The Otways
February 2003
Particpants: Alan & Hennie Spence, Pam Powell, Max Stevens, David Cathie, Elvyne Hogan, Liz Martin and David Crocker (leader).
Three cars left Bendigo with departure times varying from Friday morning to early Friday evening to the camping ground on the Aire River in the Otways National Park. Arrival of the third car at 10:30pm found the other five people already retired for the night. After pitching three more tents camp was made for the night.
I awoke early to the prospect of a fine day ahead. As the rest of the party rose I heard tales of the raucous events that had occurred late the previous night. One group of very inconsiderate campers had carried on a very loud karaoke session well interspersed with doses of foul language completely disregarding everybody else in the campsite. This description I give only on the basis of “hearsay” as I slept so soundly I did not hear anything!
We all loaded into two cars and headed back out to the Great Ocean Road and down the Lighthouse Road to park the cars at the beginning of the Blanket Bay Road at about 9:00am. From here we walked across Parker Hill to come across fine views down to the mouth of the Parker River which appeared to be an idyllic quiet campsite. There was also a nice area to camp at the end of a track on the hill above the river and even some suggestion that in view of the previous night’s events we should perhaps move camp for Saturday night.
We followed a walking track west on the cliff tops along the coast to pass Point Franklin. Further on we took the opportunity to descend onto the sand and stopped at Crayfish Bay for morning tea, aptly named as there were many craypots evident out to sea. Views of the coast were most impressive. A few more kilometres, including the last 500m along the unsealed road brought us to the Cape Otway lighthouse – which was very busy with visitors – so after a brief stop we headed off to the cemetery. The small cemetery is very well kept and contains a number of graves – including many children – dating back to the middle of the 19 th century.
We moved on a short distance from the cemetery to stop for lunch at a high spot where we enjoyed views ahead of the cliffs near Point Flinders. To follow the coast westward from here we had a choice of an inland route through the sand dunes or along the many kilometres of Station Beach. We took the beach and the chance to walk without boots. The great expanses of sand were interrupted a couple of times where small rough rocky promontories hindered progress and necessitated the return of ours boots. After about 5 km we arrived at the mouth to the Aire River and turned inland for 2km of a very sandy track to arrive back at the camping ground at 4:00pm. After which we retrieved the car left in the morning and stocked up our drinking water supply by visiting Parker River.
Around and near to the camping ground the forest was plentiful with koalas. Saturday night was less eventful than the previous night but again the trip leader missed everything by sleeping soundly.
Sunday morning we pack up camp and drove to Glenaire (5km direct, 15km by road) and parked the cars. We headed off towards the morning objective of Dinosaur Cove and had a short period of geographical embarrassment until the start of the ‘overgrown’ walking track was located. Subsequently this track wandered high above the cliffs following the coastline towards the west with many diversions inland as large gullies were reached. Although overgrown in places the track was easy to follow and we emerged above the descent to Dinosaur Cove after about 1½ hours. After a morning tea stop we made the steep descent to Dinosaur Cove.
The extensive rock shelf at Dinosaur Cove was well above water as the tide was fairly low, so were able to easily explore the area. Excavations were carried out here over the period 1984 to 1994. We returned up above Dinosaur Cove for a lunch break. After lunch rather than return via the same route on the ‘overgrown’ walking track we headed inland on a vehicle track, firstly through the coastal forests and then across open farmland to meet the Great Ocean Road about 2½km north of the cars. The drivers + Pam walked down to retrieve the cars.
The original plan of walking east from where the cars were parked back along the coast past Eagle Nest Rocks and Sentinel Rocks to the mouth of the Aire River and so to have walked the coast from Parker River to Dinosaur Cove was not completed. Instead an early departure for home was made with a relaxing afternoon café stop in Colac for coffee and cake before departing home for Bendigo. Two cars and five people further extended the weekend trip with an evening meal stop at the Grand Hotel in Maldon to conclude a very enjoyable weekend in the Otways.
David Crocker