Adventures in Hervey Bay

Today was my opportunity to tick off an item off my bucket list. We drove to Otway Fly Treetop Adventures. There, we started with a Zipline Tour – I have wanted to do a zipline for ages! The zipline is described as: “visitors can zip through the leafy treetops of the magnificent Otway Ranges from one ‘Cloud Station’ to another, suspended up to 30 metres above the forest floor. Specialist guides will provide training and unique rainforest insights.” Before we walked down to where the zipline began, we had an orientation session where our guides (Brydie and Alessio) showed us how to put on our harnesses and talked with us about safety while zipping from station to station. We had a little bit of a walk down to the first station and then we had to climb up a spiral staircase where our clips were attached to the zipline. We were put into two groups and had to stay in that order for the whole zipline tour. I was quite scared the first time I had to let go and ‘fly’ to the next station – I was holding on very tightly. J Alessio asked us on the second section if we could let go as we would need to do that later on in the tour. I could let go one hand at a time, but Dad let go with both hands (show off! ). One third of the way through, we had to walk along a footbridge (narrow slats about a foot apart) and it took me ages to get across. I am not afraid of heights, but I am not fond of falling! J I tried to let go each time I went from one station to the next, but for some reason, I just couldn’t seem to get up the nerve to do it. On the final zipline. I decided to be really brave and let go with both hands on this one as it would be my last chance to do it. It was amazing! The feeling I got when I zipped along is hard to describe. Afterwards, I was annoyed with myself that I didn’t let go sooner. I am pumped now to go on another zipline!

Dad in zipline harness during our orientation session

Me and Brydie walking to the first zipline station

Me on zipline

Me bravely letting go on the zipline

Dad on the zipline

Alessio helping Dad arrive into the zipline station

Dad walking along the footbridge

Me walking along the footbridge

Me on the zipline

Part of the Otway experience is an Otway Fly Tree Top Walk. It’s a 1 hour walk above and through the rainforest. It’s 2kms long and part of it is a treetop canopy walkway that takes you right into the treetops. It’s the longest and tallest walkway of its type in the world. Dad and I always enjoy walks out in nature.

Treetop elevated walkway - 600 metres long and 25 metres high

Dad on the elevated walkway

Spiral Tower - 45 metres tall

Cantilever

Looking up at the elevated walkway

Dad in the rainforest

Me in front of a very large tree in the rainforest

Just down the road from Otway Adventures is another waterfall called Triplet Falls. The walk to the falls took about forty minutes and it was mostly in the downwards direction (of course, that meant that we were going to have to go up to get back to our car – phew!). When we got to a viewing platform, we were not impressed and thought to ourselves that it was a long way to go to see that little view. It turned out that there were two more viewing opportunities and when we got to the final viewing platform, we got a really nice view of the falls. Again, it was lovely, but not Niagara Falls. J The walk up was hard and we had to stop a few times – a good workout, though.

Triplet Falls

Before we went back to the B & B, we decided to drive down the road towards the Cape Otway Light Station (the oldest lighthouse on mainland Australia). We had decided not to go to the actual lighthouse as everything we had read and heard about the tour said that it was a rip-off and we had already seen some other lighthouses. But, on the road to the lighthouse, I had read that we would be able to see more koalas in the wild and the lady who owned the B & B told us that if we turned off the road to the lighthouse and along Manna Gum Road, we would be able to see loads of koalas in the trees. Now that we are ‘pros’ at koala spotting, we were able to pick them out quite quickly and were able to see about a dozen and a half of them. Dad was thrilled!

Can you spot the TWO koalas in the trees in the above picture?

Koala eating the gum leaves

Our first stop today was in a little place called Aireys Inlet. There we walked to the Split Point Lighthouse (known as ‘The White Lady’) – it’s an iconic lighthouse (34 metres high) in a spectacular setting. There’s a short walking track beyond the lighthouse for views over the cliffs and ocean. We walked the track which took us into town and then walked it back up to the lighthouse.

Split Point lighthouse

View from the lighthouse

Dad at Split Point lookout

Dad on walking trail

View of the town of Aireys Inlet from the walking trail

Birds in the water at the bottom of the walking trail

On our way to our next stop, we stopped at the Memorial Arch. It was built as a tribute to the soldiers from the First World War who were engaged in the construction of the Great Ocean Road.

Memorial Arch

Lorne was our next stop where we wanted to see Erskine Falls – one of the highest waterfalls in the Otway Region. We had to drive 10kms from Lorne along windy roads to get to the carpark from which we walked to the falls. There were 200 steps to walk to the base of the waterfall. Water crashes down a 30 metre drop into a fern-lined valley. It was a lovely waterfall, but when you have seen Niagara Falls, any other falls pale in comparison. J

Erskine Falls

Before lunch, (meat pies), we took a walk along the Lorne pier as I had read that there were seals hanging around in the hopes that someone fishing from it would throw them a tasty morsel. But, alas, there were none to be found here. After lunch, we went for a walk along the Lorne Beach/Foreshore Cliff Walk. It’s wonderful to walk beside the ocean and we wish we could have taken a longer walk here, but we needed to keep going.

Lorne Pier

Cockatoo who joined us for lunch

Since we didn't see a seal on the pier, Dad took a pic of this one and me in the park

Lorne foreshore

View along the Lorne foreshore boardwalk

This sign is posted all along the Great Ocean Road to remind visitors which side to drive on

View on the way out of Lorne

Kennett River was our next stop and this was to tick off an item from Dad’s bucket list – he wanted to see koalas in the wild. We have seen them at zoos here and in a reserve, but he really wanted to see them where they naturally live. We drove to the ‘Koala Café’ which is at the start of Grey River Road - we were told that we would spot many koalas along the road. I had also read that we could buy bird feed at the café to feed to the parrots and rosellas which were in the trees beside the café. As soon as I put the birdseed in my hand, the birds when crazy – they flew to me and started eating out of my hand. Then, some flew and landed on my head – now that smarts! J It was fun, though, and after Dad had a turn, we gave the rest of the feed to some people who were hanging around.

Me with the parrots going crazy for the bird seed

One of the parrots telling another parrot off for trying to eat the bird seed on my hand

Dad holding a rosella

The big treat, though, was finding koalas in the trees along Grey River Road. We started walking along the road, but after talking with a couple who were driving back down the road, we decided to drive up the road a bit. We stopped when we saw some people looking up at the trees – a good sign that a koala had been spotted. At first, it was hard to spot them, but the more we looked, the better we became. Dad was so thrilled to finally see koalas in their natural habitat!

Echidna we saw on the side of the road - when I tried to get a picture of its face, it turned away from me (like it was not impressed!)

On our way into our final stop for the night, we stopped at Marriner’s Lookout. It had a great view of Apollo Bay which was our destination for today. We stayed tonight in another B & B (Picnic B & B). It was a lovely little semi-detached cottage out the back of a house. After dropping our things off there, we took a walk along the breakwall and actually saw a seal this time.