The Great Ocean Walk - Day 6 (April 13 and 14, 2013) - The End

On the last morning we were both spent after having had a terrible sleep and being pretty stiff and sore.  When we woke up it was raining a bit, so we just decided to pack up early, have some breakfast, and get on our way.  We were hiking by 8am because we wanted to finish as early as possible. 

We decided not to follow the trail and instead we took an old road inland.  We thought it might be a little less hilly since it wasn't along the cliff, and we thought it would be a smoother walk.  It probably was, but it was still sandy and pretty rough - I wouldn't have wanted to be driving on it, that's for sure!  Despite Ryan's knee, he motored along and basically dragged me along.  He was definitely a man on a mission.

We saw a few swamp wallabies and some nice birds, but overall it was pretty uneventful.  In the end we made it to the check point half an hour ahead of schedule.

We walked through a little town near the river and past a bit of a camping area.  There were some kids playing in the water, and one kid who was kind of hesitating getting in the water because I imagine it was pretty cold.  We all know I'm not great with kids, but I thought I'd make an effort and encourage him to get in the water.  I told him that if he didn't get in the water quickly he would get leeches on his feet (which of course probably wasn't true here, but definitely was true as a kid in northern Quebec lakes), but instead of encouraging him he totally freaked out and ran out of the water.  Oops!  Ryan's just keeping me away from children from now on I think…

As we left the town and hiked our final stretch, the houses we left behind reminded Ryan of his childhood spent in Newfoundland, so we were slightly distracted for the painful last few hours.

And then we hiked over dunes, boardwalks, and through scrub.  The bushes were just tall enough that we couldn't see over them, and just close enough to the path for us to be worried about snakes.  Nonetheless, I still managed to tease Ryan about hobbling like an old man.  Though again, he never complained.  If anything it was me that was doing that!

And finally, after 6 days of hiking, we got our first view of the landmark 12 Apostles!

We still had some hiking to do after that, but once we saw them our spirits lifted because we knew we were on the home stretch.  We rested briefly, but it was only brief because when we sat down we found tons more of the red inch ants!  Ryan definitely didn't want to get bitten again, so we continued on our way.

Then we reached the "fake" ending of the hike where we got a lovely photo op just before the rain started. 

After our final 10 minutes of hiking Ryan ceremoniously got rid of his walking stick, we found our trailer, and the driver took our picture.

Before leaving the Great Ocean Walk/Road for good, he took us to the official tourist site for the 12 Apostles.  We didn't realize we were in for a bit of a walk there, but at least we didn't have our packs and it was on a cement path.  We did our quick photo shoot with the hundreds of other people and then finally left for good.

I have to say, there really is something satisfying about completing a giant hike like that even though you don't feel it at the time.  Looking back I'm extremely proud of what we accomplished, and it's cool to have such a unique experience.  It wasn't until we were at the tourist centre that we realized how lucky we were to be away from the crowds and get such a different view of the Australian coast.  For once we actually took the time to have an experience, and it was definitely worth it.

The driver delivered us safely back to our car in Apollo Bay (the 1.25 hour drive took us 6 days to hike!), we got some lunch, and then started our drive back to Melbourne.  On the way we stopped at Bells Beach, which had recently been the site for one of the world surfing competitions.  They were taking the grandstands down, and still there were hundreds of cars in the parking lot which presumably belonged to the hundreds of surfers in the water.  There were of course some spectators, but it was really cool to see the best surfers in Australia messing around at one of the top surfing sites in the world.  It was especially funny to see all of the vans in the parking lot, and even older guys with long blonde hair in wet suits getting ready to surf.  It was so stereotypical, and definitely worth the stop!

As a reward for completing the hike, I had bought a cheap voucher for one of Melbourne's most posh hotels: the historic Hotel Windsor.  We knew we wouldn't want to tour around the city, so this was the next best thing.  Unfortunately, it took us awhile to get there.  For some reason Ryan had in the GPS that we were going to the Windsor suburb, so needless to say it took us a little longer than expected to get there!  But we got there in the end around 6:30pm, and it was seriously worth the wait.

We pulled up out front of the hotel, and a valet came and took our bags and parked our car.  Of course we had backpacks and duffle bags, so we looked extremely out of place walking into the lobby with chandeliers and an entire wedding party.  But Melbourne is a friendly city and the bride and groom joked with us saying they were glad they're not the only ones to travel with backpacks!  The staff made us feel very welcome despite our smell, but we were relieved when we were finally in the room.

The package included a bottle of sparkling wine, which was chilled for us upon arrival.  Our first priority was to shower, but I decided to have the best of both worlds and have some wine IN the shower.  Life's hard!

We ordered delicious room service (of course way too much food) and enjoyed it in our robes.

