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
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
.JPG)
