In the morning of our last day on the Great Ocean Road, given that it was rather cloudy and windy outside, we spontaneously decided to try something that we hadn’t done so far: a treetop walk.

But before we got there, we first wanted to get a second chance at seeing wild koala’s. While enjoying the panoramic views across the Great Ocean Road I was scouting the treetops and at the same time convincing our ever-patient toddler that looking at koala’s is fun. The treetop strategy didn’t work out very well, but the other strategy did work: look out for other people parking their car and looking up. After about half an hour, when our son had just fallen asleep, we finally faced a wild koala. Although technically, the koala didn’t seem to feel like facing us back, so the facing was mostly one-directional. After waking up our son and showing him the koala in the top of the tree, the koala finally turned his head and the moment we had all been waiting for finally happened!

We then drove back along the coast towards Apollo Bay and continued on towards the Otway Fly Treetop Adventures. Getting there was an adventure by itself, as the road (which was not accessible for campers) was very narrow, curvy and seemed like it came straight from jungle book.

The Treetop Walk is also one of the attractions that is supposed to be busy all the time, but it looks like we got lucky again. If you decide to do this walk and you are taking young children with you who love to stop and explore, take at least 2-3 hours. There is a walk from the car park to the visitors centre and another walk until the Treetop Walk begins. The entire walk is a bit more than 2km. Strollers are allowed and you can easily do almost the entire walk with a stroller.

This whole adventure was wonderful for all of us. We got to experience the rainforest from different perspectives, from the rainforest floor to the heights of the treetops. The elevated walkway is 600 metres long and 25 meters high and is one of the highest and longest steel canopy walks in the world. It certainly provides a unique view of the forest. The scenery builds up the more you walk ahead. Once you get on the top (the 45 metres tall Spiral Tower), the view on the trees and ferns spreading out below is definitely a sight to behold. It becomes quite funny (scary) at times when the trails and the trees move or when you sway in the wind on the cantilever perched above Young’s Creek. Don’t do this if you are afraid of heights!

Our son stayed in the pram during the forest walk. Once he saw the elevated walkway he got very enthusiastic and walked/ran on all of them. Bringing the stroller was still a good idea though, as he refused to walk the (uphill) forest walkway on the way back. Back at the visitors centre there was a playground, which was a good way for us to relax from pushing the stroller uphill, and for our son to deplete his batteries again before the long drive back to Melbourne.

This was our final day on the Great Ocean Road and this adventure was a surprisingly fun way of spending it.