Now, one fun thing about the Hotel Windsor is that they have a pillow menu.  That means they have a list of pillows you can choose from, and then they bring it up to your room.  Yes, this is extravagant, but since it was included I of course wanted to make the most of it!  So Ryan ordered the "posture perfect" pillow and I ordered the "aromatherapy" pillow, not really sure what to expect.  Shortly thereafter our pillows were delivered, but I was a bit surprised that mine smelled like, well, pillow, not the lavender loveliness I was expecting.  I of course wanted to exchange it, because it was obviously a mistake, but Ryan tried to talk me out of it.  He was absolutely mortified when I called the front desk, but in the end it turns out they HAD sent me the wrong pillow and I got to enjoy the rest of the evening smelling glorious.

Once everything was sorted we rented the movie "Robot + Frank" on pay-per-view and ate our delicious desserts in bed.  Needless to say we were passed out in a food/hike coma by 9:30 pm.  What a wicked way to end the trip!

The next morning we went down to enjoy our complimentary breakfast, which was soooo lavish.  The tea was served on actual china with actual silverware!  There was every wonderful indulgence you could possibly imagine for breakfast, and I made the most of it.  I especially enjoyed the unlimited supply of strawberries and blue cheese!

And then, suddenly, everything was over and we were off to the airport to get back to reality.  I must say, if you want to just ignore the world for an entire week, do what we did!

The Great Ocean Walk - Day 5 (April 12, 2013) - Another Snake Encounter

It was really nice to wake up in a bed, use a real bathroom, and cook breakfast on a stove, but we still had to prepare for the two days of hiking ahead.  We realized overnight that my water bag was leaking, so I had to head down to reception to see if they had any duct tape to fix it.  I was greeted by an awesome surprise - a baby wombat!  The owner had a 14-month old wombat wrapped in a pink blanket which I got to snuggle while she hunted for some tape.  The wombat's name was Dora, and she was about the size and weight of a watermelon, but really soft.  My goal for the trip was to see a wombat, so it was cool that I got to hold one!

Our driver picked us up at 8:40 am and we were on the trail by 9.  Our first animal encounter  was a group of these guys:

The day had lots of hills, and almost immediately Ryan started having trouble with his knee.  After half an hour he put a tensor bandage on it, and shortly after that he started taking Advil in hopes of keeping the inflammation down and not making it any worse.  Luckily I was feeling great, so it was my turn to talk Ryan through the hike.  To his credit he never complained at all though.  He's much better at this stuff than me!

Despite Ryan's trouble, I really enjoyed this day the best out of all of them.  A lot of the hike was through gorgeous gum trees, where I got to spend some time looking for koalas and birds and just enjoying the scenery.  It was different from the other forests we hiked through, so it was a nice change of pace. 

Once we were through the forest, we got to this grassy field with an awesome view. 

Through some more farmers fields, down another hill, then back up the other side brought us to the second beautiful view where we ate a delicious lunch and had a rest.  By this time Ryan was really starting to feel rough (though you wouldn't know it by the picture), so we kept tabs on how far we were from the road at any given point in case we had to bail.  Then we got the brilliant idea to find him a walking stick which helped enough to get him through the rest of the day.

Ryan must have been feeling a little bit better, because he got so into our conversation that he walked right next to this beautiful snake before noticing and yelling out to me!  I was walking behind him, so we were in the funny situation of the snake being on the path between the two of us.  Eventually, after we had plenty of time to take pictures and check him out, he slowly got off the path and let us continue. 

The last part of the hike was less eventful, but a bit rough.  Luckily there were lots of boardwalks so it was relatively flat hiking, but for once I got to return the favour and carry Ryan's bag for a little while.  Luckily we had learned by day 5 how to pack light!

We FINALLY made it to our campsite, which was extremely nice.  Unfortunately there was a 600 m walk to and from our trailer to get our stuff, so we only grabbed the necessities and then went back to setup camp.  The site had benches so we didn't have to eat on the ground, and it also had a "loo with a view" which was pretty cool.  The outhouse was on the top of a hill on a cliff, so they put a window in it so it was a really nice view while you did your business.

After dinner and a game of cribbage we were in our tent by 6 pm.  And boy were we smelly!  Let me tell you, the boots got packed away tight that night!

The Great Ocean Walk - Day 4 (April 11, 2013) - A Change of Plans...

We woke up to rain in the morning, so we did everything we could including packing our bags and eating breakfast before we got out of the tent.  We decided to take a load of stuff to the trailer while we were waiting for our water delivery, and put everything, including our packs, inside the trailer so they wouldn't get wet.  When we opened it up we found a giant huntsman spider - by far the biggest I've seen since moving to Australia.

Once the bags were all in, I just went for a quick bathroom break while Ryan went to pack up the tent, and then we went back to wait by the trailer for our water so we could start the day.  Oh, how wrong we were.

