The Great Otway National Park (Victoria, Australia)
29 - 31 March 2025
My earliest memories of the Great
Otway National Park go back to when I was 25. I had gone down to Melbourne to
attend the wedding of a friend that I worked with. The next morning after the
wedding I had drove out alone, having given myself a few days to simply escape
along the Great Ocean Road – partly to soak in the breathtaking, rugged
coastline, but mostly, just to have some time alone with my own thoughts. I
wanted a bit of solitude, to have some time for introspection and reflection in
a place that I thought would give me the freedom to get lost in my thoughts.
On reflection, that time of my
life, all of my 20’s and into my 30’s, I found extremely challenging. I was
consumed with all sorts of feelings of inadequacy, and didn’t have the tools in
my kitbag to be able to resolve the ‘deficiency’,
nor did I believe that I had the right connections (relationships) that I could
utilise as an outlet to assist me in pulling out of that mindset. I felt alone
and isolated. Sure, I had some decent friends, but I had difficulties socially,
had not achieved any sort of minor success in my life and really, just felt
like my life was stuck in an endless cycle of discontent, dejection and persistent
gloom. This drive was a highlight. It was classic escapism, and even
though it was fleeting, I remember that it just felt liberating.
Cruising through several coast towns on my
drive of discovery, I recalled heading inland after making it past Apollo Bay -
where at some point I became immersed in
a greenscape of steepling, cathedral like eucalypts (Mountain Ash trees), which
towered majestically high above the road. Following the B100 – Great Ocean
Road route, with my sights set on getting to the twelve apostles, I felt
enveloped by their size and the extensive canopy – there was a breathtaking
sense of scale and grandeur that I really enjoyed. What I distinctly still
recall is making my way to place named Laver’s Hill, which by its name
you can probably guess is set upon high, on a ridge line where you're able to look back down onto the coastline and the Great Southern Ocean there beyond. I remember that during
that trip I had been playing Ian Moss’s Worlds Away on tape, and specifically
had been listening to one song relentlessly (Slip Away). Cruising into Laver’s
Hill I remember slowing down and taking a left hand turn to continue along the
Great Ocean Road. I don’t know what it was about that place (Laver’s Hill).
It’s not at all exceptional, or notable. It’s nice, but for some reason it made
such an impression on me that I knew that at some point in my life I
specifically wanted to come back to this spot, there was just an allure for me
that I couldn’t quite explain.
Roll forward half of my life and
there we were, making plans to spend time in the Otway’s to celebrate both Inga
and Aiden’s birthday. It’s not a stretch to say that the initial drive I took to the Otways felt
like a lifetime ago to me now, because it really was (25 yrs prior), but that time and my drive through the area had made such an impression, that I knew way back then that there would be
times in my future when I would return. In those years since I have had the opportunity to pass through, mostly whilst taking drives along the Great Ocean Road, but on this occasion,
we had deliberately made plans to spend an extended weekend in the Otways after I had
discovered a charming cabin in Kawarren. What attracted us was the sight of a beautiful wooden cabin surrounded by lovely trees set amidst the tranquillity and
gentle beauty of this serene Otway landscape (thank you AirBnB - it was an easy decision to make.
It's become somewhat a tradition
for us to get away for Aiden & Inga’s birthday considering they're within
days of one another. So it was with
absolute pleasure that we found ourselves at Otway Brewery Estate Brewery
Distillery & Cidery (https://otwayestate.com.au/)
on an absolutely magnificent Saturday afternoon. With the sun streaming down,
it was an absolute pleasure two be sitting outside with my two favourite
people, have a couple of domestic red wines and just enjoy one another’s
company.
The cabin (aka Otway Treehouse)
that we’d booked was only a short 5-7 min drive from the brewery. A secluded
haven of peace and beauty, set on nearly three acres of Otway majesty, this was
exactly the type of retreat we were looking for. Surrounded by the gentle hum
of the forest and the crisp clean air of the Otways, we found our way into a
extremely cosy, three bedroom cabin, that was going to be our home for the next
two nights.
