3/18: The GOR's Magnificent 'Twelve' Apostles & London Bridge Rock Formations

I am simultaneously finishing a travel blog about the fantastic 4.5 month long trip Steven and I took last fall to Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and much of Central Asia before our final six weeks in Spain and Portugal and a few days in the Netherlands. If you're interested in checking that exciting adventure out, here's the link:
www.bergersadventures6.blogspot.com

My apologies in advance for the different font and the weird spacing in many parts of this post but they are beyond my control and due, I'm sure, to my phone's 'hotspot' providing internet here at our cabin in the state park. Sometimes it works but other times, not so much!

After exploring the section of the Great Ocean Road (GOR) from Apollo Bay to Lavers Hill and then detouring to the Otway Fly with its whimsical miniature tree houses for fairies and elves, we hit the coast again for what had to be the most spellbinding rock formations along the GOR called the Twelve Apostles Coast.

Yet another sign attesting to the many Asian tourists driving along the very popular GOR! We saw swaths of land where trees had been cut down, indicating the logging industry was still thriving as it had since European settlers first came to the state of Victoria. 

After leaving the rainy Otway region, the sun finally made an appearance again, much to our delight. 

Located a few miles east of Port Campbell, the Twelve Apostles Marine National Park was Victoria's second largest marine national park which covered about 18,500 acres along almost eleven miles of coastline.

We stopped at Gibson's Steps, which had originally been carved by the first owner of a local homestead. Since concreted, they descended by almost 300 feet to Gibson Beach, an area popular with both fishermen and walkers. 

There were frequent warning signs advising people of snakes and to stay on the walkways because of the unstable cliffs. That was all it took for us not to veer off the path!

We didn't walk all the way down because it was getting late and we had several places a little further on where there we wanted to spend more time. However, we reached far enough to catch our first sight of one of the spectacular Twelve Apostles, a sight we'd been looking forward to glimpsing since leaving Melbourne. Views of the other Apostles were blocked by the massive limestone cliffs. 

On the way back to the parking lot, we looked closely in the brush in the hope of spotting Wallabies, animals that are a smaller version of kangaroos, that shelter there during the day eating grass, fungi and shrubs and move around at night. We were out of luck, though. 

A few hundred feet along the road was the mammoth parking lot for the Twelve Apostles themselves. The towering 230-foot-high limestone cliffs were one of the most impressive and anticipated views of the Great Ocean Road for all tourists and part of Port Campbell National Park.

The views wherever we looked were just magnificent!

The stormy southern ocean and blasting winds gradually eroded the softer limestone, forming caves in the cliffs. The caves eventually became arches and when they collapsed, 'rock stacks' up to about 150 feet were left isolated from the mainland. These rock stacks were the Apostles. 

Because of the late afternoon sun, we couldn't see the Apostles very easily but when we looked behind us, we could see two of them beautifully. 

The marine park was an underwater world with more species than the world above it. Beneath the wild surf and power of the southern ocean was a rich marine world of outstanding color and diversity. The waterline was marked by extensive kelp forests and, I read, below were dazzling sponges, lace corals and colorful jewel anemones with rock lobsters seeking protection among them.

We'd hoped to see the Twelve Apostles at sunset when we'd read the rocky pillars 'were washed by warm colors' but we were too beat by the long day we'd had to return and take advantage of the gorgeous sunset colors. 

I was glad to notice a sign confirming we shouldn't be alarmed if we couldn't actually spot 'twelve' Apostles as wind, rain and high-energy waves of the southern ocean continued to carve these iconic old 'Apostles' so that they will eventually disappear. New islands are formed as they emerge from the coastal cliffs. It didn't sound like much but they erode and retreat about three quarters of an inch a year. 

Early explorers in the 19th century sailed by and called this area as 'Sow and the Piglets!' The name changed around the 1920s when more tourists began visiting the area. The Twelve Apostles certainly sounded like a great marketing decision instead of sow and piglets, don't you think?!!

Although sad to leave the fantastic Apostles at 5:30, we didn't mind bidding adios to the masses of people as there were more at the Apostles than anywhere we'd seen along the Great Ocean Road. We stopped just a bit later at The Arch where there was ominously a sign not to walk, sunbathe or play under the cliffs as they might collapse without notice! Yikes, that was scary. 

