You walk the treetop canopy of the ancient Beech Myrtle tree forest on metal walkways. The forest floor is covered in ferns that are taller than us (I'd love these to have in the yard at home) and you'd expect a raptor to come charging out at you - in fact we did see some dinosaurs along the way! The trees are on average up to about 60 metres tall with the tallest being 65 metres and 5 metres in diameter at the base. Due to logging and receding in the areas over the years, they are not up to their true height which can be up to 100 metres. Wow!
There are also mountain ash in the forest. These trees reach maturity at about 300 years, but they can live far beyond that. To sustain their enormous height, they develop huge buttresses at the base of their trunks. It is said that the buttresses were hollowed out for various purposes. One became a stable big enough to house five horses. Another formed the base of a racecourse grandstand, while others became temporary homes for early settlers. Wow!
There is also diverse wildlife in the forest. We looked for the Crimson Rosella, the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo didn't see it but think we heard it's distinctive cry), the Spotted Quoll and the cute Pygmy Possum - but didn't see them - perhaps we weren't quiet enough :)
There are also unusual species only to be found in the region which include the Otway Stonefly Eusthenia nothofagi and the carnivorous Otway Black Snail which we also did not see. There are many more types of wildlife here as well, platypus, wombat, etc... but we were out of luck on this day.
What we did see was gorgeous, dense forest that you sure wouldn't want to be lost in at night! It was like stepping back in time and when we returned to the car we were tired and ready to sit once again! A worthwhile diversion! Check out our pictures below.
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