Great Ocean Walk - Day 7

Day 7 Devil’s Kitchen – Princetown

From the beginning, Shelly Bay, to the end.....

The Final Stage - Rivernook

We decided to start the last day nice and early as we wanted to get home as early as possible, it being so close to Christmas. The last day was pretty straight forward, with an undulating track along the coastline. We made good progress and were back at the car by 10am. The track again went on and on, and seemed to be a lot longer than expected! There is also a path through the wetlands from the GOW path to Prncetown that isn’t shown on the map, as we thought we would have to walk back along the Great Ocean Road, so the slight saving at the end was appreciated. 

We saw massive flocks of Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos throughout the walk, I have never seen so many in one place!

It was lovely to be able to get rid of the rucksack, take off the boots and have some real food. A Coke Zero and Sausage Roll went down a treat! A quick wash and into the clothes we had left in the car and we were off to pick up our boxes and on our way home!

Back at the car!

Did we enjoy the walk? Yes, but was very glad to have finished. 

Was it what we expected? Yes and No, but there was a lot of walking where you couldn’t see the coastline and where you couldn’t see much further than the next tree.

Would we do the whole thing again? Probably not

Would we utilise the sites for a weekend? Probably

Were we impressed with the facilities? Yes definitely, obviously there were no showers as these we pretty remote campsites, but all had rainwater tanks, a shelter, lovely sheltered pitches, some pitches were a bit hard, but most were lovely and flat, and the toilets were drop toilets, but really nice! Especially the one at Devil’s Kitchen!

Feedback for Vic Park’s, cut the foliage on the paths before the path disappears in some sections! And we understand the thing about the tide times, but it did mean that we felt like we were on a serious schedule all the time. We were fortunate in that low tide appeared in the middle of the day and we liked to start early to miss the snakes, but you always felt that you had to get the beaches done and dusted just in case!

The beginning at the End!

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Great Ocean Walk - Day 6

Day 6 Ryan’s Den – Devils Kitchen

The view from Devils Kitchen Campsite to Wreck Beach

Day 6 included the highly anticipated walk along Wreck Beach. Again all the information provided by Park’s Vic certainly made you think twice about doing it though.  The day started as day 5 finished off, with lots of steep up and downs, which was hard and tiring. There were plenty of lovely viewpoints though. We knew though that once we got to the beach that was pretty much it for the day, we also wanted to make sure we got there at low tide. It was along here as the sun started to get hot, that we saw the largest and most aggressive Tiger Snake of the trip. This one was sat in the path, and didn’t look like it was in any hurry to move, after giving us the stare and a few flicks of the tongue, it decided to move off. And I was really glad that it did as for a moment it did look like it was going to come right at us! After a couple of hours we made it to the new alignment of the track that was lovely gently undulating paths through rainforest. This made a nice change from the narrow, steep paths from the cliff faces. 

At the bottom of the 366 steps

We then made our way up to the Gables lookout, which was a little disappointing to be honest as you cannot see wreck beach from here. We took the opportunity to take our shoes off here, knowing that there were 366 steps down to the beach coming up! 

The steps down to wreck beach weren’t that bad in the end and Wreck Beach was lovely. We strolled along the beach before sitting down to lunch at the far end of the beach! Again to be molested by Sand Flies! The water however was lovely on my hot tired feet! From our lunch spot we could see the campsite high above the beach! We could see what we thought was the shelter, so decided to head up to the site. 

The view from the Dunny!

Having a rest, the Dunny can be seen on the ridgeline almost in the middle.

The path from the beach to the site was a bit longer than expected, this seemed to becoming a usual feature of the walk! It was also quite steep! After about 40minutes we made it to the campsite, to find the building we saw from the beach was the toilet not the shelter. The shelter was in the shade down the valley a short distance from the toilet. The pitches were again lovely, with one even being with a beach view and its own personal viewpoint! We spent a couple of ours sat on the very useful bench/platform in the sun/dappled shade reading! It was lovely. Whilst sat playing cards in the shelter a helicopter flew about 10meters above the tree tops. This was more than a little odd as it was a police helicopter and it could clearly be heard flying up and down the beach. We headed to the viewpoint to see what was happening, only for the helicopter to fly back over and the winch man gave us a wave!  So we headed back to the shelter only for  member of the SES and of Park’s Vic to walk around the corner! Apparently they were looking for a lost walker. He turned up later that day safe and well. 

