Day 2 of travelling along the Great Ocean Road, an abundance of things to do, sites to explore and plenty of ‘must do’s.
Started the day with a visit to Otway National Park and Lighthouse station. A place to get close to history and nature: Be it Cape Otway Telegraph station connecting Tasmania with mainland Australia through submarine cable in 1859, stories of the ships trying to ‘thread the Eye of the Needle’ (the 90km gap between Cape Otway and King Island) in the 1800’s and in lots of cases not making it, the life of the lighthouse keepers or the site being used as a WWII radar station.
Can’t miss the iconic golden cliffs and crumbling pillars of the Twelve Apostles despite having to share them with lots of other tourists.
Very impressive sight but didn’t have the same feel as other places linked to historic events like Loch Ard Gorge (more of that in our picture galleries in a few days).
Early charts refer to the 12 Apostles as the Sow and Piglets. The formation was renamed in the 1930’s at a time when visitors were travelling along the Old Coach Road from Port Campbell to Princetown to view the formations.
As a contrast we walked through the rain forest at Melba Gully State Park. Known as the Jewel of the Otways, it’s one of the wettest places in the state of Victoria. The gully has prolific plant growth and is a dense rainforest of Myrtle Beech, Blackwood and Tree-ferns, with an understorey of low ferns and mosses. A very atmospheric place
It’s also famous for most unusual inhabitants – glow worms – which can be seen at night along the walking tracks. Unfortunately, we are not staying close enough to go back in the dark.
The Travels of Birgit 