After leaving Apollo Bay and heading towards Port Campbell through the Great Otway National Park,you turn left into Cape Otway Road towards the light station. Through a sturdy gate and up a long gravel country driveway,you find the lodge,a no-fuss yellow mud brick,weathered timber and corrugated roof structure sitting amid native trees and grassland.
It has only five guest rooms,each with a comfortable en suite,large bed and simple country antique style. In the main area there’s a big communal dining table,a big old lounge suite rescued from a relative’s attic,a roaring wood-burning heater and a vast library of books on native animals,the Otways and Great Ocean Road. There’s no TV and no recorded music,but there is Wi-Fi.
And there is the view. Big windows around the building look out to dramatic fluctuations in weather and the animals and birds that come to feed,including one or two large mobs of kangaroos.
Inside the lodge,guests pad around in their slippers or socks,curling up on couches with a book or their laptop and perhaps a local beer or glass of wine from the lodge’s bar menu. Afternoon tea is served in heirloom silver,a choice of tea or coffee and home-made cakes and biscuits.
One day during my visit Neal,towards dusk,leads a walk,past some rehabilitating koalas and grazing kangaroos to visit the real stars of the property,some captive tiger quolls which they keep here to help educate people about the endangered animal and the work they are doing to research and re-establish the local population. Once prolific,there have been no confirmed sightings for a decade. The lodge is dedicated to bringing the animals back,educating people about their place in the food chain and dazzling their guests with the amazing characteristics of the enigmatic animal.
A further stroll reveals a cul-de-sac of wild koalas,happily feasting and snoozing in trees. Neal explains the further research his team is undertaking to preserve both the koalas and the trees they inhabit. We’re accompanied by a boisterous German shepherd. She’s more than a pet,she’s the quoll-scat-hunting version of a truffle dog – trained to sniff out the droppings of the quoll (not the quolls themselves) in a do-no-harm program designed to monitor the creatures’ activities.
She bounds back to the lodge in front of us,where a three-course dinner is being prepared for guests. The meals are served by Neal and Corke – and there’s plenty of chat about wine recommendations.
The night is a wild one and the rain pelts the tin roof above us as the wind howls in the trees outside. But the lodge is eco-sealed – there are no draughts or chills in our cosy confines.
The morning brings a delicious continental breakfast. We bask in the lodge’s sunny lounge with more books before hitting the road. It’s a simple,restful stay that connects us to nature and opens our minds and hearts to new aspects of it.
The writer was a guest of Great Ocean Ecolodge and Great Ocean Road Marketing.
TRIP NOTES
GETTING THERE
Cape Otway is just under 220 kilometres from Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road.
If you’re travelling from Sydney and short of time,consider flying with Jetstar directly to Avalon Airport near Geelong,which is close to the Great Ocean Road,and bypass Melbourne. Seejetstar.com.
STAYING THERE
Great Ocean Ecolodge,635 Otway Lighthouse Rd,Cape Otway,Victoria;phone (03) 5237 9297;$370 a room a night;room with a sundeck $400 a night. Continental breakfast is included. Cooked breakfast is $15,a picnic lunch $25 a person and dinner $55 a person. (Alcoholic drinks are extra.)
MORE INFORMATIONgreatoceanecolodge.com.