Wrecks on Wreck Beach

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Great Ocean Walk - Day 5

Day 5 Johanna Beach – Ryan’s Den

From the fields looking back to Johanna Beach Campsite (the trees on the far right)

Day 5 starts off with a really nice walk through the fields, we saw Kangaroos, wallabies and raptors. We started early to beat the heat, but the path soon ends up on the Old Coach rd through the forest and is nice and cool. The route follows roads for some considerable distance but the views of the surrounding countryside make it all worthwhile. After some time the track moves into a nature reserve which heads down towards Milanesia Beach. 

Milanesia Beach

The track down is long and steep, so care is required for this bit. You soon hit a lovely beach with a small creek crossing. Again we hit the beach at low tide so could walk the beach route. We decided to stop about half way along in the shade to have lunch, thinking we had plenty of time to get off the beach. About 2/3 of the way along is a small scramble across rocks, this bit sticks out into the water a bit. By the time we had had lunch, 45 mins perhaps, the tide had appeared to have turned, and was encroaching a significant way up these rocks. We were quite glad we hadn’t left it any later as it seemed quite possible the beach would have been cut in two quite soon. 

Thinking that the hardest part of the day was over and the campsite wasn’t more than an hour away we continued onwards, taking the exit from the beach to the overland route. The steps off the beach are steep and to get out of the valley steeper again. These were also in the sun, making the trek out even more tiring!

At the top of the many steps! Still smiling- Just!

Earlier in the day we had met up with our German friends again, who were doing the day walk. They had left us behind again, as they only had day packs. But due to the nature of the track it was slow progress for all of us! The track from the beach to the campsite is not only longer than expected it is very up and down, with some very steep sections, particularly once you get near to the campsite. There is a lovely long flight of steps with a lovely and well needed beach at the top of the steps! 

We also caught up with the Germans again, who had stopped to enjoy their packed lunch, the offer of a drink at the top of the hill they were on was certainly very welcome!

The Germans!

This next section was the first place we saw some BIG snakes, or should I say the back end of some BIG snakes. Mostly they were sleeping on the side of the path and as soon as they noticed us slinked, very quickly I might add into the under growth! They were Tiger Snakes we think!

We were certainly very relieved to see the sign for the campsite, only for our German friends to turn up for a quick rest! Ryan’s Den campsite is very much squeezed onto the top of a spur with the sites down the side off a main path. The Shelter and Toilet is at the head of the site, with a view point at the other end, looking out to sea. 

Sunset from the lookout at Ryan's Den

The couple from Johanna Beach, turned up later on, so we weren’t alone again! 

We were certainly glad to see our beds that night, as it had certainly been the most difficult day so far! I was also beginning to appreciate my walking poles, not only as snake scaring devices but also for my knees!

More pictures can be found on Flickr - Australianminiadventure 

Great Ocean Walk - Day 4

Day 4 Aire River – Johanna Beach Campsite

The view from Johanna Beach walk in campsite

Enjoying a rest at Castle Cove

From the campsite the track meandered through the trees to a number of look out points and crossed to the bottom of the cliff front, just above the beaches. The path then headed up towards Castle Cove, and a stash of water we had left for ourselves, as just here the path meets the Great Ocean Rd. We stopped at the lookout for a rest and a nibble, as a tour group arrived and a Frenchman with a guitar, he started singing and playing the guitar, which was nice if a bit surreal!

From Castle Cove, the track heads back towards the cliff tops and to Johanna Beach. By this time the sun was out the temperature rising. The path heading into Castle Cove was totally over grown and difficult, on the other side of Castle Cove were a couple of Vic Parks Workers, cutting back the foliage, making the going much better. This also meant you had a better view of the track and any potential hazards, including snakes! Unfortunately the workers had only managed to clear a kilometre or so, so the track so became thick with foliage again. 

Throughout our walk there had been thousands of Butterflies, there were literally hundreds flying up with every step from the surrounding plants as we walked along the path. I think they were common brown butterflies although they were bright orange! 

Looking back towards Aire River & Cape Otway

After another boot cleaning station, we soon made it down onto Johanna Beach. This time walking along this beach was a little more pleasurable, as the sun was out and the wind wasn’t blowing down the beach. As with every beach we came across or were to come across, the Vic Parks warnings certainly made you think twice about doing the beach route, even though it was a calm day and we knew it was near to low tide, we still made sure we made it to the end of the beach and our way off before we stopped. In some respects this put a little bit of stress into the walk as we were always keen to make it off the beach in time. Most of the time though there was no need. 

We stopped on Johanna Beach for an hour or so, and had lunch, trying to avoid getting attacked by really annoying Sand Flies. I don’t know what they like about me but Andy doesn’t seem to get picked on by them! And they hurt when they bite!

