Easter 2005 - Otways



We were up bright and early and our first stop was at the town of Beech Forest where we viewed information and photographs of logging in the 18 - 1900's. Our first waterfall was Hopetoun Falls then onto Aire Crossing a very peaceful place with a flying fox which was used to transport supplies when the river was in flood. Next was Triplet Falls and a lovely walk around the forest. There was a patch of forest with no trees as vandals had ring-barked them with a chainsaw and they had to be taken down for safety reasons a few years ago. When we returned to the carpark it was time for lunch.

Sarah and Andrew Blanchard

Sunday arrived and I was awoken to hysterical laughter, no, it was not because of Stuart wearing Easter bunny ears, it was my memories of the previous night with Bill spooking tourists in the dark hunting for glow worms.

It was Easter Sunday. I have never seen so many Easter Bunnies, in fact I think they had 1 in each car. I'm sure that Kaiden, Chelsea and Daniel really appreciated this, thank you Easter Bunny(s).

It was time for a drive and off we headed via Forrest into the picturesque forest. Before lunch we drove through some tight tracks with a few rutty mud patches, one were Alan hung his car up and left two of his wheels in the air. Lunch time arrived and we headed back to Forrest Reservoir for a break and a bite.

Paul C

Highlights of the weekend included the coffee supplied by the Lions Club (stop and survive trailer) on the drive down to Otway Oasis. A drive on Saturday included waterfalls, yes! We did see waterfalls and ended up at the new fly over the canopy of the rainforest.

In the evening we enjoyed a swim in the local warm swimming pool & then went to see the glow worms at Melba Gully. We were fortunate enough to meet a gentleman who knew heaps about glowworms & demonstrated his knowledge to the group by showing them the actual threads and what a worm actually looks like. Bill frightened a group of girls by hiding in the bushes & turning his torch on himself. Boy! Did Paul laugh at that stunt? He was still laughing the next day.

MUD Glorious MUD ... We looked for it all day Sunday but it was very hard to find. It has been so dry down in the rainforests that most of the tracks were reasonable easy to drive through but the men were itching, rearing to go, mud had to be found. As you can see from the photos we found a couple of patches of mud to play in. Vehicles became bogged, men alighted from vehicles with grins on their faces and recovery gear became muddy and used. An enjoyable weekend that was concluded with a drive to Mount Gambier and a meal at the local pub.

Carol

After lunch at the Barwon Dam we headed west to the Barwon Track. We saw beautiful tree ferns some standing taller than the cars. The track went down, down, down, up, up and down, down, down. Poor little Daniel got carsick and all Dean could say was shows what sort of a ride you get in a Landcruiser. Strangely there was no reply to this. We came to a deep mudhole and a challenge was put out to Paul, he walked the track while Paula sat in the car shaking her head. After much deliberation he declined. This upset Chelsea because if Paul had taken the challenge, Dean would have followed and Chelsea really wanted to go in the mud.

Chelsea wasn't to be denied however because at the next lot of mud Dean chose a different line from the rest of us and we didn't believe it DEAN GOT STUCK IN THE MUD!!! After much cheering and cajoling Dean was snatched out by a TOYOTA, even more amazing Deb didn't spill a drop of beer throughout the whole episode. Of course Paul (in the Toyota) flew through- Stuart and Karen weren’t so lucky they got well and truly stuck. The Toyota came to the rescue again. All the men had a great time because WE HAD FOUND MUD!!!!!!

Ineke



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