Apollo Bay, Otway Fly and later to Ballarat

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Yesterday we awoke to the town being covered in mist, which did not lift all day!! It was a really strange sensation not really knowing what time of day it was.

We went to the Otways on Monday to go on the rainforest walk which is called the Otway Fly. It is a huge walk way which allows you to travel through the many storeys of the rainforest eventually to the canopy at 47m. The forest is full of Mountain Ash which is the largest flowering plant in the world. Each year, for the first 50 years, the tree ( which is a Eucalypt) grows 1m. They can grow to be greater than 100m and are as straight as you can imagine. The forest is also filled with Myrtle Beech and Blackwoods which are also huge. The Blackwood is an Acacia - wattle!!!and it is enormous.

Unfortunately I have cut my foot and I was unable to do the next part of the day with the boys - The Otway Zip. This is a flying fox which is attached through lines to Mountain Ash through out the forest. The boys wore harnesses and flew like possums from tree to tree for over three hours. An experience like no other!! We think NSW could use this eco tourism technology and perhaps install them at Dorrigo, because - let's face it - no rainforest is like it. We also thought that since NZ has the Bungee - we could have the Dangars Falls Zip line from one side of the gorge to the other past the falls.

According to the boys, Ian travelled like a cannon ball and Xav never really made it through his own weight to the other side on the longest - 120m - zip.

There is a lot of logging around here and the mountain ash are not old like the trees were saw in Pemberton. The canopy walk is 47m high which means the trees can only at most be 47 years as well.

The scenery in this part of the world is beautiful and we wish it was just a little closer to us. In this caravan park you can buy the most amazing shacks which really make a holiday home an affordable things.

Packing up today and heading to Ballarat via Geelong.

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