While I was overseas it seemed everyone I met that had travelled through Australia raved about the great ocean road, I'd never had the chance to drive it so when Jess (my cousins fiance) told me there was now a way to hike it, how could I say no!!!
Great Ocean Walk notes
Launched on January 9th 2006, the full hike is 91km. It is still a relatively new hike and thats great as it means not everyone knows about it and its not overrun with people, just as I prefer. Jess collected me from a friends place after she had finished work and we drove down to stay at her grandpa Bob's place for the night. They were so nice and did the car shuffle with us the following morning so we had Jess's car waiting for us at the end. Jess had completed the first section last year and with limited time off work we planned to complete the last 56km of it and had 4 days to take our time.
We started at Aire River on the
31st of December 2011 and got dropped off at a drive in camp site. It was already mid morning and hot! Still today wasn't too hard, about 14km though not a lot of shade but we were excited by the rugged rocky coastline and views. We ended the hiking day with a long walk along the beach. Yes beach walking can make the thigh's burn when weighted with a pack. We caused great attraction as we neared a drive in campsite as everyone lazing on the beach thought we were nuts hiking along the beach with our big backpacks in this heat!!! We set up camp at the hikers only campsite and were rewarded with stunning ocean views right in front of our tent, time for a swim in the ocean and to get our piccolos' of champagne that I'd hiked in with cooled we had fun putting them in the rocks and then opps a big wave tried to wash them away. After dinner we chatted loads, drank our warmish champagne as we watched the sun set on 2011 and got out the sparklers and celebrated the exciting time of a new year 2012.
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| a little bit of bubbly for New Years |
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| view from our tent |
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| Sun sets on 2011 |
January 1st 2012
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Johanna beach to Ryans Den
We quickly learned from the day before that due to the heat we needed to start hiking early in the morning. We had an interesting start, as we walked up and over a hill we passed by this huge house that had obviously held a massive new years party the night before. Some of them were in the field chanting, dancing and high on goodness knows what, a little scary when their dog came running like he was about to bite us, but thankfully didn't. It gave us a talking point for the rest of the day and it was just after here that we met Joe and Erin a lovely couple over from Darwin. We had one main encounter with a snake, on part of the road walk so I spotted him quickly, we had a bit of stand off then stomped our feet and he eventually left. As we hit the beach, again the tides were kind and we hiked along coming across this great rock feature I couldn't help dumping my bag and having a mini boulder session. We thought we would push onto the campsite to eat lunch but big mistake, it seemed to take for ever this last section and we were both tired and starving when we finally arrived. High on the cliff we enjoyed the views and had a good stretch out of the tired leg and back muscles. Jess's feet were taking a beating and had developed a bad blister.
Jan 2nd - Day 3 to be the toughest
Ryans Den to Princetown - 23km
Again away early to beat the heat, we managed the morning really well and were lucky as there was loads of shade from the trees to start with. When we hit the beach this was to be our longest section of beach walking as we passed the old rusted anchors that make wreck beach known for what it is. We were surprised at how early we had reached the turn off for the campsite and dumped our packs got our swimmers on and enjoyed splashing about it the ocean. You have to remember this ocean is really really rough and rocky so actually swimming isn't the easiest!!!
After a cool off Joe and Erin wandered up and we tried to convince them to get in for a swim. They were hiking the full trail, their first multiday hike and were going so well but hadn't been in the ocean yet. Erin let us know they were out of snacks now and had planned to hike on and skip the next campsite to make the last day an easy one. Jess and I decided as it was still so early that was a great idea and gave them our extra days snack pack (I know the number of times someone has helped me out when hiking and it felt good to know they would have some more food for the energy needed for the next 8km). We bypassed Devils kitchen campsite, though I ran in to fill up our water bottles at the campsite tank and used the loo, with the best ocean view :-)
Here is when we probably should have stopped. It now hit midday or so we suspect and it got hot!!! There wasn't much in the way of shade from here on in and we were hanging out for the river on the map for our next swim.... When we reached the cliff we needed shade and wind. With no views we didn't care we dropped our packs and lay in the shade for 30-40min, suffering probably from early signs of heat stress. After a few rehydration packets we pushed on stopping every so often in what ever shade we could find until we saw the river below and had increased motivation.
The site of water, dumped our packs stripped off our clothes and jumped in, in our underwear. Phew were we hot! As we got to the campsite we spotted Joe and Erin and then we found out it was a 45degree day and here we were out in the middle of it no shade and hiking. It was so hot it was a total fire ban day so technically shouldn't have been out on the trail at all......
This was our last night out so we ate up pretty much everything bar a couple of snacks for the following day. Gorging yum....
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| Our first sight of the river phew!!! |
Day 4 Princetown to the 12 Apostles
6km
We had found out Joe and Erin were planning to ring for a shuttle bus to collect them at the end to go back to Apollo bay where their car was so we offered them a lift and walked the last day as a group of 4. With only 6km to cover we still got going early and had the trail to ourselves, pretty much like every other day. We got up close to a group of kangaroos too. It was such an exciting moment as we headed up the hills and caught our first glimpses of the massive rock sculptures jutting out of the ocean. Pretty pleased with ourselves for the previous days hiking and excited for Joe and Erin who did such an awesome job completing their first over nighter multiday hike the full 91km, brings back memories of my first one called the overland track in Tasmania with the 4 girls and our fruit cake (haha) another story to be told.....
Not only did I get to hike to the 12 apostles, Jess then drove us back along the great ocean road. So I had the best of both worlds. Yes the drive is pretty, but nothing compares to getting to hike along the beach, swim in the ocean and set your eyes on the 12 apostles knowing you've just hiked to them. It really is a good first timers hike with many options to break it up into day or just overnighter trips. Not that I want to make it become popular by talking it up as it was so nice that it was quiet for us.
Back to Melbourne and after Jess had dropped me off, I found out Jess's blister was really bad and had been to the doctors given antibiotics and 3 days of sick leave, wondering will she ever want to hike with me again??? Still shows she is pretty tough to still get through it without too much pain.
Thanks Jess for the suggested hike, for spending new years with me and finally getting a chance to get to know each other. I had a fantastic time :-)
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| Jess's heal post hike - OUCH! |
Saying goodbye to fremantle another new spot for me we were heading to Margaret River. Plenty of opportunity to capture Margaret in Margaret River, excuse the pun. A first for mum was a winery tour and us both being cadbury's (lightweights for all you english folk) meant we had a giggly day who knows what we were tasting by the end of it, everything blurrs into one. A great group on the bus and lots of laughs. Of course we stopped at the chocolate store and got some liquer too.
We spent another day at one of the caves. I've been lucky to visit quite a few specatular caves with all my travels and yet still found this to be a pretty one. One of these days I'm keen to try to do some proper caving = tight spaces, head torches and rapping......
