Day Two - A Walk in the Tree Tops

We all knew that it was going to be a long and tiring drive from Queenscliff to Warrnambool. What I didn’t know was that Maggie was going to choose the absolutely most challenging route possible – one that would send us to the very limit of our sanity.

At least things started well. Apart from some thick early morning fog, which quickly dissipated as the sun rose, the day was as about as perfect as any autumn day could possibly be. Although we could have chosen the quick and easy (and direct) route to Warrnambool, Maggie insisted that we follow the Great Ocean Road instead. I had to admit that it was spectacularly beautiful, although the narrow, winding road did mean that I had to concentrate fiercely as I rounded every blind corner. The large number of cyclists also added considerably to the level of driving difficulty, since it was impossible to pass them without crossing over double lines to the wrong side of the road.

Soon the elevated road started playing havoc with Maggie’s fear of heights. She started accompanying each bend in the road with an interesting, but alarming, sequence of gasps and hand clenches. It made it seem an awful lot longer than it probably was.

Eventually we reached Lorne, where we decided it was time for a coffee stop. Maggie decided to ring Andrea to see how far they had driven. It turned out that they hadn’t driven anywhere – they were still at the motel, just waking up.
Apparently they had lost all sense of time and were somewhat surprised that it had somehow “got late, early”. Although they had been looking forward to driving the Great Ocean Road, it was now far too late for that.

Somewhere along the line, Maggie had read about the so called “Otway Fly”, a treetop walk through the rain forest. She decided that we should include it in our already busy day schedule. What she didn’t tell me was that, in order to get from Lorne to the Otway Fly, we would have to navigate one of the scariest roads I have ever driven.

I don’t know how we (and our marriage) survived the ordeal of driving Turton’s Track, but I am certainly adding it to list of places we NEVER want to experience again. No wonder the sign said it was unsuitable for trucks, buses, trailers, caravans, cars over 3 m in length, and any drivers who wanted to stay alive. The “road” itself was only one car width wide and consisted of a never ending succession of blind corners. The peril was made even worse by the fact that the oncoming cars were all driven by red necked 4WD enthusiasts with a death wish.

By some rare aberration on the laws of probability and statistics, we did avoid certain catastrophe and managed to eventually reach the Otway Fly. The experience was interesting but, by that time, Maggie and I were at wits end, and really did not enjoy it as much as we normally would have. I also discovered that my phone had gone completely flat, and I was unable to take any pictures to prove that we had even got there.

After the treetop walk, we stopped for lunch at Lavers Hill, before completing the final 100 km to Warrnambool. Dinner consisted of takeaway Chinese eaten by Lake Pertobe. It was an enjoyable end to a long day, or it was until the mosquitoes sent us running to the safety of our cars.

Tomorrow, we ride the trail from Warrnambool to Port Fairy and back again.Read more