Otway National Park: Sleeping Under Koalas

With the Saturday sun slowly setting, we were on the search for a place to camp for the night. We turned off the great ocean road near Cape Otway and into the Otway National Park.


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In the field by the road we noticed many large Kangaroos grazing on the grass. We pulled over immediately and walked into the field to investigate:

There were so many; They weren't as friendly as the Roo's near Pebbly Beach, but they didn't flee from us, they just watched from afar, retreating when we approached.

Continuing into the bush we noticed Koalas in the trees, many, many Koalas.

The sun finally began to set and the Koalas became silhouetted against the gumtrees before disappearing into the dusk.

Up the road we entered Bimbi Park. We decided to pay the $10 camping fee to sleep amongst the ever-sleeping Koalas of the park. These two, funny characters, one French, showed us to the camping site:

It wasn't till the morning when the sun came up, and a bush walk through the park to the beach, that we noticed how much of a magical place Bimbi really was.

Rolling fields with meandering sheep led us to the eucalyptus forest:

Once in the trees we saw even more Koalas!! I couldn't believe how plentiful these creatures were. They seriously were everywhere in this gum tree forest.

We climbed some of the Eucalyptus trees to get closer to the Koalas:

As we continued down the trail the eucalyptus forests gave-way to different, more beach-like flora.

There were horses in woods too!! We saw a large white horse roaming in the bush:

After a long bush walk we finally got a view of Cape Otway. It took awhile to get to the beach. We left the trail and continued walking on horse tracks to save time.

A windmill overlooked the beach. While passing I noticed some cannibal lizards:

The torrential waves of  the Otway Cape were gigantic and loomed out across the horizon. It's no surprise that this is referred to as the shipwreck coast -- many vessels litter the beaches along the cape, mostly from the Victorian period, in a graveyard of ships. 

Continuing back to Bimbi Park was harder than we thought. We quckly got lost in the horse tracks and couldn't find out way back till someone's iphone GPS led the way:

The large white horse had a friend in the Bush, and they both welcomed us back to Bimbi Park when we finally arrived:

The Great Ocean Road Begins

On Friday, after parking near the beach for the night, we awoke near the start of the great ocean road. This road road is said to be the most beautiful road in Australia, as it follows the limestone coast which has been slowly transformed and eroded by time, creating cliffs and rock monoliths over thousands of years.


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Our first stop was Bells Beach:

After, we continued down the Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay:

Not too long after Bells Beach we noticed an Echidna by the side of the road!!

We pulled over at the Big Hill lookout just before Apollo Bay:

Apollo Bay had many shops and stores but we all just rested by the bench in the park for a midday lunch:

As we left Apollo Bay we noticed cars pulled over on the side of the great ocean road and people staring up at the treetops. There were Koalas in the Eucalyptus trees!!

...and every one of them were asleep!! Because Eucalyptus leaves, Koalas main source of food, are low in Protein, they sleep up to 18 hours a day!! Such lazy creatures! I was enthralled to see a Koala in the wild, as the Koala is my favorite of Australia's wildlife; And I was about to see even more down the road...