Cape Otway - Day 1

A and I stayed at the Cape Otway Light Station this past weekend for two nights. We stayed in the Assistant Lightkeeper's Cottage, or, rather in a tiny annex of the original cottage. The cafe occupied the rest of the building. The whole complex dates from the 19th century, and the lighthouse itself from 1848. It was amazing to have free run of the property on the first night, with no-one else there other than the manager. The lighthouse could be seen from our kitchen table.

We explored the whole complex and went up in the lighthouse, explored the telegraph house, the historical displays in the old rubble cottage, the WWII bunker (a radar station), and the old cemetary up the hill.

The place reminded me of Karatta House, which my family owned and which we used to stay in for holidays when I was younger. The smell, the ocean, the plants, the age of the place all reminded me of it.

We drove down via the Great Ocean Road on Friday. The trip took around 4 hours, and the scenery was beautiful. In places the beach met the road, with rain forest on the other side. It was quite breathtaking. We stopped briefly at a couple of lookouts and also in Apollo Bay, home of giant slices, which seemed to be a feature of the region! The caramel slice we bought got divided up into 6 serves. We got more info at the Tourist Centre on the waterfalls and walks, and the glowworms.

We hit the rainforest region of the Great Otway National Park soon after leaving Apollo Bay which was quite different to the coastal scenery. We drove down through one section of the park (which is quite massive) to Cape Otway. On the way we passed a koala (just one of many that we saw), sitting on the side of the road.

When we arrived we unpacked and explored the grounds and then cooked a lovely dinner. It was quite cool there and very cold at night, but the cottage stayed warm easily as it was so small. It was very relaxing to be in such an isolated and quiet spot. We spent a lot of time reading our brochures and deciding what to do the next day...