Of course, during my time there I
did find myself drifting off and remembering when I had initially driven
through the Otways and how different my life was now to back then. Its times
like now that I wish that I could somehow send a message back to myself…just to
let myself know that things do get better, that hanging in and believing that
things can change is where the real battle is – and maybe there’s a
philosophical interpretation to that outcome where somewhere in a non-linear
sense that consciousness might somehow transcend ordinary time. It’s in the
same way that I recall distinct times in my life where I had distinct thoughts
and feelings in locations that I knew at some point would hold significance for
me, for example, Melbourne, Riga, Buenos Aires and distinct locations in those
cities, that in the moment, in that very first instance of discovery, that I already
had a sense of it being significant to me. Now that might be my own sense of
cognitive reframing, where the current moment resets the framework or the
construct of who I thought I was, or what I truly thought at the time……BUT…..what
defeats that notion (I think), is this blog. I have written on many occasions
the feeling of a place and time, in the moment, that somehow eluded to its
significance in advance. Here in the Otways, it seems like I had always known
that this would be a special place for me.
The next day was Inga’s birthday
and in the morning we headed to Otway Fly Treetop Adventures (https://otwayfly.com.au/), to experience an
elevated walk amongst the treetops. The treetop walkway is set high above the
forest floor, about 25-30mtrs off the ground, which gives you the opportunity of
giving you some fabulous view amongst the lush canopy and truly enjoy being in
the midst of the forest. On this morning the rain was a little on the average
side with a persistent drizzle become an unnecessary nuisance but we persisted
and made our way to a 47-metre spiral tower which held a commanding view over
the surrounding area. It was fairly impressive, although when the wind picked
up there was slight panic amongst the ranks with the amount of movement that
the tower got. Even from an old hand like me, it felt a little disconcerting.
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Post treetop experience we headed
off to find a place to have a celebratory lunch for Inga, making our way to Laver’s
Hill. The semi-intention was to have
a late lunch at ‘The Perch at Laver’s Hill’, https://theperchlavershill.com.au/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=GMB,
which is a really lovely place – and would have been a great birthday option,
other than the fact that between lunch and dinner the place is closed for several
hours, which is exactly the time we arrived. So our default option was to head
to Apollo Bay in order to find something down by the beach but for some reason
I selected a random route that ended up being closed about midway through the
drive, turning us on our heels and forcing us to backtrack in totality. Unfortunately
we ended up settling for the unremarkable outpost of Colac, at a desperately cavernous
La Porchetta restaurant. This place was huge! It looked like it could
accommodate upwards of a 150 eager diners, which to me felt slightly ambitious
for what it was, and for the fact that evening there were a total of 10 people
in the restaurant, five of which were staff. Of course, I apologised to Inga
and promised to make it up to her next year.
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Our final day was a slow journey
back to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road, which was the first time I’d actually
travelled in the ‘opposite direction’, i.e., driving into Melbourne rather than
away from it.
Drives back home are always bittersweet
in that you lament the time that has past but in some small way look forward to
crashing out in your bed that evening. Driving along the Great Ocean Road at
any time is a fabulous experience but doing it in your own soft top GT 5.0
Mustang is slightly elevated, in my own humble opinion. Once again, I did catch
myself in moments, whilst Inga & Aiden dosed during the drive, thinking
back to 25 years earlier, having driven in the opposite direction. Driving in exactly
the same location, in the same space, just with time separating me from now and
then. How different that time was to me, and yet, how necessary it was.(I
believe), to have allowed me to get to where I was in this moment.
We rounded out our day in the lovely
beachside town of Torquay, having ourselves a late lunch and spending a few
mins on the wind blustered Torquay Front beach attempting to throw around a
frisbee.
And there you have it, a lovely
weekend in the Otways. For me, somewhere between then and now, the landscape
remained, whilst I transitioned to someone, and somewhere else. In its quiet, I
felt both the weight of the years and the freedom that its granted me. I wish I
could have access the me of then, just to say, ‘mate, its ok, you’ll be alright’,
and maybe somewhere deep inside me I knew that because I honestly always believed
that someday that would be the case, I just didn’t know how or where. But now I
do 😊
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