The Arch was another remarkable rock formation which will eventually be eroded, leaving the seaward section stranded as a rock tower like the stacks of the Twelve Apostles. I was glad we had made the decision not to walk down all 300 of Gibson's Steps and save our time and energy to see The Arch instead. 

The photo clearly shows how precarious the cliffs were if any part of them were to crumble.

It was so much fun walking in the small cove and seeing the mighty waves crash against the rocks.

The national marine park includes some of Victoria's most spectacular scenery. Breeding colonies of seabirds regularly roost on the rick stacks and islands withing the park. There were also colonies of Little Penguins but they were only visible at dusk when the birds return from a day of hunting. Sadly, Janina, that meant we didn't see them so I could take any photos for you. 

I can't say I blamed Diane who said she'd had enough of rock formations by then and longish walks to see them so she stayed by the car while I walked down to the viewing platform overlooking The Grotto and the rugged coastline. 

I read that water from a swampy depression percolated through the 10-20 million-year-old limestone of the escarpment here. Weak acids in the water slowly dissolved the limestone forming a depression or 'sinkhole' and eventually hollowing out the Grotto.
Sinkholes can vary in size from less than three feet to almost a thousand feet both in diameter and depth and are found worldwide.

Rust colored pebbles scattered near the top of the limestone were a product of the same swamp. Known as 'buckshot,' they were formed when magnetic iron-rich particles were drawn together in the still waters at the bottom of the swamp. 

In January, 1990, the main arch connecting London Bridge to the mainland cracked and fell into the sea. Fortunately no one was injured but two tourists were marooned on the island until they were rescued two hours later by helicopter. It had been called  London Bridge due to the close resemblance of its double arches to the actual bridge in England. When Steven and I are in London in October, I hope we'll have time to see the original London Bridge. 

The name changed to London Arch after the first arch collapsed. 

As the coastline was particularly beautiful and rugged and historically treacherous for passing ships, this area was called the Shipwreck Coast. Its most celebrated tale was the story of the Loch Ard, a three masted square-rigged ship that weighed 1,693 tons. The ship's master incorrectly estimated his ship's position as further offshore when he expected to sight Cape Otway but instead unexpectedly came across breakers, cliffs and rocky islands when the night mist cleared. 

Despite frantic efforts by the crew to turn the ship around, they were too late and the ship smashed into a reef, causing it to sink quickly and 52 lives were lost with just two survivors. Several days

after the Loch Ard sank, a wooden crate was found that contained a life-sized porcelain peacock that was intended to be displayed at the 1880 International Exhibition in Melbourne. The wreck of the Loch Ard now lies in about 90 feet of water and is a favorite spot for divers. 

If I could ever describe a perfect day along the Great Ocean Road, this would be it. Although it felt like days ago already, Diane and I'd started the day in the pretty fishing town of Apollo Bay, continued on to Maits Rest for a wonderful meander through the rainforest, then the thrilling elevated Otway Fly and its ever so charming tree houses complete with fairies and elves, oh my, before reaching the stupendous rock formations at the end of the day.

Next post: Back to Melbourne for our only chance to see a few of the city's attractions before leaving for Tasmania. 

Posted on May 31st, 2019, from Grayton Beach State Park, Florida, our favorite place in the US apart from our home in Denver!

3/18: Otway Fly: Wood Nymphs, Elves & Fairies - Oh My!

I am simultaneously finishing a travel blog about the fantastic 4.5 month long trip Steven and I took last fall to Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and much of Central Asia before our final six weeks in Spain and Portugal and a few days in the Netherlands. If you're interested in checking that exciting adventure out, here's the link:
www.bergersadventures6.blogspot.com

Diane and I decided to get off the Great Ocean Road when it headed inland at Lavers Hill after hearing about the Otway Fly, the world's longest and highest tree-top walk that opened in 2003. 

The Fly was built to provide an elevated walk through magnificent Myrtle Beech rainforest and Mountain Ash eucalyptus forest. It was situated on 225 acres of what was previously used for logging and farming. As a viable alternative to tree harvesting, it has paid for itself many times over, as well as providing a wonderful nature experience for visitors from all over the world. 