Enjoying a rest on Johanna Beach

The campsite is about 1.5/2km from the exit point of the beach. There is another large drive in site, but the walk in site is well away from the beach, at the top of the cliffs, in a really nice spot, the nicest so far in fact!

We were the first to the site and picked a spot overlooking the beach. By this time we were pretty hot and smelly so we decided to have as good as wash as possible. So we had the best view from a shower around! But a couple of litres of cold rainwater later we were certainly feeling better and got some of washing done also. One of us carried enough boxers for the whole week and an extra day.....one of us made do with a pair of knickers for every other day! We both ended up stinking, just one of us had less to carry! We also had the pleasure of collecting box number 2. We got rid of any rubbish we were carrying or articles of clothing we didn’t need anymore and left them in the box to collect on our way home!

We certainly enjoyed our night at Johanna Beach. We weren’t alone anymore though as another couple joined us on the site. Choosing to utilise the lovely peaceful sites looking out over the fields rather than what was called “the thunderbox” by someone in the walkers log. The night wasn’t too bad as I like the sound of the waves, where as Andy wasn’t so sure! 

Airing out our clothes!

The view from the campsite

 From the entrance to the campsite you see where your next day goes, as it leads off into the fields across the hill tops.

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Great Ocean Walk - Day 3

Day 3 Cape Otway Lighthouse – Aire River Campsite

Onwards!

Day 3 was one of the shorter days and looked to be fairly straight forward. After making use of the shelter to dry our damp tent and packing our gear we moved off for the next day. 

Hard going along Station Beach

The track makes its way past the cemetery and along the cliff top, before heading down to Station Beach. The path was pretty overgrown and we were careful to make lots of noise along the path to ensure any snakes knew we were coming. From the cliff tops station beach looked pretty nice, but once we were down on the beach it was a different story. The wind down on the beach was howling against us, making it a very long kilometre and a half, with the packs on our backs and the steep incline to the beach, the wind and the soft sand made it feel like 5kms! From station beach we stopped for a short break as it looked like it was going to throw it down, it didn’t, before heading up a short steep cliff, to the top of the Aire River Estuary. 

The path from Station Beach to Aire River was totally over grown, making it very hard going. However the path soon led down to the river side, and to the Aire River Camping ground. On either side of the river are drive in camping grounds, that I can imagine are pretty crazy in the summer holidays, as it is a lovely spot with nearly 80 sites on either side of the river. The walk in site is away from the river at the top of the hill on the West side of the river. The toilets are shared with the Aire River West campground, and are down the hill about 100m from the site. 

Camping in the trees at Aire River

Again the pitches are lovely and sheltered, the shelter is in the trees where you can watch loads of little birds! The GOW path runs straight through the site so you can get going straight away! Again we were the only ones on the site. The noise from the sites at the bottom of the hill, can be heard as clear as day, up at the site.

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Great Ocean Walk - Day 2

Day 2 Blanket Bay – Cape Otway Lighthouse

At the bottom of the steps - Parker Inlet

After an evening watching a group of Venture Scouts try to make dinner on Trangia’s and a surprising good night’s sleep on our ¾ length Ultralight Thermarests. We got on our way at about 8am. The path made it along the beach for about 100m, before heading to a disinfectant station and along the cliff top.  The track led up through rainforest and past the Parker Hill Campground, before heading along the cliff top. The path led from the rainforest down to Parker Inlet, which you cross behind the cliff edge, then you make you way up some really steep steps, which go for ever to the campground. After walking along the tops of the cliffs, you start heading towards the lighthouse.  In the stretch along the watch out for Koala’s we saw the princely sum of zero. We saw lots of birds and 3 little Brown Snakes, but no Koala’s! 

At the top of the steps!

It was along this stretch we met a lovely German couple who were doing a few day walks along the route.

The path then heads alongside the road, through some overgrown bushes for what seems like forever, with vista’s across the headland and out to sea. The campsite is about 600m from the back of the carpark, in a lovely spot. There is no drive in site nearby, and we were the first to get there. The site is like every other with pit toilets, a shelter, 8 individual sites (under trees again) and in a sheltered position, on the side of a small valley. We picked a nice spot in the middle of the site. Again everything was lovely and in the end we were the only ones on the site. We had both sunshine and torrential rain, with storms coming through the site. But by the time we went to bed the rain had stopped and the snails were out! We also saw our 4^th snake of the day by the toilets, a lovely, what looked to be a copperhead, it certainly made us very careful walking around the site and from then on, we always carried a walking pole. 

