Otways

This past weekend I went to the Otways, which is a national park in Australia. It was a very pretty area. I really liked it. I headed down there with Anthony and Megan from the enviro club on Friday night. We headed to Cathy's house and got there around 10 p.m. We made pretty good time, especially since we took a wrong turn at one point. I also got to meet Cathy's bird Krumpet, who was pretty cool. He was very friendly and would sit on your shoulder.

Saturday was definitely a long day, but a fun one. Our first stop when we headed out that morning was Mait's Rest. It's a patch of rainforest in the Otways. Apparently Australia used to be covered in rainforest and forest areas before European settlement. Now there are only patches of these areas left. It was definitely very pretty. I always thought of rainforests being in hot, tropical climates, but at the moment it was cool, not hot and humid. There were lots of tall trees with underbrush, especially ferns. There were some tall ferns too, some taller than me. After Mait's Rest we drove a little ways and then stopped on the side of the road to do some koala searching. We found quite a few in the area where we stopped. I was also able to see a baby koala with its mom! So adorable. The baby was definitely cute. After looking at the koalas we headed to the Cape Otway Lighthouse, known as Lightstation in Australia. We had lunch at the cafe there and wandered around. We went into the lighthouse too. The lighthouse itself wasn't very big, but it was on a tall cliff. After the lighthouse we went over to the Otway Fly. The Otway Fly is a walkway that allows you to walk among the canopy of the trees. It was pretty cool. Not many people can say they've been among the canopy of a forest. The forest at this spot was very pretty too. The highest point in the walk was about 154 feet off of the ground. It was very cool. After the Otway Fly we headed over to Triplet Falls to do a short hike and look at the waterfalls. The waterfalls were pretty. The walk was also nice, since we were walking in the forest. There was definitely a lot of underbrush compared to forests at home. Later that night we went to go see some glow worms. That was another hike in the woods. It was worth it though. They glow worms were pretty though. It was like lots of small blue lights. It was something very cool to see. That night we hanged out at Cathy's house, and I got the chance to try to play a didgeridoo.

The next day we headed back to Melbourne, but we did stop along the way. We stopped at a small town called Lara for some lunch. I got to try some pancakes with ice cream on top, which is apparently how they eat pancakes in Australia. After lunch we headed to the Serendip Wildlife Sanctuary. This one was free, which was nice. The main focus of this sanctuary was wetlands, even though they also had animals such as the kangaroo and emu. Seeing the wetlands though was seeing something different. I thought it was cool. There were a lot of birds there. They had one interesting bird called a musk duck. I also saw a cute tiny bird called a fairy wren. After walking around the sanctuary we headed back to Melbourne. I definitely had a great time at the Otways. It was a fun trip.