Awesome 105 km of walking in beautiful nature with spectacular views over cliffs.
After two weeks in Melbourne, it was about the time to get out of there. I finally got organized, so I left Bernadett's house on Wednesday (23/09/2009) around 3pm. Unfortunately it turned out to be way too optimistic that I could hitch to Apollo Bay (the beginning of GOW) before it gets dark. I got stuck already in a petrol station in Melbourne.
I was getting a bit desperate but I was more lucky than smart that day. Asking drivers for a lift to Geelong, I bumped into a girl named Bronwyn that just really wanted to help me even though she was heading somewhere else. So she offered me a lift to a train station, convincing me that I'd better jump on a train that regularly goes to Geelong. I agreed. Later on in the car, she told me that she's going to Geelong next day and that if I have no place to sleep, I could stay over at her house and she'd take me to Geelong next morning. I was amazed. She knew me only for a couple of minutes and she provided me with such hospitality and willingness to help!
I realized I had zero chance to get to Apollo Bay that evening, so I agreed.
It took me whole day to get to my destination. I got 7 other lifts, usually for very short distance but always by a very nice person. I eventually got where I wanted, even before 5pm, so I could drop by an information centre to plan the whole hiking route. Then just buying some food and water and camp in one of the local camp grounds.
Day one: Apollo Bay to Cape Otway, 35 km, 9 hours
I started my walk fresh and enthusiastic, although my 20kg backpack (including 4.5 litres of water) wasn't really encouraging. Later on I found out that I carried the water for no reason. There is enough camp sites along the whole route that provide tank (rain) water. Despite the signs claiming that the water is not drinkable, apparently it's absolutely ok. Overall, a great part of aussie population lives on the tank water.
Once I reached the coast I stayed there staring at the sea for a good couple of minutes. It was so rough! Very strong wind, dark grey sky and huge waves (the biggest I'd seen so far - I'd say good 4 or 5 meters high) made the atmosphere incredibly magical.
As soon as I got to the Otway rain forest, it started to rain. Surprisingly. The shit thing was that it kept raining until the end of the day. Moreover, not so far from my destination camp, there is a river called Parker river that goes directly to the sea. The problem is that there is no bridge so unless it's low tide you have to take your shoes off and wade. And if it's raining at the same time... Anyway, I eventually got to the camp and there was nobody! In fact, I hadn't met anybody along the way at all! So I just pitched my tiny tent under the wooden shelter that normally serves as common kitchen/dining room/living room, checked out my feet covered with blisters and went to sleep.
Day two: Cape Otway to Johanna Beach, 25 km, 8 hours
The second day was the hardest for me. Not that the walk was harder or anything but just my feet were extremely sore from my (a bit too tight and new) shoes.
The day started with rain. Actually not only with rain but also with hail. And very strong wind. It was really full on. So I kept on sleeping until it seemed it was going to get better. But of course, as soon as I got up and packed everything, the new wave of hail started straight away. So I decided to get to the lighthouse at the end of the cape (you have to pay for entrance), climb it up, take a couple of pics and get a nice cup of coffee in the light station cafe.
As soon as the weather seemed to decide to stop playing with me, I started walking again. I took an extra few km of beach walk to see Rainbow falls but it wasn't worth the effort. The falls are nothing special. I actually had troubles with recognizing the exact place where the waterfall was. So if you ever do the walk, you won't miss anything if you skip the falls.
After I passed about a half of my day route, it stopped raining and I could even enjoy a few sun rays for a little while. So I eventually got pretty much dry and I was happy that I wouldn't have to take on wet clothes next morning. But I was happy prematurely. Just about one km before the campsite, right at the end of Johanna Beach, there is yet another creek crossing the beach. But this one looked really shallow and it seemed like every time the waves went away, there was only a thin layer of water left on the sand. And since it was already pretty dark and it started hailing again, I decided to just run through it at the right moment instead of taking off my shoes and wading. But that was a terrible mistake! I ran into water about 30 cm deep so my shoes and jeans got completely wet. How stupid! I was so pissed off!
But again, my anger didn't last too long - every time you're deep in some shit, something nice happens to you (and vice versa, hehe). I reached first campsite (a free one) and there was this crazy-looking old hippie with loooong white dreadlocks and loooong white beard staring at me from his van. I waved at him and we started a conversation and soon after he invited me to his van for a cup of coffee! Man, there was nothing better that could have happened to me at that moment! I was so grateful! It turned out that he'd been traveling around australia together with his wife and their 5! kids in that van (not so big) for over six months already! Lovely! He was also pretty convincing while advertising a red pawpaw. For some reason neither people, nor animals eat it but apparently it's sooooo delicious! Much more than its yellow version which is very common. So as soon as I come across a red pawpaw, I'll let you know if it's true or not!
Soon after I left that lovely company, I reached my destination campsite where I spent a nice evening with two other campers and I decided to sleep just on the bench under the wooden shelter. I didn't feel like pitching my tent. And it was perfect!
