Maits Rest Rainforest and Cape Otway
Trip Start
Aug 08, 2003
1
3
20
Trip End
Aug 23, 2003
Cape Otway,
Australia
Sunday, August 17, 2003
Well ,the weather bureau always get it right at the wrong time. They said cold wet weather was going to follow a stunning Saturday, and they were spot on. We packed in blustery winds and drizzle, and it just went down hill from there.
The Great Ocean Road leaves the coast for about 30 km as it cut across the base of Cape Otway from Marengo to Glenaire. Around half way across are two distractions (diversions). First stop is right on the side of the road, Mait's Rest. There was only one car in the carpark, so we had the walk through the rainforest pretty much to ourselves. We are fairly familiar with Australian rainforests, but most overseas tourists struggle with the concept of there being rainforests in far north Queensland (The Daintree etc, which are tropical), on the NSW coast (mediteranean) and Victoria (temperate)
From the lighthouse, looking toward the east.
. Most only seem to equate rainforests with the tropics. Here we have a rainforest where they have built a raised timber path to walk through and above the fern gullies, eucalypts and 300 year old myrtle beeches. The path has blended in to the rainforest to the extent that it has plants growing out of the cracks between the boards. Many of the myrtle beeches begin life by sending out roots over the fallen trunks of other trees. As they grow, the old tree rots away, providing nutrients for the new tree. Eventually, the tree reaches maturity and the old trunks have rotted away entirely, leaving the roots standing on tip toes. The photographs on this page best illustrate. There is one in particular that is listed by the National Trust, which appears to be three trees fused together (with three distinct trunks ). Plenty of birds in the rainforest, but no signs of any animals.By the time we returned to the car, another half dozen had arrived in the carpark. Here we thought we would be travelling the Great Ocean Road in winter, with few other tourists around. As the day progressed, there were more and more at every place we stopped.
A little further on from Mait's Rest, a sealed road took us out 10km or so to the Cape Otway Lighthouse. Given the cost of maintaining some of these sites, it is not surprising to find that the Cape Otway Lighthouse is now operated by a private company. It is securely fenced off, and you have to enter through their tourist shop, pay your entry fee, and exit through a side door into the lighthouse grounds. Inside is the original Telegraph Station, lighthouse keepers house (not open), staff houses, workshops (housing a good museum), coffee shop, the lighthouse itself, and to the west, the remains of the military installations from WW2
Myrtle Beech
. All are separated by large sections of scrub (wattle etc). The Telegraph Station is currently being restored and is in reasonable condition inside, but still in need of a coat of paint on the outside. Given the blasting winds and massive seas coming up from the Antarctic, it's probably appropriate that it looks like it does with peeling paint and salt encrusted fittings. This coming weekend is to be a meeting of amateur radio fanatics. So there were ariels bolted to the backs of cars, the sound of morse code everywhere we walked, vehicles with back seats removed and computers and radios bolted in place, and strange people sitting over their equipment tapping out messages. In front of the Telegraph Station, right up on the edge of the cliff, is a mighty flag pole. The sound of rope whipping against the aluminium pole was constant, as the wind was really powerful. This signal pole, is a replica of the one that preceded the telegraph. This is the point at which shipping enters Bass Straight, and it is just a 50 mile gap between King Island and the cape. Shipping would be warned away from the cape by the lighthouse , and given messages by flags. I guess some people wonder why there are signs at many of the lookouts, and here at the lighthouse, saying that many ships were wrecked along this stretch of coast (150 or so), when trying to avoid running into King Island. The point being, how could you being trying to avoid a big island at the entrance to Bass Straight and run into the mainland 50 miles away? Easy! Given that many were in the days of sail or early steam shipping, they were invariably being driven east by the roaring 40's, with not a lot of manoeuvrability in massive seas driving up from the south. In other words steer for King Island on the assumption that by the time it comes into sight, the wind and waves will be pushing you north
Telegraph Station
. Get your bearing slightly wrong and start out too far north, and it must have been a hell of a job to fight the steering wheel and thread the needle. The chap on duty in the lighthouse today, told us that he was on duty the day before the North Korean ship was stopped and searched for drugs. That's the ship a month or so ago, that was running drugs for the North Korean Government, with a government official on board. He said that had the lighthouse keeper himself been on duty, he would have known something strange was happening. As it was, he himself was concerned because the ship spent hours making absolutely no headway into 30 metre waves. He said that it just kept burying its nose into these massive waves. He didn't report it, because they are no longer an official lighthouse. The current light is an electronic one housed down on the cliff in front of the old lighthouse. It is computerised and I guess there is a base somewhere where they monitor vessels entering Bass Straight, so this old lighthouse is now just a tourist site.
When we climbed up inside the lighthouse and out onto the viewing deck, the wind almost swept us away. The view from up there is spectacular, but the wind drove us back inside. The attendant passes the time between chatting to tourists in cleaning the brass
The Cape Otway Lighthouse
. Given the salt environment, as many of the fittings as possible were made in brass, including what appeared to be miniature portholes right around the room in which the light is installed. They are in fact to provide ventilation. They can be opened on the lea side, to allow in enough air for the light. Several points, the original light burnt whale oil, then kerosene and finally oil, before switching to electricity. In burning fuel, it requires something like 50 litres of air per litre of fuel. Without the air, it would smoke. Smoke would effect the lenses and mirrors, turn the light yellow and reduce the distance it could throw the light. In it's heyday, the light could be seen something like 49 km out to sea. The current modern light can only be seen for 43km. Old technology was still efficient technology! Anyway, I suggested that they should have Brasso as sponsors, and he confirmed that they get through boxes of the stuff.Back down on the cliff, we were blown up to the coffee shop, where we warmed up and then headed across to the WW2 radar installation. It is in sad repair. Like most things built for the war, it is utilitarian to say the least. Just a concrete block house. Here they kept 24 hour watch over a bank of radar screens shipped out from Britain. The men were housed in quickly thrown up huts, and they have vanished almost entirely. There is 5 metres of back fence and a gate, and the foundation slabs, and that's about it.
