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Published: February 7th 2013
Since I've seen so much beautiful coastline, I want to devote some attention to the forests. East of Lavers Hill is the Otway Fly, which provides an elevated walkway through the trees, as well as the more expensive zip-line adventure. The same turnoff also leads to Triplet Falls. Fred suggests to continue east and then cycling south to the coast rather than backtracking. This sounds perfect, because I also avoid the massive hill climb to the west of Apollo Bay. Instead, I can continue east on the Colac-Lavers Hill Road until it hits Forrest-Apollo Bay Road, which is a net downhill, into Skenes Creek, where there is also a caravan park.
Otway Fly is enjoyable, and I can get a bird's eye view of the tree ferns. However, I find the landscape more beautiful on the Triplet Falls track. It's all there, tree ferns, gigantic trees, water fall. They have also kept dead tree stumps from logging days, when trees would have cut outs in them for slats, to allow for climbing up the trees, so they could be cut down in sections. I have a flat tire from the gravel road leading to Triplet Falls, and to avoid another
aerial view
Otway Fly Tree Top Adventuresflat I refrain from cycling on gravel track for the rest of the trip. It is just as well, since the only other excursion of the day that took me on gravel roads was to see the closed Beauchamp Falls - let this be a lesson to you, check the Parks Victoria website for path closures, as the closures were not obvious from the road.
There is a noticable change as soon as the road enters the Great Otway National Park. The road narrows, the trees tower, the way winds. The road hugs tight curves and cuts into steep slopes. The sparse traffic moves slowly, and I enjoy the cool shade.
The way south towards Skenes Creek still traverses some hills before I descend careening towards the coast. There are few commercial services in Skenes Creek beyond the caravan park, and some hotels; no general store or restaurants. I'm exhausted by the time I arrive, and settle for canned spaghetti and beans for dinner. The beach is lovely, with curious honeycomb erosion patterns in the rocks.
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