Australia Holiday - Cape Otway Koalas

Looking up at the wildlife - 4th November

Koalas - in a trees with no leaves

Tourists with a Koala - sort of - behind you!

Walking in the bush

Today, our mission was to see some Koalas in the wild and visit the Southernmost point of Australia. We succeeded in the first objective! Our success was tinged with a bit of sadness though. There are loads of Koalas in the trees alongside the road we travelled on, down to Cape Otway. The trouble is they are eating the eucalyptus leaves too quickly which is killing the trees. The ongoing drought must not help either. So some of the poor little Koalas appear to be sitting in trees stripped bare. Logic says they should move to another tree but apparently they are very territorial and aggressive. The Authorities are talking about having a cull on the basis that there are too many to be supported by the healthy trees available to them. We counted 16 Koalas at one point where we stopped and there were probably more we did not spot. Hopefully they can be rehoused in some nice healthy trees and will live happily ever after. TW wanted to relocate one herself. Must find out what that scratching noise is in the boot?

Cape Otway Lighthouse - as close as we were allowed to go.

Maits Rest - walking in the rain forest

There is an old lighthouse at the end of the road. It was too expensive for us so we took a walk along a bush track. There was a viewpoint where we saw the lighthouse. It was a good walk but with ten foot high bushes on either side there was not a lot to see apart from bushes. We did pass the cemetery for the lighthouse. The lighthouse was incredibly isolated and was only supplied once a year. There was no road to get there in the old days so supplies came in by ship. Difficult to imagine having just one home delivery a year. The graves included infants born to the Lighthouse Keeper. The bush track we were on is just one section of the Great Ocean Walk that winds it way along the coast from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles. Must be a hard walk and not for the feint hearted.

For us motorists there are some impressive rain forest areas and beech forests just off the Ocean Road. Not far from the stricken Eucalyptus trees, maybe 15 minutes, there was an accessible gully full of tree ferns and giant trees. We took a walk through Maits Rest and it was like walking into an air-conditioned room after the heat of the bush. Only a short 30 minute walk but gave us an idea of what the rain forest is like.

We heated up again on our lunchtime picnic on the beach at Marengo.

We are working very hard at being proper tourists so lunch was followed by a much needed afternoon snooze back at Skenes Creek.