The Beech Forest, The Great Otways National Park, Victoria, Australia
After we visited Cape Otway and decided we could not realistically camp there and eat a decent meal (not to mention the lack of toilet equipment), we headed towards a campsite in the Great Otways National Park Beech Forest which was marked on our map.
The “Redwoods” Campsite
Most national park campsites are free in Australia and we had, up until this point, been paying for our camping pitches, so we felt it would be good to sample bush camping in all its glory.
The Otways are mostly rainforest, and fairly disimilar in nature to their drier and less lush eucalypt forest counterparts. The beech forest is no exception to this rule. We reached our campground by turning right out of the road to cape otway, heading 5 kms along that road, then taking a left along an unsealed road.
This unsealed road was bumpy. Fuck me, was it bumpy. But, it was pretty
This place had a collection of Californian (Giant) Redwoods, that were planted in 1936. These have grown to a pretty spectacular height in 70 years!
We found the rather basic toilets (actually they were nice by bush standards…) and set up our tent. I made a fire using wood from the area and we had a nice little barbeque with a side salad…
Then we wandered off on a brief walk into the beech forest rainforest… wow… A nice place, with some giant trees, and noisy as hell due to the many insects, birds and mammals all yelling together.
The road here is another that we could not confortably have done without the 4×4 abilities of our Pajero, but is well worth the trip.
The Hopetoun Falls
In the morning, we wanted to head towards the Otway Fly, which was a little north east of where we camped, so we continued along the bumpy track for another few kilometers.
Along the way, we discovered the Hopetoun Falls. These falls, unmentioned in any of the guide books, and only given a tiny blob in our map, were quite spectacular and, due to the bumpiness of the track, were totally free from other visitors (an advantage after the black cockatoos had interrupted our sleep). There are a great deal of steps down to the waterfall, but the walk is definitely worth the burning quads. Actually, it was on the way down these steps, when feeling some stiffness in my legs, that I made a startling realisation: having been in Australia for 2 months, having gone up the Rialto Tower (by lift) all the while living in one of the ubiquitous bungalows – we had not gone up a single step for this entire time! No wonder there is an obesity problem here…
Back to the point… The Hopetoun Falls are really beautiful, and the rainforest walk there is enjoyable in itself. All the paths and steps are in an excellent state of repair (as are almost all within Victorian National Parks we have seen thus far on our journey) and make the walk all the easier for even the most timid of walkers (though it does require a little fitness up the hill).
This was all made better by the fact that it all cost nothing. Absolutely free. Like all the best things in life. But I still need a pound…
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hey mate sounds like you enjoyed the area.. u missed out but if u didnt visit beachamp falls just a bit further up the road.. catch ya
jack
Back in the late 1960s, a British engineer was brought out to Australia to transform the Vauxhall Viva into a Holden Torana. He was famously asked why anything at all needed to be changed and replied by explaining the difference between an Australian driver and a British driver: “An Australian will drive at 50mph down a goat track that an Englishman would walk first.”
I’ve been to visit Hopetoun falls and the Redwood stand next to the Aire river today, mid October, after the heaviest spring rains we’ve seen in years. We took a Holden Rodeo (2wd model) and a Mazda MX5, and at no stage was the dirt road at all challenging. I hope your comments about your 4wd have not put any readers off visiting this area, which is perfectly accessible by conventional car. There are parts of the access road subject to 40kph and 20kph speed limits, but this is because the narrow and winding roads also carry logging trucks during the week. I’m sure any englishman would be perfectly happy to drive much faster on such narrow winding roads with blind corners – just like the country lanes at home!
Graham.
From Manchester via Melbourne, emigrated about the same time as the Vauxhall Viva.
Hi Graham,
As this was written over 2 years ago, there is every chance the road surface has been altered.
There was heavy corrugation when we drove this track.
I doubt we’ll have “put anyone off” visiting – the chances of anyone discovering my obscure blog in preparation for a visit to Hopetoun Falls are slim at best, and the chance of them then deciding not to go because we said there was heavy corrugation is even slimmer. That said, I wouldn’t recommend taking a MX5 over this road when we took it – it was under heavy traffic from massive logging trucks at the time too.
Don’t assume though that, as an Englishman, I don’t know how to drive on dirt roads. I’m from the Yorkshire Dales, which is a far cry from Manchester!
Looks like more people stumble on your obscure blog than you realise…..
Got to agree with Graham – drove to Beauchamp Falls recently(same road as Hopetoun and Redwoods) in a heavily laden Astra and absolutely no probs (maybe they did up the roads in the past 3 years….)
Beauchamp Falls are also pretty amazing and gorgeous camp ground but without a creek or river at the campsite.
For other visitors the road(s) in from Colac are a bit easier (not so windy) than coming in from the Apollo Bay Rd but not nearly as fun to drive.
Good to hear they have fixed the roads up. They probably did it when they finished logging in the area?
I was being a little facetious when I described this blog as obscure, we get several thousand visitors from Google etc every week, and I am in fact available at the top of Google searches for “lord of the internet” as it is my job to put sites high in search engines, though again, that was an experiment not undertaken in all seriousness.
The point being that the road was heavily rutted when we drove along it – to the point where some of the holes were questionable in a 4WD Pajero – obviously it has been resurfaced since then, but the original comment made some ludicrous suggestions about my state of mind based on the assumption that the road was in the same condition 3 years ago. It wasn’t. I was also unimpressed with the narrow minded idea that it was probably me not the road: given that we drove around the whole continent of Australia in one year, and I class this section of road as the worst in the country, at the time, I think I am qualified to say that it wasn’t the best to tackle in a family car.
As I said, its good if it has changed, and I’m pretty sure anyone who ends up here looking to book a trip that way will be able to read the comments and make their mind up!
I’m pretty sure the idea that it was a worthwhile trip comes across still?