Forests!

 The Otway Fly cantilever.

 The canopy walk.

 The Redwood forest.

 Mait's Rest Rainforest Walk and a tree whose roots grew over a fallen tree that has since rotted away.

The charred forest of Wye River.

Monday, March 14^th (continued)

The first thing I did when I left the Otway Farmstay was drive to the end of their local rural road to the Otway Fly Treetop Adventures. Here is a old growth natural forest that contains both a ziplining trek and a canopy walk. I opted for the latter. It is "a one hour rainforest walk experience that is approximately 2 kilometres in total length and features a 600 metre long and 30 metre high stell structured treetop conopy walk that takes you right into the tree tops. It's the longest and tallest walkway of its type in the world and includes a thrilling cantilever." It was a beautiful walk through the forest. It was amazing to think of how they constructed it in the forest! The forest was alive with the calls of the kookaburra, magpies, cockatoos and other parrots.

When I left I drove to Beechforest, about 15km away, to get gas. Then I continued down a winding dirt Binns Road to a stand of California Redwoods planted here 80 years ago. The grove was spectacular and cathedral quiet. The trees are not as big in girth but are already about a hundred feet tall. I realized just how quiet it was and reflected on the natural forest where I had heard all the birds. This is a mono-culture where there is no diversity of the flora and the native animals and birds have little interest in living here. This is foreign territory to them.

From there I drove south and entered the Great Otway National Park where I drove to the southern point to see yet another lighthouse, this one Cape Otway Lighthouse. All of the lighthouses look very similar and must have been built around the same time by the same architect. This one is billed as the most historically important one in Victoria as "the lightstation is the oldest suriving lighthouse on mainland Australia and the headland is the southern most point on south-western Victoria." There was also an Aboriginal walking trail here that took you past several exhibits of their house structures and camps.

When I left I retraced my route back to the Great Ocean Road and turned back east. Shortly after I arrived at yet another old growth native forest walk called Mait's Rest Rainforest Walk. I had past it on Saturday and decided to hike it today. It was a beautiful walk through an incredibly lush forest with no one else around. This was the most natural of the forests I visited today and the one I enjoyed the most.

I continued east towards home and descended off the highlands back down to the coast and the small towns that dot the shore. A bushfire ripped through a town here called Wye River on Christmas day this year, destroying 116 homes, but luckily killing no one. The day was 40+degrees and windy. I drove through the town which sits on forested slopes overlooking the sea. Evidence of the fire was still everywhere through the forest and the charred buildings.

I left there and followed the coast back to Angelsea where I picked up the highway that took me to Geelong and the freeway that went to Melbourne. 400 kms today.

I left Saturday at 10am and returned Monday night at 10pm after 1300 kilometres. What a great road trip!