Day 2, Friday April 19^th 2013, Marengo Beach, Apollo Bay

Up early to catch the sunrise on the beach, it’s chilly and invigorating and certainly long pants weather. The rock shelf is tessellated and very flat. I find a family’s names carved in the rock and dated 1913 and what looks like a return visit in 1936.

A group of us head off to the Otway Fly in the Otway National Park. A CB radio is passed to us so we can follow instructions, and away we go. It is a great way to see the rainforest from high above and from below and we probably cover a few kilometres walking up and down the paths, walkways, and up the tower that gives a view from 47 metres above the forest floor. There’s even a golf cart pick-up service for those who run out of puff. A warming cuppa in the kiosk and then we have a car boot picnic in the car park.

Off again (gee, these guys don’t let the grass grow under their feet) and just down the road to the Triplet Falls, with complaining knees, we climb down hundreds of steps (I wonder if anyone counted them). The falls were pretty and even better there was a shortcut back to the car park that involved much fewer steps. 

We head back to camp via Beech Forest, the beautiful Turton’s Track and Skenes Creek. It is heart-warming to see that the town of Beech Forest has named a park after Cliff Young and have even mounted a concrete gumboot as a memorial to their famous jogging son.

Back at camp, it’s Friday night, we’re sitting around the fire and someone calls out “Who’s for fish & chips?”. A quick dash into town and dinner is on our laps. They do it well this mob.

2022 Note: We bought one of those CB radio thingies soon after and discovered that it was a must-have for caravanning. For talking to truckies, talking to your mates in other vehicles and for setting up your single mates with dates with farmers who may want a wife.

At 61, Cliff Young the potato farmer from the Otways won the first ultramarathon from Sydney to Melbourne. He used to practise in gumboots.