Blanket Bay. I'm feeling knackered. Feet sore - a major blister on my left foot, underneath, between the big toe and the next toe, plus a smaller one on the end of my right 4th toe. Ouch! Shoulders, back, everything aching. Walked 20.4 km today from Marengo. Almost as much again tomorrow - no idea how I'll manage it. I realised today whist walking that this is the longest walk I've ever attempted - will end up being over 90 km.
Tall forests between Elliot River and Blanket Bay
I got tea bags and lunch at the Princetown General Store. The bus arrived on time - near new with leather seats, just me onboard for the whole trip. The driver had a small video camera set up, recording the road in front of the bus. He told me some hairy stories about things he's seen along that stretch of road - P-plate drivers passing on blind corners etc. Marengo was warm - it felt close to 30°. I ate my lunch, put on sunscreen and set off at 12:20 pm. It took around 5 1/2 hours. A nice walk - a mix of beaches, beeches and eucalyptus. From Shelly Beach it went in a big loop up into the hills through tall blue gum forests. I saw an echidna along the way and a second here at the campsite. I've also seen the infamous, kleptomaniac wallaby since arriving and have tied my boots to my pack to avoid them going missing. I heard a number of koalas along the track - their grunting sounding like a bizarre cross between an outboard motor and a gorilla! No snakes.
Made it to Blanket Bay!
The campsite is filling up, the ground is generally rock-hard but I've chosen the one site that isn't (I got here first).
There is a little penguin down on the beach in the shallow water - it looked really weak and I didn't know how to help. Some people came from the nearby car-based camping area and had a look at it too - they were the usual, somewhat rough "bogans with boats" crowd but they were really sweet with the penguin. One of the guys, with his can of vodka and coke in hand, raced off to find some bait to feed the penguin. Then a somewhat snobbier mother and 2 daughters turned up and starting posing for photos with the poor wee creature - that was awful.
Poor little penguin :(
Regarding "decision points" - there are many of them along the walk and at each one, the walker must decide which option to take - usually meaning a beach walk or river crossing if the tide is low, or an inland track if the tide is too high. The decision point nearest here was a non-event - I was expecting to have to wade across a river, but there was so little water around that the river/creek didn't even cross the beach to the sea.
I only took a handful of photos along the way - the scenery is nice but similar to many other places along the Victorian coast. I also dealt sparingly with the water - only drank about 1 litre all up.
I'm really sore! I've just taken 2 panadols to try to relieve the aches and pains - poor old bloke! My back's really stiff too.
I've recorded today's trek using the My Tracks app for Android, having given up on all the other ones I've tried. It seems to work better, but chews through the battery more quickly.
Right now, I'm missing being at home with Nadia and our entertaining little fluffy cat Ruby. I'm already imagining how great it'll be to get back to my car!
The Great Ocean Walk. Like the Great Ocean Road and the Great Otway National Park and the Great Everything Else in this part of Victoria, it promised to be a Great Experience. Having the good fortune to have a few months off between finishing work and starting my PhD had given me time to tackle a few mini-expeditions around Victoria and New Zealand (see my other blogs: Return to Wilsons Prom, Viking Circuit, Bound for Cannibal Cove and The Routeburn Track) and this was to be the last of them before officially becoming a penniless student once again.
I'd visited the coast and hinterland of this area of western Victoria many times and was aware that there were significant parts of the coastline that few visitors get to see, especially around Cape Otway. The Great Ocean Walk promised to take me to these areas, so it was with Great Anticipation that I began planning the hike. Thanks to a very helpful blog by Jez, I decided to attempt to finish it in 5 days - the standard length of time is 8 days, with 7 overnight stops at each of the strategically-placed hike-in campsites along the route. 5 days would mean doing double sections on the first 2 days and the last day but it sounded feasible. I also decided to start at Marengo instead of Apollo Bay, to avoid a boring walk along the highway at the start of the walk, and to finish in Princetown rather than continuing all the way to the 12 Apostles visitor centre car park - thereby shaving another 5 kms off the end of the walk. I set off from our home in southeast Melbourne on a sunny Thursday morning, planning to stay the night at Princetown, where I'd leave my car, then catch a bus the next morning up to Marengo to start tramping...
And now, I'm at the Princetown Recreation Ground camping ground, I'm pretty much packed and ready to walk up to "town" and catch the 10:45 am V/Line bus to Marengo to start the walk.
The only real concerns I have at this stage are: 1. potentially impassable beach sections if the tide isn't right, 2. potential lack of water at campsites.
In 5 days' time, I'll hopefully come trudging up the path east of here and smile as I see my car waiting for me :)
I ended up getting away at around 9:20 am yesterday and had an uneventful trip to Colac - I stopped at the library there to get on the internet and print out my permit for the walk, which I'd forgotten to bring with me, along with a printout of tide times - very important! I also forgot to bring my beach chair and pillows for camping at Princetown - that's what happens when you end up hurrying.
I'd hurried because, after consulting the tide times, I'd decided that it probably wouldn't be possible for me to visit Wreck Beach, one of the most iconic points on the walk, on my last day (next Tuesday). But it looked like it would be possible to drive there before heading through to Princetown, as long as I got there not too long after low tide at midday.
Anchor of Marie Gabrielle, Wreck Beach
So, from Colac, where I stopped for lunch in a park, it was down to Lavers Hill then onto Moonlight Head Road to the Wreck Beach car park. It was a nice beach with imposing breakers and poignant anchors stuck in the rock. I also dropped in on The Gables lookout for the spectacular views. Then it was a short drive through to Princetown to set up camp. I walked into town to time how long it'd take to get to the bus stop in the morning (20 minutes) and on the way back stopped at the boardwalk through the wetlands area to read a plaque about the local wildlife. Something large-ish slithered off the path near my feet and I jumped so high I almost ended up in the wetlands. It was a medium-sized brown snake getting out of my way but boy what a reminder that I was no longer in New Zealand and needed to watch where I put my feet!
12 Apostles
Back at the campsite, I spent a lot of time poring over my GOW (Great Ocean Walk) map to work out if the tides would be a problem anywhere else other than Wreck Beach. I read my current ebook (Wolf Hall) on my tablet, checked the news and generally took it easy and all of a sudden it was 6 pm. So, I had a shower and headed into town, got a hamburger with the lot for dinner, drove to the Gibson Steps where I sat and ate it (the hamburger that is), then went onto the 12 Apostles lookout for a quick look, then back to camp. Spoke to Nadia, read my book, pored over the map again then went to bed around 10 pm.
During the night, I was woken by the neighbours' dog barking and heard something large moving outside the tent. I assumed it was the camp proprietor's slow, old dog I'd seen earlier in the day and hoped it didn't pee on my tent. Speaking of peeing, I had to get up in the wee hours (now I know why they call them "wee"!) to head over to the toilet block - a few steps from my tent, I was startled by something very large bouncing towards me out of the darkness. Kangaroos of course! There were plenty of them and plenty of their poo on the ground - I should've known. They were all around the place, grazing silently and hopping to and fro. Back to bed then up at 7 after watching a cloud of mosquitoes gathering outside my tent and 2 superb fairy-wrens hopping under the flap of my tent in hot pursuit.
So now it's breakfast, final packing, park car in right place and walk to bus stop, perhaps buying some tea bags on the way (something else I forgot yesterday).
