It is quite amazing how the landscape can change so quickly in literally less than half an hour of driving. We arrived at our destination half an hour early, and noticed a sign for some waterfalls an extra 3 kilometres down the road, so we thought we'd check them out. To get there, we had to go on a gravel trail with loads of bumps, fallen branches on the road and we even had a wallaby jump across our path. When we arrived, the signs indicated that the waterfalls were an hour's walk and we had half an hour to check into our pre-organised activity, so we couldn't stay too long. But it was nice, as I said, being the 'first' for the morning to enjoy the rainforest air without the crowds.
We made it to the red tree stump before we headed back.
We arrived at the Otway Fly to do our Zip Line Tour, only to be greeted by a couple of dinosaurs!
And then the adventure began! We checked in, went into the de-briefing room with Jonty and Cam, our guides for the day, to get harnessed up and given the safety procedures. We were asked if we wanted to give it a trial run before heading out to the cloud stations, and a couple in our party of nine felt a little nervous, and took on the trial.
We then headed to the cloud stations. Nine cloud stations, six zip lines, 2 rope bridges and plenty of fun. The first cloud station was 10 metres high off the ground up a spiral staircase that just seemed to go on and on! We were put in two groups - red side and the silver side, depending on the colour of our 'boomerang' attached to our 'cat' (the rollers that attach us and roll us along the zip line). The 'silver' side was funny, as it was a family of four who's surname was 'Silver.' We were in the red side with a middle aged lady and her 30 something year old daughter.
The first zip line was 40 metres across to the next cloud station. The second was 19 metres above the forest floor and was about 80 metres across. Each one was slightly different in terms of speed that it was able to achieve, the way we had to land, and the height off the forest floor. The longest zip line was 120 metres. As we were the first group, by the time we ended, we could hear other groups coming through behind us making plenty of noise through the forest, so we were instructed to scream our lungs out for the last zip, let go and enjoy the ride! I screamed out 'Who-Hoo', my 9 year old screamed out 'ice-cream' and my 11 year old screamed out 'Oh My God!' We had a blast!
After the zip line we went back to the visitor's centre for lunch, and instead of going back to do the Otway Fly walk, the guides actually said that going back to the waterfall was so much better, as we had essentially seen everything at a great height from the zip line, where as the waterfalls you were at ground zero enjoying it in all its lushness! And they also said, the best way to see it, is go through the 'exit' and do the trip backwards as you get to the waterfalls faster!
We jumped in the car, went back to the falls and found a full carpark. We found the exit and walked through the dense walkways and found the Triplet Falls... absolutely stunning.
The boys wanted to drive back to Apollo Bay, so we took the narrow winding road, which literally was the widths of 1.5 cars, and some how there were signs that we had to share this road with logging trucks! Have no idea how they'd get through. As it was so narrow, and I was stuck behind a camper van for most of it, I didn't take any pics. Apollo Bay was busy, well, busier than the night before. The boys wanted to play on the arcade games, grab an ice-cream and wander through the shops. We then jumped back into the car, to make our way home. We stopped a little outside Lorne for a half hour catnap to 'make' it home, but then I decided to contact a friend who lived in Torquay asking her what she was up to for dinner, as it was about 6.15pm and we were about to go through Torquay. Luckily she answered, and we caught up for a couple of hours at the Torquay Pub!
We arrived back home at about 10.30pm to my neighbours having a Halloween Party complete with hired spa and slurpee cocktail machine, but we were all too tired to enjoy the celebrations.
The boys loved their impromptu adventure... not sure where or when the next one will be, but I'm sure we can make it happen before Christmas!
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