Although there were no other people on the site, there was a pair of Koalas who were noisily enjoying each other’s company in trees all night long! At one point they were so loud they sounded like they were right outside the tent.

Campsite Shelter

Resident Koala

If you have never heard the sound of a Koala, just imagine the noises you would expect a wild boar to make!

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Great Ocean Walk - Day 1

Day 1, Marengo to Blanket Bay

Looking Back at Apollo Bay

We set off early, not knowing what our pace would be, or the terrain or anything really so thought we would get off early on what was to be our longest day. Starting at Marengo, meant we started right on the beach. (We stayed at the Marengo Motel, a perfect starting point.) The path actually seems to go along the fields next to the beach, but we pretty much walked along the beach all the way to Shelly Beach, except for three creeks beach where we walked across the undulating hills. The shore line was lovely, with empty beaches and rocky scrambles. It was low tide so we had no problems getting over the rocks, some of which were quite difficult. One of the scrambles required us to take off our packs, but I forgot about my camera bag on the waist belt, and it dropped onto the rocks, about 1.5m, fortunately all was ok, including the filters! But I started to hook the draw cord in my chest strap from then on! 

A taste of things to come!

We had Lunch at Shelly Bay, by this point we were past anywhere that was tidal, so we knew we were safe to stop. The climb out of Shelly Beach is long and steep, to Elliot Ridge Campsite, it was a bit of a shock to the system after walking along the beaches. After Elliot Ridge the track heads off into the forest, along 4X4 tracks, undulating and going on for what seemed like forever. The track through the Eucalypt forest was muddy and rocky. Finally we started to hear the sound of the waves, but even then the track turned away from the campsite as it went down the hill towards the beach, to finally turn in the right direction. The track leads across the beach and across a small creek to the campsite.

Blanket Bay - The Campsite is just behind the trees to the left, the path leads down the hill directly in front.

Andy putting up the tent at Blanket Bay

Blanket Beach walk in site is right next to the drive in campsite and right on the beach. The site has 8 pitches, a group site, a rainwater tank and a shelter. The toilets were at the drive in Site, about 150m away. It was a Saturday night so the drive in site was busy, there was a group of Venture Scouts and one other couple at the walk in site. 

Blanket Bay was our first experience of a great ocean walk campsite and to be honest they are pretty decent. They are well laid out, each site is well spaced, small but generally flat, usually covered by trees, so pretty sheltered and some had a nice wide bench for laying your stuff out on. As someone that has always been told to never camp under trees it took some getting used to, as trees are a general theme of the GOW sites, with many shoehorned onto remote sites. 

 I am glad we missed Elliot Ridge, as it would have made day 2 pretty boring and added another day to our trip. It was also good to get the longest day out the way when we had the energy!

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Great Ocean Walk - Planning

Roo & Andy’s Great Ocean Walk – Dec 2011

The Great Ocean Walk Route!

Planning what went into that bag was as important and time consuming as the trip itself

We decided to do the great Ocean Walk as preparation for doing the Overland Track in Tasmania sometime in the future as to see if we could cope with a multi day hike, as we have previously tried and failed to do these things in the past. Most famously we tried to do the Lakeland 3000’s, making it as far as the end of the valley outside Keswick, camping there and heading back to the car as not only were we not really fit enough, we had very heavy equipment and the kitchen sink! Our most successful trip since was the 3 day, 2 night hike around the South of Wilson’s Prom. This was also harder than it needed to be but was more successful and completed as planned!

So with these previous excursions in mind we decided to plan this trip meticulously! In 2001 we had planned to hike around Ireland, again after a day of walking with HEAVY backpacks we ended up doing less walking then planned! However we did buy a lot of excellent gear for that trip that has lasted us till now....it was just that previously we had taken all this gear plus a backup set and a set just in case! Armed with some more knowledge and of course the internet we resourced and planned!

Firstly food! Blimey times have changed, now you can find every piece of advice you could ever wish for and the name of the game today is Dehydrate! So with this in mind we planned all our meals to the last ounce! We did look at buying a Dehydrator, but found that with a little effort the good old oven can be just as good! But just be on the safe side we bought 3 off the shelf Dehydrated backpacking meals! (20% of at Ray’s Outdoors!) So for 3 nights we were sorted, just the other 3 to do! So we needed so kind of meat. The best dehydrated meat has no fat to go rancid, so what is the leanest meat available??? Kangaroo of course, 500g of kangaroo meat fry it off with no oil so that it starts to brown and is pretty much cooked, then spread thinly on a baking sheet. Place the oven at 50 degrees or whatever the lowest setting of your oven is, with the door ajar. Leave on for about 1.5 hrs before turning and leave for about another 1.5 hours until brown and hard. Leave to cool and there you have it dehydrated Kangaroo! We added a third of our Kangaroo to, 2 bags of flavoured rice, with dried onions (bought these but you could do them yourself the same way as the kangaroo).  This was enough for dinner for 2 people just add 2.5 cups of boiling water and leave for 15 minues! Next time I will add some chicken soup powder and some spices as it was a bit boring, but very filling and generally tasty! Much better than the “hiking food” with its universal square meat in Brown and Grey!

