Aire River. Same as yesterday - knackered! Walking today was something close to torture due to the blisters - the large one under my left foot was right where I'd place my weight on each step.
Last night was the usual routine of dinner, reading a bit, then falling asleep exhausted. A lesbian couple walking the GOW tried to help the penguin and wrapped it up in a towel for a while, which it seemed to like. In the end they had to leave it on the beach. I didn't go back down there again - didn't want to see the poor little thing struggling for its life. I read Wolf Hall again and slept well until 6:30 am. I was on the trail by 8:30 am after patching my blisters with some Compeed plasters. It was really nice as I set off - sunny, my feet felt OK, I was fully refreshed.
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| Parker Inlet |
Parker Inlet was nice and the "river" decision point there a non-event - just a trickle. There was an anchor from the wreck of Eric the Red still embedded in the sand. From there, the walk to the Cape Otway lighthouse was partly along sealed and unsealed roads. Most of the sights of the GOW are accessible by 2WD or 4WD - this makes the walk feel different from, say, Wilsons Prom or the Alpine National Park. For that reason I'm not sure if I'd do this walk again.
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| Cape Otway lighthouse |
I was in major pain by the time I got to the lighthouse - the halfway point for the day. I popped 2 panadols but they didn't seem to help at all. I just had to keep going. I exchanged a number of highly entertaining text messages with Nadia around this point, as I had mobile phone coverage. I also started seriously fantasising about pulling out of the walk early. Will have to see how tomorrow goes. The lighthouse and surrounds was a bizarre other-world of car-based tourism seen from the eyes of a walker. Smug families zooming past in their air-conditioned 4WDs.
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| Station Beach |
It was a slog from the Cape to here - hard to enjoy it. The coastline was typical wind-blasted Bass Strait scenery. The sunshine came and went. 21+ km today, so a tad more than yesterday. The next 2 shorter days will be a relief! I didn't have lunch until I got here at 3 pm and then had a whopping breakfast/lunch combo. I'm aching all over like yesterday but I expect that'll go by the morning again. 6 1/2 hours walking today and much slower thanks to the blister on my left foot. I think I'll get through the next 2 days and I'll just have to push through on the last day.
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| Made it to Aire River! |
There are loads of cockatoos here - I've seen yellow-tailed black cockatoos and gang-gangs and now a huge, raucous flock of sulphur-crested cockatoos have arrived. Their human counterparts - the bogans in boats - are here in great flocks again too.
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| Superb fairy-wren at Aire River |
I saw 2 juvenile brown snakes on the path today. The fairy-wrens here are just adorable (snakes probably think so too). I've got a great little, secluded campsite all to myself.
