Day 61: Apollo Bay to Port Fairy‏

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We travelled in-land off the Great Ocean Road to reach the Great Otway National Park. Here we stopped off at the Otway fly, a walkway through the rainforest that takes you up into the highest canopy on raised steel platforms. The layers of the rainforest (that you learn about in geography lessons) really came to life! Our next stop was the Gibson steps that were once hand carved into the cliffs to allow passage onto the beach. Now replaced with safer steps, we were able to get down onto the beautiful beach below. Then we carried on to the most well-known part of the Great Ocean Road, the twelve apostles. Crowds of tourists gather here to get a shot of the pillars - frankly the postcard pictures look much better, so we purchased one of those! We then continued west until Port Fairy where we decided to camp for the night. On a little walk prior to dinner we went up to the nature reserve and finally got a glimpse of an Echidna (a large hedgehog with funny webbed paws). Unfortunately I scared it off before I could get a photo and my attempt to coax it out of the bush didn't work 😞

Bailey's bit: The lighthouse walk took us onto Griffin Island, a nature reserve that protects swamp wallabies, seals and the (mythical) mutton bird. We saw two of the three. The wallabies were very docile and friendly and we saw a seal playing in the wake of a returning boat. Of the mutton birds we only saw 5 dead birds amongst the nest (so much for a sanctuary) and not much else. Oh i forgot to mention the mummified wallaby!

Daily mileage: 6 (am) with a bit of spare time this morning I ran from our campsite to the other side of Apollo Bay along a trail/pavement that ran beside the sea.
3 (pm) from our site outside Port Fairy I came across an old railway line that had been turned into a track for bikes and walkers. It made for a nice route and looks like it goes into the town so will explore tomorrow!

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