Day 74 - Apollo Bay

Last night was one wet windy and woolly night, we honesty through we would take off in the middle of the night. We (blond and I) had very little sleep, so much so that we woke at 1am and did not fall back asleep till almost 4am. We did not waste this time however and we spent the time deciding that we would base ourselves out of Melbourne for the reminder of the trip instead of traveling to Ballarat, that way we would only set up tent one more time and then simply travel the 100km to Ballarat from Melbourne.

We woke, what little sleep we had, to a calm after the storm so to speak, with glimpses of blue sky. We decided to make hay whilst the sun shone and go and visit Cape Ottoway and its Lighthouse.

The drive took us back along the scenic Great ocean road, which was still just as wet as last time.

This guy was sitting in the middle of the road as we came through

Cape Ottoway houses Australia's oldest and most significant Light house. We wandered through the Light House Keepers accommodation, the Light house itself along with several other outbuildings. It was great to be able to climb to the top of the light house and see the workings of it all. Apparently the light house has a failure rate of one night every 20 years (they don't build them like that any more).

On the way out of the cape, we had the privilege of seeing several Koalas in the wild, one was sitting in the middle of the rad before we came through. This was an absolute highlight for the trip and we certainly did not think we would ever see a Koala in the wild. We managed to actually find 5 of the guys hiding in and around several local gum trees at the Cape.

We then decided to visit Tripplet falls, some 40km away from the Cape. This also co-encided with the rain begging to fall.

The walk into Tripplet falls was great with the southern fern rain forrest simply spectacular. Along the walk we managed to find several old trees which had been cut down some 100 years ago by loggers of yesteryear, including some old machinery lying around from an old mill.

The falls themselves were in full flow and absolutely spectacular, and certainly worth the walk in.

Soon after it was time to head for home and try and warm up in the tent.

An early night was had by all....