[lettie]

The next day, after a hearty breakfast......and I'm not kidding, the breakfasts in Australian cafes fill you up for the day, we decided to visit the Otway Lightstation. This is about 14kms from the Great Ocean Rd down a heavily wooded road just teeming with wildlife. There were koalas fast asleep up the trees and it was lovely to see.

This lightstation is the oldest working lighthouse in Australia, it became operational in 1848 and is on a cliff edge where the Bass Straight meets the Southern Ocean. This coast is renowned for its' shipwrecks and has far more than any other stretch of coastline in Australia, the sea bed must be littered with bits of boat and the bodies of the prospective goldminers, convicts and other immigrants. After the lightstation was built, it was often the first sight of land that the migrants, who had been sailing for months, saw.

Apart from the flies, which were still in abundance and intent on following us everywhere, despite repellent, Otway Lightstation was a joy to visit. There is an old Telegraph Station here, a Radar Bunker, a small museum with a little collection of the local Aboriginal artifacts and plenty of information depicting the lives of the families and their children who lived here and ran the lightstation. You see, in the 1800s, this place was remote. It is now easily reachable by car but back then it was isolated. There was nobody to teach the children until the appointment of a schoolmistress sent by the government. The kids only had each other to play with and access to medical treatment and supplies must have been ever so difficult. Having said that, old pictures of the families who have lived here, showed happy smiling faces.

On our way out of the Lightstation grounds, we passed through the obligatory gift shop and got chatting to the lady who was behind the counter. We were heartily sick of the flies and Sparks had taken to flicking them away with his beer towel. Our arms were aching from constantly waving the buggers away. We asked how the locals coped with all the flies and were casually told that they just ignore them!!!!!! HOW??????

We left the lightstation and drove inland to visit the Otway Fly. This is a treetop walk through lush forest where you can view the canopy of trees and their occupants. Now I don't want to sound mard, but I have absolutely no head for heights. We did a little walk on the forest floor (and that's where I took my photos), then we came to the gently sloping metal walkway which took us up to the treetops. It wasn't so bad when we set off but it gradually got higher and higher. The higher we got, the more it swayed.... Sparks was in his element, leaning over taking photos and examining the trees, looking for wild birds etc. As for me, I was just focussing on looking straight ahead, wouldn't go near the sides and certainly wouldn't look down. I was just wondering how I was going to keep my breakfast down when we came to the end of it and the walkway started to slope downwards once more.

Now although I find these type of places hellish, I can appreciate the idea. It gives visitors the chance to look at the forest canopy up close without damaging the trees or the flora on the forest floor. Before we knew it, the day was over and it was time to go home. We brushed the flies off and got into the car and headed back to Apollo Bay to pack. We were moving on again...

Here are some pics of the Otway coast and lighthouse and some scenes from the Great Ocean Rd.