It turns out that while we had stepped away, our stealth trailer driver had delivered the water.  Finding the trailer unlocked, he locked it when he left.  When we returned, we realized that the key to the trailer was actually in my pack, which was inside.  We had no idea the driver had been back, so we assumed the trailer automatically locked when you shut it.  Boy did we feel stupid!  Literally the only things we had were my waterproof camera and our duffle bag with our tent stuff in in.  Thinking that our driver was due any minute to drop off water, we just waited near the trailer for 45 minutes. 

You might think that was stupid, but in Australia, especially remote Australia, no one is ever on time.  Finally we decided to give our tour company a call to see if they could help us out.  Unfortunately we didn't have any phones, so we went and found a Dutch guy who let me use the internet to find the phone number, and then call.  I left them a detailed message about what was happening, but sure enough they called the Dutch guy back an hour later so he came running to find us.  By then it was 10:30, we were exhausted and soaking wet, so we decided that if no one got to us by 11:00 then we wouldn't do the hike that day.  It was only a 5 hour hike (including a solid 2 hours uphill and 2 hours downhill, all inland), and we didn't like the idea of not finishing the entire hike, but turns out that it was a good decision.  We also found out later that since it is the worst/most boring section of the hike, Parks Victoria is actually redirecting it and making it better, so we don't regret it.

The original plan had been to meet a driver at the end of the hike that evening where they would take us to stay at a wilderness retreat for the night.  Instead, they picked us up and just took us there earlier in the day.  We were grateful for a hot shower and a kettle to boil water, and we unpacked our gear and let it dry by the heater.  We thought that it was going to be an open animal sanctuary, but turns out it was more like a run-down zoo.  Overall it was disappointing, but we did get to see wombats for the first time in Australia!  They gave us carrots to feed them, so although we didn't get to see them in the wild, it was definitely fun.  There was also a parrot that talked, but it sounded exactly like a radio station!  I guess it doesn't get much human company to mimic.  The other cool animal were the giant bats.

We spent the rainy afternoon playing cards, reading, and cooking our delicious laksa dinner on the hot plate in the room.  We also reorganized all of our stuff so it would be easier to manage for the last two days of our hike.  We worked out our sore muscles, and then slept in a real bed by 9pm.  The only downside was that I was up all night blowing my nose because I was seriously allergic to something in the room...unless I'm allergic to wombats!

The Great Ocean Walk - Day 3 (April 10, 2013) - Halfway There!

That third night we had a terrible sleep.  We had been too lazy to bring the food back to the trailer, so there were little animals rustling around the bags the whole night.  When it was time to get up I could hardly walk, but after working out some muscles I was feeling much better than I had expected to feel so we decided to continue the hike.  The campsite was really beautiful in the morning and the birds were very friendly.  While I was filling up our water bottles some little birds kept hopping around and through my legs.  I kind of felt like Cinderella...in her early days.

We packed as light as possible for the day, and when we left at 9:20am we were feeling pretty good.  Day 3 was probably the most scenic, but it was also the least eventful.  There was lots of up and down, a few lizards, and one really nice forest. 

This was one of the few times we met up with the road, and someone at the lookout offered to take our picture.  It was awesome knowing that we had walked what they had driven to get the same view.

One of our last views of "Naked Man Point".  It's super cool to think we hiked that entire coastline and beyond - most of it that day!

The rest was scrub land which was pretty boring, and then it ended with a 2km trudge over a beautiful sandy beach.  The descent from the cliff to the beach was quite steep, and in retrospect that was the first time I remember Ryan mentioning a sore knee.  The walk on the beach was a nice change of scenery, but it was quite difficult to walk on.  I wanted to take my shoes off so badly, but we were rationing our bandages so I didn't want to lose any off of my feet.  The beach also held our second "river" crossing, which we were eagerly anticipating.  We didn't bring any shoes, which was a good decision because much like the first river we were supposed to ford, we could just hop over this one!

Just past the beach we found the public campground, but since we didn't see our trailer we kept walking along the trail up a hill.  It didn't seem quite right, so after a second look at the map we realized that the trailer was supposed to be at the public campsite but we must have just gotten there too early.  By the time we walked back down the hill the trailer had arrived.  Upon inspecting the map again, we realized that our campsite was actually 800m up the hill.  Instead of carrying our gear up the hill that night, then down again in the morning, then hiking back up the trail to continue the hike, we just decided to camp at the bottom of the hill in the public campground.

The trailer service was also supposed to provide us with clean water each day, but that night the jug was empty.  Good thing we didn't camp up the hill, because we had to wait around again for someone to deliver us some water!  We somehow managed to miss the trailer driver every single time he came by, and this time was no exception.  Later we found 5 mismatched water bottles hanging off the side of the trailer because they had just scrounged up whatever bottles they could find to fill.  It was just enough to last the night, then they were delivering more in the morning.

