Don't drive on by
I heard that locals take their overseas visitors on this particular walk so I figured it must be something special.
So I drove the 15km out of Apollo Bay, along the Great Ocean Road to find it.
Fronds unfurl
It is definitely another world. It is an Eden, like some prehistoric forest, any moment you expect dinosaurs to come thumping out of the undergrowth.
The fact that some of the growth looked like unicorns and prehistoric plumed birds did nothing to dispel this image.
What is lurking in the tree? It seems to have claws
Beauty and wonder
It is a glade covered in enormous Jurassic-type tree ferns. Then lying lying like sleeping giants on the ground or towering above you are gigantic trees. They are so large that some you can even walk through the cavities in their trunks.
The variety of foliage
Some are over 300 years old. Many tower like skyscrapers but as your eyes continue following the trunk you find that the top of the tree itself has broken off in a storm. When you consider that you are looking up at half a tree it makes their size even more amazing.
The whole walk takes about 30 to 40 minutes depending on your level of fitness. The track can be reasonably steep but because of the short duration of this steepness, and because the path is so well kept most people would not have any trouble using it including children. The track is also stroller friendly and would be possible (but more difficult) with wheelchairs.
The path
Children would also love all the hidey-hole nooks and crannies in the tree trunks and using their imaginations to make up creatures out of the fallen logs as they walk along.
A hole in one tree
An attractive meandering board walk protects the moss covered roots and delicate ecosystem but you can still see all this beauty off to the side. But wisely you are prevented from stamping on this delicate almost sacred place.
The board walk
Dusk is a lovely time to venture out on this walk because of the chorusing birds and sometimes you can even see the swamp wallabies, koalas, ring-tailed possums and grey kangaroos or even the yellow-bellied gliders screaming out as they glide from tree to tree.
This one reminds me of a prehistoric bird with plumes
Giants of the deep forest
