After leaving Hilldene we headed for the Otways, which we planned to use as a base for driving the Great Ocean Road. We struck lucky as we decided to camp at Dando’s Campground a free camp site in the Otways, not far from the small town of Gellibrand. With its bountiful trees, close by river and fire pits it was an ideal spot. We made sure that we got there early on 25 January so as to beat the Australia Day long weekend crowd. We were also lucky in that our son Dale was once again able to spend some time camping with us.
The fire pits provided lots of opportunities to experiment with cooking with the highlight being waffles cooked in the coals with a old waffle iron bought for a couple of bucks from St Vinnies years ago.
Before we drove the Great Ocean Road we explored the beautiful Otways. We started at Beauchamp Falls. It was a 2.5 km trip the slope of which tested the knees and hamstrings. But it was worth it. They were fantastic falls in great country. Lots of large trees and massive ferns.
Later we continued to explore the area and went to Hopetoun Falls and Triplet Falls, further tributes to the beauty of nature. The area was really diverse and as beautiful as some of the remote areas we have seen and yet is only 2 hours from Melbourne.
A further highlight was the Otway Tree Top Walk similar to the Valley of the Giants Walk in WA. We walked along platforms that skirted the tops of the giant tress and went up a tower 47 m above ground. It really swayed in the breeze but was well worth it.
Whilst adventure was on our minds we decided to do the Otway Fly Zip Line, tour that involves transversing from one platform to another called ‘cloud stations’, via a steel cable suspended up to 30 meters above the forest floor. The highest point was 20m above ground and the longest single leg between trees was 120m. We donned helmets and harnesses and all 3 of us had a great time. We even accepted the challenge of traversing upside down.
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However no trip to the area is complete without driving the Great Ocean Road. We were advised that the trip is best going east to west so drove to Geelong to start. It is fascinating that such trendy places as Apollo Bay and Port Campbell are so close to the bush wilderness where we camped. We had heard a lot about the drive and weren’t disappointed. We started by going down to the beach via Gibson’s Steps to get a ground level view of one of the 12 Apostles. We also stopped and admired all the wonderful cliffs and rock formations including the 12 Apostles, Bay of Martyrs (or Bay of Martys as a certain person kept calling them) Thunder Rock, the Bay of Islands, London Bridge and the Arch.
We decided to stay an extra day at Dando’s which we spent sitting in the Gellibrand River and reading our books. Lovely.
Reluctantly we left Dando’s and went further west to Warrnambool. As we had only seen the rock formations on the Great Ocean Road in the afternoon, looking into the setting sun, we decided to go back tho them in the morning for a different view. So we drove back to the Apostles and did it all again. This time we added the Grotto and Loch Ard Gorge to the itinerary.
We also visited Cheeseworld at Allansford and the Mill Antiques and Collectables Market in Warrnambool.
The area around Warrnambool is known as the Shipwreck Coast so we went to the Laser Light Show in town which highlighted the maritime disasters in the area especially the sinking of the Loch Ard