With everything finally sorted out, we had a delicious dinner of dehydrated rice, broccoli and squash with a curry sauce.  After slathering ourselves in Tiger Balm we played a few games of cribbage, read our books, and we were fast asleep sometime shortly after 7pm!

The Great Ocean Walk - Day 2 (April 9, 2013) - What did we get ourselves into?!

We woke up on day 2 feeling a lot better than we had expected.  We were stiff, but we were definitely ready for another day of hiking.  At 8:45am we were on our way, and the first hour of the hike was pretty much used for working out the sore muscles from the day before.  We kind of expected to get into a rhythm that day, but it turned out to be a lot harder than I expected.  Ryan did fine - it was mostly me that struggled.

We went up and down a few small hills, and through a nice forest that had been previously burned by a forest fire.  We also crossed our first "river".  Walk91 told us to bring extra shoes to cross the river, so not knowing what to expect we carried them all day.  Turns out the river was a trickle of water on a sandy beach (second picture below) so we jumped over it and never brought extra shoes again.

The highlight of the morning was our first snake encounter!  I was walking in front and somehow managed to completely miss seeing a 1 metre long copperhead snake on the path.  I walked right by it, and Ryan, who was only maybe 2 metres behind me, made the most ridiculous noise like a dog barking in pain.  I honestly thought he was being attacked by a wild dog.  Seriously, it was uncanny.  When he "composed" himself he finally managed to tell me it was a snake, but by that time the snake had escaped into the bushes.  Needless to say that Ryan never let me walk in front again, and we also stopped looking in the trees for koalas!  From that point on, every stick looked like a snake, and every little rustling lizard or bird made us look twice.

We emerged from the forest to walk through rolling hills and farmers' fields.  The snakes were replaced by cows, and it was a nice change of scenery.  We began to walk towards Cape Otoway Lighthouse, but the problem was that we could see it but it never felt like we were getting any closer.  That was where the day started to go downhill (unfortunately not literally) for me.

When we finally made it to the lighthouse we collapsed on one of the picnic tables, I took off my boots, and we ate a delicious lunch.  The lighthouse itself was down a long path, and neither one of us was keen to go check it out.  Eventually I gave in and hobbled down the path to get there, but Ryan didn't bother.  Later, back at the picnic table, an old man was giving us a hard time for not going UP the lighthouse.  That is something I will never regret.  The view was alright, but mostly it was just a really nice rest.

The next 11 kilometres were by far the hardest of the entire trip for me.  It really became a mental game - trying to ignore my muscles getting sore and trying to forget how far we still had to go.  Thank goodness for Ryan, because he's done a lot of hard slogs before and knew how to help me through it.  We also didn't bring any sunscreen that day, so the elements got to us a bit too.  This part of the hike was along the top of the cliff, so each time we got a view we could see where we had come from.  That's actually really cool, and gave us a great sense of accomplishment.  At one of our lookouts, we came across this glorious specimen:

This guy was motoring!  We forever dubbed that point "Naked Man Point", so whenever we looked back along the coast we always recognized that one and had a little giggle.

As you can see, the trail turned very sandy which made it even more difficult to walk.  Since we were up on the cliff, every once in awhile we got a good look at the trail ahead.  With the white sand trail, on low green brush, we could see the trail weaving as far as the eye could see, which reminded us of the Great Wall.  I thought we would never get to the end!  It was also prime location for snakes sunning themselves, and consequently Ryan saw 2 more baby snakes (one copperhead and one unidentified one).  Of course I didn't see them since he was leading and scared them away.

And the trail went on and on.  And on.  And on.  Until this happened:

Then some tears, Ryan took a few things from my pack, and we FINALLY made it to our campsite.  It was definitely a low point for me, but I'm proud of making it through eventually.  After that the trip got much better for me (and worse for Ryan), but in a 6 day hike everyone's bound to have their low point.

The campground was really pretty and set along a nice river full of birds.  We found our trailer, but then discovered our actual site was 100m up a hill.  We collapsed at a picnic table debating whether we should bring all of our stuff up the hill or not, but after a pep talk from a nice old lady who had to carry all of her gear for the entire hike, we just sucked it up and did it.

The other group of hikers up there was really friendly, and it made us want to get smaller gear so we could also do real overnight hiking.  At this point, though, our gear just isn't compact or light enough. 

Dinner was small since we weren't very hungry, so we split a can of soup and had some tea.  During the cooking Ryan managed to sit on a giant inch ant and got a painful bite on his butt.  Luckily it wasn't a scary red one and he was fine shortly thereafter, but we're not joking when we say they're actually an inch long!  That night it was almost impossible for me to move after my muscles seized up, and I wasn't really sure what was going to happen the next day.  I slathered myself with Tiger Balm, we creamed our sunburns, and did some stretching.  We decided to sleep on it, and hit the sack at 7pm hoping that I would be able to walk in the morning!