things we could go and see. Had some breakfast in the Main Street and headed towards our first stop which was Mait's Rest Rainforest walk.

This was only 800m return loop and a nice easy walk. The rainforest was really cool, and it was so hot, it was very welcomed that as we headed deeper into the forest it got cooler and cooler. This walk is full of really old trees, 300 years old or more which are HUGE, I don't think I have actually seen trees this big before. They are huge at the stump but also continue that hugeness all the way to the top of the tree. It was an easy walk and met some nice people that congratulated us on going around Australia (why thank you), so overall worth a look.

Next off to Hopetoun Falls which is up a nice rainforesty drive on gravel road but easy enough. This walk is 1.8km return and it is a little more strenuous as there are a million steps (Joel got so sick of the steps he decided to slide down the hand rail instead)! Which is fine on way down, just cruise down there, no worries..

Falls are nice and still flowing which we weren't sure they would be considering that they haven't had rain here for a long time.

Then the climb up, wow I'm not sure whether I am just super unfit at the moment or what but I felt like I was going to have an asthma attack and I don't even have asthma! Made it to the top, but you have been warned if you go here!

Further up the road is the Otway Fly Treetop Adventure where you can zip line between the tree tops. Sounded cool so we thought we would check to see if they had any tours left to do today....unfortunately we just missed the last one and they do suggest you book if you want to do this. Then down to the triplet falls which are on the same road. A 2.5km return loop and the walk is really nice, there are some stairs and I was a little scared to go down the, knowing I had to come back up! But the walk up is much easier and not many stairs at all. There was some beautiful butterflies fluttering around on this walk and some great info boards telling the history. This area used to be a saw mill, used to log the trees here which is now national park. One of the first info board shows you a tree with holes cut into it which used to be where loggers put planks of wood to climb the tree and then once at the top use an axe to chop the tree down. There is also remnants of the saw mill, including the boiler which powered the mill and a horse drawn cart which used to cart the timber out of the mill. Quite fascinating, anyway I did say we were going to see some falls, well we did and yea they were ok, have seen better ones but the other things made up for the walk.

We then headed back to camp for an afternoon of swimming and fishing. Tomorrow heading further along the Great Ocean Road to the apostles! Excited!

An interesting fact about the Great Ocean Road that everybody probably already knows but I didn't....the road was built by World War I soldiers who returned from war and were on the outer because so many soldiers died and were injured in the war, they couldn't find work so they were paid to build the great ocean road, they dug the road by hand for their fallen comrades! Great story!

Cruising the great ocean road on a tractor....why not?!

Until tomorrow

Carly & Joel

 

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