We were more than a little nonplussed when we began spotting tree houses along the trail as there were no signs about them and nobody had informed us of them in the visitors' center. Mind you, we weren't complaining one iota as they were such fun to see.

Unlike any hike I've ever taken, there were fire hoses at regular intervals throughout the Otway Fly.

Thank God I didn't have any neck issues as I constantly craned my neck looking up at the impossibly tall trees or peering down looking at miniature tree houses full of fairies and elves!

A sign informed us that there were more than 64 species of ferns in the Otway Range of which the Fly was part. I read that ferns are an ancient form of plant life and even older than flowering plants. Soft tree ferns are native to the southern hemisphere and thrive in damp, cool temperate rainforest like the Fly. Tree ferns are the largest of the fern group and their fronds form an umbrella helping to funnel rain to their center. 

One of the zip lining towers:

Banyall trees were like midgets compared to the other mammoth trees that were the norm in the Otway Fly! They only grew from about 10 to about 20 feet and their yellow and maroon flowers only appear from October to November. Birds and mammals, who love their fleshy orange red berries that are found in the fall and winter, help to spread the seeds and make these trees widespread through wet forest areas.

After the really fun walk through the forest and seeing so many elves and fairies, we at last reached the elevated portion of the Otway Fly. The almost 2,000 foot long Otway Fly Treetop Walk was a cleverly designed series of lightweight steel trusses built on steel pylons.

The brilliantly engineered walkway led to the canopy level of the major tree species of the area: Mountain Ash, Blackwood and most notably, Myrtle Beech. The last tree was one of the great survivors largely unchanged from its ancestors during the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs roamed the southern supercontinent of Gondwanaland, something I sure had never heard of before. 

Related species have been found in similar forests in South America, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea and fossil leaves like these Myrtle Beech have even been found in Antarctica. I wonder if Steven and I will see any when we're there in November!

Much of the rainforest in the Otways has been disturbed since Europeans came to settle here. Land clearing for farms, roads, logging and even tourism have changed the rainforest. 

The understorey Satinwood tree grows to around 65 feet tall, its leaves are glossy green and have a distinctive strong smell. From pioneering days the tree has been used as durable fence posts by Otway landowners because its timber is dense and hard. An unusual ability of the tree is that it can burn when green. The tree was used by indigenous Victorians for making spears. 

The landscape was dominated by huge stands of Mountain Ash trees, the world's tallest flowering plant that have been known to reach more than 300 feet high although no trees of that height remain in the Otways due to logging. Mountain Ash trees did grow as high as a 25 story building, though!

When Diane and I had traipsed through the Maits Rest walk earlier in the day we'd noticed that the bark on the higher reaches of the Mountain Ash trees was peeling. Here, on the elevated walk, we had a much better sense of how stripped those trees looked without the bark.

Diane and I wanted more adventure so began climbing up a spiral stairway that led to the Observation Tower that was 150 feet higher than all the trees except for the mighty Mountain Ash and only half the height of the trees that originally grew here. 

At its highest point, the steel paths converged. 

I'm normally not one for heights - I hated taking our four children when they were young, for example, on the high slides although I tried hard to avoid communicating my discomfort with them - but I couldn't resist suggesting to Diane we climb up the almost 155 foot tall tower. I didn't tell her until we were near the top I disliked heights!

It was so peaceful standing by ourselves at the top of the Tower and listening to the call of the birds that made the forest their home. Unfortunately, though, we couldn't differentiate among the Kookaburras, the White-Throated Tree-creepers or any of the other local birds.

I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be reassuring or not to read that the 1900 foot long cantilever was strong enough to hold 14 full size elephants weighing 28 tons!

No matter how bright the sunshine outside, the dense foliage of the forest canopy screened out most of that light and provided a cool, moist environment for shade-loving plants and animals below. 

I felt like a little kid again as I jumped up and down on the steel path as I could feel it flex underfoot. Diane, though, wasn't so happy when I did that as she could feel it move, too, even though she was well ahead of me as it made her feel uneasy. She was content doing her self described 'Mom Walk' for her kids, she said!

