Treetop Walk at Otway Fly
We had been in Australia for several days and had had the chance to admire the urban scene, to stare at the ocean, to marvel at the late summer flowers, gawk at the previously unheard-of birds and finally close our gaping mouths during several successful samplings of local beer (a special nod to you, Kosciuszko Pale Ale).
We had even seen a koala. I’m not sure he saw or acknowledged us, as these beloved furry fellows can be quite lackadaisical.
We thought we were fresh out of amazement and will enjoy our rest of the trip like normal adults, not like five-year-olds running around and pointing at all the oddities in this wonderland, when our friends suggested a road trip over the weekend on the Great Ocean Road.
And among all the kinds of excitement that a trip in the great wide open of the great Down Under can bring, staring up (or down!) a 50 m-tall tree was a particularly special treat. Which happened at Otway Fly Treetop Walk, at only 2-3 hours’ drive from Melbourne.
Just before Apollo Bay, if you leave the dry scrub of the road close to the ocean, Otway National Park awaits with its exotic woodlands, lush vegetation and primeval-looking fern gullies, a sometimes very dense jungle-like forrest (technically not a rainforest, though, they are in different parts of Australia and have no eucalyptus trees).
Oh, the amazing gum trees! The forests in Otway area are mostly mountain ashes, aka eucalyptus trees, the tallest flowering plant, the preferred snack and abode of the sleepy koala. They can grow up to 100m high - the trees, not the koalas - and they are nothing if not overwhelming,
… when you look up:
… at eye level:
... or looking down.
Although the forest walk at Otway Fly is only 2 km long, it will take you more than an hour to stroll while twisting your neck looking up and feeling really small down there, on the paths among the “forest skyscrapers”, and feeling equally small after climbing on the actual treetop walkway (which is around 600m long).
Although it elevates you some 30 meters (even 47m at the top of the Spiral Tower), the mountain ashes around you go way higher than that.
To my regret, way up there it’s where they keep their flowers, which I could not see from below.
Fun fact about eucalyptus trees. Their seeds are held tight in a capsule, sealed with raisin at some species. Guess what causes the raisin to melt, the capsule to pop and release the seeds? Fire.
In fact the whole eucalyptus life scheme is like the mythological phoenix bird. With its build-in combustion system (the volatile flammable oils, the flammable, peeling, stringy bark), the eucalypt is its own kindle, pyre and rebirth. With popcorn.
Got vertigo?
The known snake fortunately did not leave his area to introduce himself.
Go check out more photos in the gallery: Treetop Walk, Otway Fly
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