Great Ocean Walk

[Franco Darioli]

Having spent 30 years in photographic retail I have had several trips when I hardly have taken any photos or had no camera at all with me.
Makes sense, or maybe not.

Anyway , after a couple of three day walks with my wife in the last few weeks , first time in many years, I thought that she could handle a longer walk so we booked to do the Great Ocean Walk.
This in Victoria, Australia with the start at Apollo Bay, about 2.5 hours away from my desktop computer.
Around 104 km long with many short side trips available.
It can be done in anything from 3 to 7 days depending on your level of fitness and style of walking.
We opted for the 6 day (midday start and finish) five night option , the same I did a few years ago with a couple of mates.
There are 7 ,sort of, evenly spaced campsites with 8 tent spots each (max 3 persons in a tent) 4 tables, water tank, toilets and a 3 sided building with benches and a large table (handy last time when it rained hard one night)
Don't let the distances fool you because there are loads of up and down bits.
Most hills are between 50 and 250m but several need to be done each day particularly ,obviously, in the "double" days when you skip one campsite (to do it in 5 nights)
The weather was fantastic, threatening to rain on and off (it did on one night only) but generally cloudy mornings and open sky later on.
Warning : last time I did it we had 30c plus days (you need to carry water between campsites) and it can also rain there for a full week.
Plenty of wildlife including echidnas,wallabies,kangaroos,koalas,birds of all sorts with black yellow tailed cockatoos , the many sulphur crested cockatoos, kokaburras and sea eagles showing the Aussie diversity..
If you look carefully you will also see snakes, brown and tigers.
They are only dangerous when they bite.
(only one close encounter for us. Fortunately I was in front)
For walking times we did ,including breaks, almost exactly every day the time given on the official web site.
http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/explore/parks/great-otway-national-park/things-to-do/great-ocean-walk
On this trip I went nuts taking photos, as many as 30 in total.
Here are some :
the start

some coast

koala (first camp site)

more coast

life is a beach

echidna pretending not to be there (half a meter away..)

Aire river

typical camp site

Official end of walk

the end now is in the distance where you see two of the remaining 12 apostles.
This is the view at the very end,the other side of the cliff :

(not my photo)

[Richard May]

I get it out about not taking any camera gear. I've done the and thing, probably for similar reasons.

Australia is on my bucket list of places to go. I understand there's lots of places to walk about.

Thank you for sharing.

[Ozzy McKinney]

So, other than the drop bear in that first photo, what other wildlife was conspiring to kill you? I'm assuming that hedgehog/bird thing is poisonous?

Can't wait until things fall into place and we get to head to your side of the world.

[Roger Caffin]

> I'm assuming that hedgehog/bird thing is poisonous?

Let's just say you would immediately regret sitting on it?

Cheers

[Franco Darioli]

Like the platypus, echidnas are egg laying mammals.(the bird connection…)
I see them on hot days and usually they just curl up in the difensive position till you walk away.
Sometime they just keep going on about business, that is digging holes looking for ants and termites.
Unlike the poison that platypuses have on their spur, the secretion from the echidna spur is not venomous however of course you can hurt yourself picking one up.

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