The Otways Cool Temperate Rainforest is the westernmost rainforest in Australia. With rainfall at over 90 inches a year, the temperatures were cool. Rainforests now only exist in the most protected and dampest parts of the Otways. 

A sign asking what a forest was made me think about that for the first time as I always thought it just meant trees. However, I learned that trees were just a small part of all the things we could see as the forest had a delicate balance of living and non-living things. Gentle creeks and pools of water were on the forest floor as were soil and rocks that were home for tiny living recyclers that plants relied on to grow.

Kangaroo ferns were a common climbing epiphyte - a plant that grows on another plant - that could be seen high up on the trunks of rainforest trees. This common epiphyte has leaves in the shape of a kangaroo paw often with rows of spores underneath.

The first photo was from the sign; the second was my own.

It had been such a blast walking over the elevated walkway that it was a bit of a downer when it ended and we reached the stairway that took us down to a creek. Youngs Creek, named after local legend Cliff Young's grandfather, was one of hundreds of small tributaries which began as springs high on the Otway ridge and feed into local rivers. The rivers are among Victoria's cleanest rivers and are home to native fish such as Blackfish and Galaxis and also eels, freshwater turtles, shellfish and even platypus!

Of far greater interest than the creek itself was the absolutely adorable collection on the creek's edge of beach accessories like the miniature sun umbrellas and canoe/sailboat, finishing with the wooden walkway to the cabin! So, so cute!

Further along the trail we overheard a teacher tell his students this new shoot represented new life for aboriginal people. 

On our way back we were again treated to the incredible collection of more miniature homes, complete with wood nymphs, elves and fairies! We'd known nothing about them beforehand so we were even more delighted.

I was so impressed with the imagination and skill someone had used to create such a wonderland in the forest using dead tree trunks. We'd come across absolutely no sign indicating who the artistic genius was which further piqued our interest.

The miniatures hadn't been placed in a row or in one area where they were easy to find and examine but rather in spots where we least expected them which made our seeing them even more fun!

A lot further on the mystery as to the miniatures may have been  solved when we finally saw a sign giving credit about a collection of 14 fairy and elf houses that were all in one place called the Ferntree Village, saying they had been lovingly built by Colac Men's Shed. Colac, BTW, was a nearby town.

They were made with recycled materials all taken from the Otways and had taken over 200 hours to build. There was no explanation whether the same group had also been responsible for all the miniature homes we'd seen earlier as, obviously, many of those included purchased items like the fairies and elves.

These were just as adorable as the ones we'd admired so much a little earlier. I'm sure the Men's Shed could have made a mint of money if they'd chosen to make even smaller replicas of some of their creations.

I think Diane and I would both have had a really tough time trying to decide which of the tree houses we liked the most as they all caught our fancy!

As you may have figure out by now, I am one for facts and figures so I was interested to learn that the Otway Fly took approximately six months to construct and was done on site. The 1900 plus foot long walkway was designed around the forest trees and, where possible, constructed on existing old logging tracks.

The structure was fabricated in Tasmania, the island south of the mainland we'd be going to in a couple of days, then shipped over in 26 foot spans and then placed on site using a 90 ton mobile crane. The walk used 120 tons of steel and was built to withstand 175 mph winds but I wouldn't want to be the one testing that out, thank you very much!

I was heartened to read that minimal impact was strived for to reduce disturbance of the forest. Once the Fly was completed, regeneration of the forest floor was carried out involving the planting of hundreds of tree ferns and forest trees. Extensive planting is still done each fall (our spring in the Northern Hemisphere).

Diane and I agreed that our couple of hours having such a blast at the Otway Fly was one of our highlights of our entire three and a half week trip to both New Zealand and Australia. The experience walking on the really, really high cantilever and being able to look down at some trees and the understorey was one I doubt I will ever be lucky enough to have again. Of course, the unexpected bonus of the miniature houses was the icing on the cake, too, in terms of our enjoyment at the Otway Fly!

Next post: London Bridge and other magnificent rock formations jutting out into the ocean along the Great Ocean Road.

Posted on May 29th, 2019, from gloriously sunny Grayton Beach State Park on Florida's Panhandle.