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Published: March 27th 2013
Sunday 24thThe day dawned dismal, wind, the odd shower and definitely cold. Marg, Mary and I had planned to go to the Otway Fly, or more precisely the Otway Tree Top Walk. There were no takers from us to do The Fly, (flying Fox) but heaps of young folk did the trip down the valley hanging from the cable.
The journey to The Fly is about 30ks passing through Castle Cove and crossing the Aire River. Just north of Castle Cove we came across a caravanner in trouble with left side in the grass but tail stuck out onto the highway. They had their travelling companion stopped a little further up the hill and managing traffic until help could arrive. Not sure if it was a flat tyre on the left or something more serious, but they required no further assistance at that time.
This part of the country is a little more rugged than rolling, but certainly large area of grazing what looked like merino sheep. Plenty of wind to keep the fleece healthy. Tom Tom and Marg Marg navigated us without fuss to The Fly, and we spent a couple of hours walking through the rain forest.
Some of this is relatively young, other parts ancient.
From the ‘lets take your money centre’, we walked down the side of the valley amongst a great variety of very tall trees, ferns in the undergrowth, and other mid sized trees and vines. Once at the bottom of the valley we climbed up the forest walkway looking down on the forest floor and up into the tops of trees. There is so much beauty here with textures and colours from the various ferns, lichens and foliage trees, it is hard to describe in words the beauty. The pictures do not do justice, but are better than my words.
We progressed up the walkway to the observation tower. It was cold with a little drizzle until we reached the top of the spiral tower. Then the winds blasted and the rain fell sideways. One gust was so severe I grabbed Marg in case she got blown off the tower. The platform is 47 meters above the valley floor. Once the rain eased we climbed back down the tower to continue the walk over and through the forest. There is a section of the forest walk devoted to dinosaur stuff
which made for plenty of fun photos. This was followed by walking back up the valley path back to the starting point again
The shop/cafe/souvi’ shop was both warm and attractive. After some browsing and non-spending, we returned to the MH for lunch and a coffee. We enjoyed our visit and chuckle about the wild storm cell and agreed that it was a good morning.
We noted that they provide a shuttle bus for those with mobility issues who want to walk the tree top walk. Very sensible as most of the walk way is very gentle slopes that most can handle with ease.
After lunch we drove a further 3 or 4 ks to Triplet Falls. Now Tom Tom got concerned as we drove down this narrow gravel road that snaked its way down the valley. Politely he asked if we needed to call for help. If he had waited just a couple more minutes we could have advised him that we had arrived safely at our destination.
Anyone with reasonable fitness visiting The Otway National Park should do this beautiful walk. This is all old rain forest with excellent paths, steps and board walks
deeper and deeper into the valley. It takes about 40 minutes to reach the falls, and one wonders how they will get back up this path without bursting their boiler. Once at the falls, there are viewing platforms at various levels to rest and absorb the beauty. The roar of falling water adds to the atmosphere, as do the calls from a wide variety of birds in the forest.
Having spent quite some time enjoying this picturesque spot, we were about to retrace our steps when I noticed another set of steps marked Car Park, 20 minutes. The initial steps were steep but relatively easy, and we were back to the motor home in 20 mins including photo time.
This was the best free activity ever. The return drive went smoothly for us, but for others heading the opposite way, there was a cleverly placed RBT officer doing a 100% test.
You may remember we commented some days ago about sheep on the hay stack. We missed that photo opportunity, but had another this afternoon, but not quite as dramatic. The sheep we saw earlier had climbed up rolled bails of hay and torn open the plastic
wrapper. Today, the hay was there to be eaten, but one sheep decided that he had to be king of the castle. Another sheep tried to join, but after some nose to nose discussion, backed off.
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