Day three: Johanna Beach to Devil's Kitchen, 30 km, 9 hours
This was objectively most difficult part - the middle section of the route (Milanesia beach to Moonlight Head) is considered to be hard and yep, it's true that the path (full of mud and slippery) is going up pretty steep slopes and then down again and so on. But because my feet recovered a bit, it wasn't that painful as the previous day. And it was awesome!
I left the camp early in the gray morning, hoping i'd see sun at least for a while during the day but the day remained as gray as the morning till the end. But at least it didn't rain. I really wanted to get to the Devil's Kitchen before evening and I knew it would be tough so I planned to skip the Wreck Beach and take the high-tide inland route instead (it's the last section of the route, not far from my destination camp ground). But after I passed the hard section, I came across this countryside hotel called Moonlight Retreat and I dropped by for a cup of coffee. While drinking the coffee the owner of the hotel told me that the Wreck Beach is definitely worth seeing and that the tide should be low enough to pass by the time I'd get there. So I took her advice and went through the Wreck Beach. And it really was worth! Well, as for the shipwrecks, there is no such thing like a whole shipwreck lying on the beach - the only reminders of the rich history of ship crashes are two anchors! But that didn't disappoint me at all at that time because I had lots of excitement due to the still enough high tide, strong wind and pretty rough sea with huge waves. It was about four hours after the high tide when I arrived to the beach and there were a few spots where the water was still reaching the steep shore above the beach and I thought I couldn't pass. So I had heaps of fun with running away from waves, climbing over places fully covered with sea etc. All in very strong wind and under a thick cover of gray clouds. Magical! It was definitely the most exciting part of the whole walk!
At the end of the beach I could see a little roof on top of the cliff above and I suspected it from being a toilet in the camp ground I was heading to. And I really didn't like how far (and high) it was. Fortunately it wasn't as far as it seemed to be at the end and I arrived there reasonably soon. And yep, it was the roof of the camp toilet! What surprised me though, was a number of people sitting in the shelter and drinking all sorts of very nicely smelling warm drinks. After I told them what I'd walked, I immediately got a mug of hot chocolate :-) Delicious! It turned out that there were two groups - a group of five moms from Queensland and a guy called Malcolm with his two kids. It was lovely to talk to them after all-day walking. I ate my piece of bread with peanut butter for dinner and after it got dark I went to sleep on the shelter bench again.
Day four: Devil's Kitchen to Twelve Apostles, 15 km, 3 hours
For the last day I only had to walk around 15 km in easy terrain to reach the stunning Twelve Apostles and eventually hitch to Halls Gap in the middle of Grampians. I reached the end of the walk, which is still a few kilometers before the Apostles and started to walk on the road while a car stopped right in front of me. It turned out to be Malcolm with kids! He waved at me asking whether I didn't need a ride. Awesome! He took me to 12 Apostles and even further to Loch Ard Gorge and did a walking tour around with me! By the way 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and further to the west London Bridge and Bay of Islands are definitely worth seeing! Basically they are very special cliff formations and they make such a great end of the whole walk! You can look forward to them all trip long and you absolutely won't be disappointed!
Malcolm took me to Port Campbell, a near town that was on his way back to Melbourne. I dropped by an information centre there and found out that there is a bus going to Warrnambool and there is also a regular coach going from Warrnambool directly to Halls Gap. And the coach was departing next morning. Since it was already afternoon and I really didn't feel like hitching I decided to go to Warrnambool, spend a night in a campsite there and then take the coach to Halls Gap. Again, it turned out to be a very good decision because there were awesome hot showers in the campsite! I was so happy when I found them! I also washed my very muddy jeans to increase chances to get a lift.
Animals
As for the typical Australian wild life, I'd seen the most typical ones during the walk: kangaroos, wallabies (small kangaroos), an echidna (big hedgehog), koalas. Even though they are the most typical ones, I was alway happy as a kid when I saw them. It's really a great experience to see them in their natural environment!
A few practical advices
Even though I didn't enjoy the rain during the walk, for number of reasons I'd say it was pretty good time to do it. First there were very few people out there, so I could fully enjoy the wilderness, then the full on weather together with rough sea prepared very special atmosphere and last but not least I didn't have to pay for any campsite and plan in advance where exactly I'd sleep each night because they were all empty. Speaking about campsites, this is way more organized than I'd prefer. If you wanna do the walk in busier season (and sleep in provided GOW hike-in campsites), you can't just start and see where you end up at the end of the day, just like I did. In fact, you have to book spots for your tent in the campsites you choose and pay for them at latest TWO! weeks before you start the walk. That sucks. You can still camp at free campsites (i.e. drive-in campsites) though but there are not that many of them along the walk and rather concentrated at the first half. Check out the picture of the map I've attached for better understanding of what I mean.
Be prepared to wade two or three times along the whole walk depending on the time you get to the creeks.
As for the food and water, as I said at the beginning, you don't have to worry too much about water unless you really don't want to drink the tank water. On the other hand you have to take food for the whole trip because basically the only place you can get something (like a pie or a croissant) is the cafe at the Cape Otway.
Oh and here you can find more information about the walk: http://www.greatoceanwalk.com.au/
