After a glorious first part of the Great Ocean Road along the coast, we decided to head a bit inland for the afternoon to check out the Otway Fly Treetop Walk. Similar to the one I did in Western Australia, the Otway Fly took us up into the tree tops, but when it came down to it, it wasn’t quite as nice as the original. I should’ve known it wasn’t going to be as good the moment I saw the spelling mistake on the warning sign next to the entry:
No, I wasn’t the one who corrected it. I didn’t have a marker handy, but luckily one of my intelligent and observant predecessors did. Despite the scenery not being as unique as the tingle trees of Western Australia, it was still fun to run around the treetops:
The Otway Fly had a dinosaur exhibit on the ground. I’m not quite sure why it was there, but it totally would’ve been better if the dinosaurs were real… and caged… just like in Jurassic Park. But since they weren’t, we decided to have a little fun with them. Liz gently kissed her new stegosaurus lover…
I wasn’t as gentle when I took my velociraptor for a ride…
Anyway – moving on from our moments of immaturity. We drove back out to the coast to our final stop of the day: the Cape Otway Lighthouse!
The Cape Otway Lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in Australia, which is only appropriate as it does sit on the Shipwreck Coast. We walked the grounds and the climbed up to the top:
Looking out over the scenery, I began to notice that the limestone cliffs were disappearing and the coast was changing into more rolling hills with foliage. It wasn’t until the next day that we really saw the difference:
The new scenery on the second half of the Great Ocean Road was remarkably different than the first. It wasn’t as ooo-and-ahh-worthy as the rugged, wave-carved coast that we started on, but it was equally as pretty. We did a mini-hike up to Sheoak Falls:
And then stopped at another, more impressive waterfall – Erskine Falls:
Our final stop on the Great Ocean Road: Bells Beach!
Bells Beach is Victoria’s most famous surfing beach. It was a bit too cold to go in the water, but the sand was soft and the view was great.
Off to Melbourne we went from there, and as we drove away, I had a small feeling of pride. I had been driving for three days straight, mostly on difficult, winding, 2-lane roads, and not once did I drive on the wrong side. Maybe I’ve just become accustomed to driving on the left. Or maybe it was the constant reminders I was receiving every few kilometers along the way:
Apparently I’m not the only tourist here.
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