I haven't done a lot in the Otways with the exception of getting drunk at a few Rock Above The Falls festivals long ago in my youth, so I was excited to give this one a crack.
Late winter in Victoria, yup, we are going to get cold and wet but as we drove down to Lorne on the Friday arvo the weather looked ok.
Hitting the Otways
Brent, Kell and I were in one car and made our way down on the Friday arvo to set up camp and await Kev and two newbies to Wazzas Wanderers
Kev had recruited two guys from work who were keen to join us so the 3 of them were to make their way down to Lorne after work Friday night.
We arrived mid arvo at Allenvale Mill camp site, a nice spot set a few hundred metres from the car park but a perfect place to chill for the arvo while we awaited for Kev and his crew to arrive.
Kell saying hi to a local
Other than one other lone hiker the rather large campsite was empty. Being close to the car it was nice to be able to cook up a nice big meal on a gas BBQ we bought with us and the arvo was spent catching up, relaxing and a few beers went down nicely also.
We woke to a brisk but nice morning. It was good to meet the new comers to the group, Damo and Steve, brothers from Ballarat so like Brent, was used to the cold.
We left one car at Allenvale Mill camp site and drove up along the windy but beautiful road to Erskin Falls where we had low lying cloud and the roar of the of the water fall in the distant.
It was 9am, we were all geared up for the start of another adventure, we were pumped.
As we started walking we realised a few things.
The trees were bloody huge.
The ground was bloody muddy.
But the bush was bloody beautiful. We were in out element and loving every muddy step we took.
By 10:30 we had hit our first set of falls on the hike, the Cora Lynn Falls. Fast flowing and a nice spot to fill up our water bottles.
Things started to get interesting from here. The river was flowing, the terrain was thick with parts of the track unrecognisable meaning we were disorientated for about 30 minutes until we found the track and the footing was muddy, but this was awesome, we were loving it.
We spent a good 2 hours snaking our way along the Cora Lyn Creek, finally giving up on trying to keep our feet dry and just walking through the water.
This section of the hike was amazing, we had never done anything like it. There were a lot of laughs as we were all getting soaked and falling over constantly on the slippery rocks and logs.
We all at the beginning were trying to do the number of creek crossing without getting our feet wet, but this was a challenge and by the end were didn't care, it was full wet feet knowing we would have to try and dry our boots out a little that evening.
About 12.30 we were out of the river, and just quietly, were were happy. It was rugged, wet, beautiful but a little hard going with loaded packs. A lot of fun though.
We walked a little more up and out of the creek until we come to Allen Dam where we would stop for lunch about 1:30 on a nice grassy spot where we were all keen for some well deserved food. We know the one member of the group that was about to start eating the bark from the tress if we didn't stop for food.
With loaded bellies and wet feet we were off by 2pm heading for the next stop, Phantom Falls.
There were a few day walkers at the falls, first people we had seen all morning.
We climbed down had a little look around before we pushed on.
As always if it wasn't Kev stopping to take pics of some weird and wonderful mushrooms, Kell was taking her time to show some love for the gigantic trees that towered above us.
As the arvo was getting on we had reached The Canyon a little before 3pm. This place was nice, very enclosed with boulder walls seeming like they imprisoned us. A few other tourists were wondering around this section as we made our way through it.
The map said there was one more waterfall to pass before we made our camp sight for the night. As always the way was wet and muddy but by now trying to avoid the bog holes was pointless as our boots and socks were soaked.
We were pleasantly surprised to arrive at the Henderson Falls, my favourite falls so far, not the biggest fastest or loudest but definitely the nicest.
By now our boots were muddy and wet through but we knew we were on the home stretch for the day with our next stop being our camp for the night.
We arrived about 4:30 in the day and were a little underwhelmed with the Sharps Camping area. It wasn't that pretty and there were dedicated areas that were covered in garden mulch, but it had to do.
We got a little fire going to dry our boots and sit around while we ate our dinner. Some light rain started but it wasn't that bad so we continued talking crap while sipping on our hiking drink of choice, port.
We woke to a nice but chilly morning, made some breakfast, geared up and headed off.
By 8:30 we were back in the mud hiking towards Sheoak Picnic Area.
Quick toilet stop and we were off heading through some nice green forest and giving up instantly to try and keep our feet dry .
We were on our way to the Lower and Upper Kilimna Falls
The Lower falls were really cool with a great spot to sit and look and take in the beautiful surroundings. We all made our way under the falls where we were deafened by the roar of the water.
It was 10am when we arrived at the lower falls, we spent some time there before heading to the upper falls. They were ok but were only visible from a distance.
From here we followed the Garvey Track and made our way down to Castle Rock lookout.
The lookout was ok but took some time out of the day and steep in parts to get to, but not too bad. We are glad we dropped our packs before making our way down to it.
We headed back up and continued our journey in the direction of Swallow Cave falls where we would stop for lunch and a rest.
We had a nice little lunch spot on the creek bed, a good spot to fill our bottles and have a break.
A few or the crew started to show signs of fatigue so scoffed their food and took the opportunity so have a sleep.
The area was nice, worth a visit and very popular as it is very close to a car park so there were quite a few people around.
From here we started our way back to where we would finish, the Sheoak Picnic Area.
By mid arvo we were back, pretty wet and muddy but were not complaining a bit as we had an amazing hike and saw some beautiful forests and waterfalls.
I would highly recommend getting out in the Otways and finding some of these falls and hiking some of these trails, was stunning, and made it better as we picked the perfect time of the year to visit. Will definitely go down as one of my faves and as always, I was lucky to share it with some awesome friends.
Upper Kalimna Falls