Lunch was also strictly controlled to save weight. We utilised the greatness of Mountain Bread with foil sachets of Tuna and Salmon. Whilst I am against anything pre-packaged into handy sizes, we did find individual portions of Nutella and Cheese, very useful. So Nutella was spread on a piece of Mountain Bread for dessert and the cheesy goodness of Triangles and sticks was appreciated. 

Breakfast was pre prepared into daily portions, requiring only 2.5 cups of boiling water to make a nutritious, warm and filling meal. Quick cook oats were mixed with powdered milk, cinnamon, raisins and dried apple. I have to admit though by the end of the week, we were pretty sick of it, 1. It needed more cinnamon, but also I had a hankering for eggs and beans.....nevermind.

Snacks were in the form of homemade trail mix, again weighed out for each day into individual portions! This trail mix was a triumph, plenty of calories and energy without shedloads of sugar, and no chocolate to melt in the heat! This consisted of;  Hazelnuts, Almonds, Cashews, Pepitas, Dried Cranberries, Dried Banana, Shredded Coconut, Raisins, Sunflower Seeds, and Dried Strawberries. 

The biggest thing I learnt about carrying food was that you really do not need to eat as much as you think you do. We in reality had very small meals but never really felt hungry and didn’t eat everything we took. We did eat most of it but we still had some trail mix left at the end and some breakfast mix. It is very hard when there is food all around you to not eat all that lovely stuff, but really not only do we not need it, we are kidding ourselves into thinking we do! 

Finally packing! As I mentioned previously we have stacks of great gear, but it isn’t the latest and greatest of anything, it is just good quality stuff that has served us well. However we always pack too much of it, and this was the case again this time. At least with our first go at packing. A couple of nights before we were due to leave we packed up our bags and weighed them without any water....Well Andy’s was nearly 20kg and mine 18kg and I still had to add my SLR to that! (Another 2kg) So we went on a weight reducing mission! Firstly out went unnecessary packaging/stuff sacks etc. Why did my sleeping bag liner need its own stuff sack? Why are we carrying a tent repair kit in a separate bag to the first aid kit, and why was our first aid kit full of so much stuff.....so after some serious trimming down we managed to get our bags to a manageable level! We were working on a less is more principle, in that the less you carry the better you feel, the easier the walk is and the less likely you are to need any of the “emergency stuff”! 

The DSLR had to come, but we came up against the age old problem of how to carry it! Put it in your rucksack and it will never see the light of day as taking your sac off is a pain and it isn’t there to get those moments that last a few seconds. Carry it on your front in another smaller rucksack, well as I am already carrying significant weight on my chest, it wasn’t really an option, plus it would get in the way. So I bought myself a small padded Crumpler bag called The Haven. It is a camera bag designed to go inside another bag to keep your camera safe. But it was minimalist enough to serve my purposes and could be adapted to fit on my waist belt. So I sewed onto it two belt loops. The medium sized Haven was designed for a twin lens kits DSLR so meant that I could carry my versatile 18-200mm Lens and also my fast 35mm 1.8 Lens, plus a couple of filters and Cards. I also took my Gorilla Pod tripod, but could have got away without it! Anyhow, this system worked really well, and only got in the way on the steepest climbs. It was within easy reach at all times and meant I didn’t need to take my rucksack off to get at it. The bag itself is pretty water resistant but it does have a large opening in the top. I plan to sew a waterproof zip here and add a small flap to protect the camera. We didn’t suffer any rain whilst walking so it wasn’t a problem but would be in heavy rain.

We drove down on the Friday afternoon, dropping the cats off at the cattery on the way to Apollo Bay. We had two drop boxes to be collected during the walking, so we had to drop the boxes off on the way to Princetown, where we were leaving the car. We left one near the lighthouse and one at Johanna Beach. These contained food for that part of the journey and 2 litres of water for emergencies. We got a taxi back from Princetown to Marengo. ($120 Timboon Taxi’s, ask for Cliff a lovely guy, who knows the area very well!)