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!)