Walking the Great Ocean Road by Greg Clarke
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Blanket Bay is barely more than a few flaps of an eagle’s wing from the crisp bed sheets and gourmet pizzas found in the thriving coastal township of Apollo Bay, around 200 kilometres south west of Melbourne. For those without wings it is about a day’s walk, but that such comfort can be any sort of brief sojourn away does not seem possible.
Blanket Bay’s isolationist mien comes from being posited deep beyond the towering eucalypts foresting the Otway National Park. When we fetch up on the Bay’s deserted beachhead an enormous swell is pounding the sand, chaotically furnishing it with the ocean’s natural detritus including great lumps of kelp and an unfortunate penguin. Beyond the unreconstructed beach a skirting hummock is crowded with scrub, hunkering from the battering wind.
The sound of the ocean and the wind has more voice than a thunderstorm. Yet, in spite of the fury, these heartbeats of nature, the ravaged beach and the sense of isolation provide some evidence to suggest man has not yet got around to inventing the wheel.
Kyboshing the theory somewhat is the fact that you can drive almost right up to the beach. But, we have walked. And, walking lures you to the very best of nature, all the while making you an intimate part of it, a starter on her team. The eagles hereabouts are always going to be the glory-boy strikers, but you’ll be in the box when the goals, the best of nature’s secrets, are produced.
And, the 91 kilometre Great Ocean Walk, a tramp’s version of Victoria’s iconic Great Ocean Road, that begins at the west end of Apollo Bay and ends near the 12 Apostles - towering columns of fractured sandstone rising up from the Southern Ocean - is bursting with Blanket Bay-like secrets.
The Great Ocean Road was built by returned soldiers after World War I. Much of it was hived from the coastal rock with pick and shovel and it was not completed until 1932, but it opened up this region, now known as the Surf Coast, to tourism and settlement. West of Apollo Bay, however, an extension of the Ocean Road cuts inland as it negotiates the cool climate Otway forests and the Walk, etched along beaches, a coach and horse route and through cliff-top scrub, will take trampers considerably closer to the wilds of the Southern Ocean - and into areas previously inaccessible to most visitors. The camp ground at Blanket Bay might be the place many walkers set tents the first night.
A telegraph track lined with more handsome blue gums leads to the Cape Otway Lighthouse, completed in 1848, about 13 kilometres from Blanket Bay. For 19th-century immigrants from Ireland and Britain, the rugged cliffs hereabouts were often the first land sighted after their 15,000 kilometre journey. Ships hugged this coastline, anxious to find the Cape’s light as King Island was only 120 kilometres south. This gap, in the days when navigation often relied on dead reckoning rather than a satellite was known as ‘threading the eye of a needle’.
We climb the lighthouse and survey a spectacularly vast tract of ocean but the scything wind scuttles our visit. East of the cape is feisty Bass Strait, a body of water separating mainland Australia from its island state of Tasmania. West is the mighty, and often furious, Southern Ocean. Wild seas and storms habitually ravage these parts and 14 ships and many more lives were lost on this strip of coast. Discoverer of Bass Strait Matthew Flinders reportedly wrote “I have seldom seen a more fearful section of coastline”. The fortunate survivors of shipwrecks were some of the first Europeans to set foot in these parts.
There are it seems plenty of locals who have completed much of the walk. Bo Melville and her husband, Neil, are in the only café at Castle Cove. The walk tracks almost right by it. “The old coach road is magnificent,” offers Bo. “It’s right along the top of the cliff. A huge drop to the ocean and heaps of kangaroos. There are rolling green hills, it’s very beautiful.” She is describing parts beyond Johanna (the beach took its name from the Joanna, wrecked in 1843. The ‘h’ was added later) we have yet to tramp and her words are a far greater spur than the coffee.
Unexpected, albeit fleeting, encounters with wild life can become rather common. Later we will happen across wallabies, kangaroos and birds with riotous colours. Sometimes the surrounding coastal scrub is much like the 5pm conga lines anywhere about the Central Line and seems impenetrable. Yet startled wallabies, employing a technique that would work a treat in peak hour, bound off through the verdant walls with apparent ease. Spiky echidnas are far less brash and waddle under the lowest reaches of the scrub.
George Earnest Morrison, better known as ‘Morrison of Peking’, was The Times’ correspondent in Peking at the end of the 19th-century. But, the celebrated Australian was also a redoubtable traveller and rather fond of solitary, foot slogging journeys.
Morrison’s most famous tramp took him from Shanghai to Rangoon but before he came to prominence, Morrison walked along the coast from the Victorian town of Queenscliff to Adelaide. In 1880, more than 50 years before the opening of the Great Ocean Road, Morrison, roast legs of lamb and loaves of bread stuffed in his backpack, followed cattle tracks carved through the scrub. Locals might have been traipsing this walk for some time but all are closely following the route of the peripatetic correspondent.
Though Morrison averaged about 25 kilometres a day on his journey but it will be recommended hikers take eight days to complete the walk. This will give plenty of time to allow for tidal delays that may be encountered on the beaches, but also to venture off the trail and explore other designated walking tracks.
Near Moonlight Head we detour off the trail and follow steep timber stairs down to the beach. In 1869 the Marie Gabrielle loaded with tea from China was wrecked here and the enormous rusting anchor is stuck fast in part of a reef. On this spectacularly deserted beach we take shelter under the lee of a towering, fortress-like cliff and have a lunch of cold meats cooked on a barbecue the previous night.
Later the walk passes by Princetown, about 6 kilometres east of the 12 Apostles, named for the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to the colony of Victoria in the 1860s.
At first instance little Princetown conveys the notion that if the Seven Dwarfs all decided to holiday here they would make the village fairly burst. Yet this is part of the appeal for Princetown’s pocket-book size might be unprecedented on the Ocean Road. For those who want to celebrate the completion of the walk a little prematurely, there is cold beer and a fine place to sit while watching the Gellibrand River wind through the surrounding wetlands to the ocean.
The walk ends at its most westerly point, by the Glenample Homestead, a remnant of an era when the first white settlers to the area acquired vast holdings by the altogether simple method of claiming land for as far as they could see. The homestead came to prominence in 1878 when the only two survivors of the Loch Ard shipwreck sought refuge here (Quite why it doesn’t continue on to the nearest town – Port Campbell - 11 kilometres to the west is still a mystery).
Near the homestead a limestone trail hugs a fractured cliff top with nothing but windswept coastal scrub (and a considerable drop) between an enormous expanse of ocean. Earlier Neil Lovett who has lived on this coast all his life told us, “once you get around Cape Otway the coast becomes more and more fascinating”. “There is unfettered power in this ocean. And the diversity along the coast is incredible. Driving in a car, people aren’t experiencing it.”
We stand by the trail looking towards one of the Apostles. The wind has been furious most of the day. The ocean, lashed to frenzy, smashes savagely on rocks. A car full of people shoots by on the nearby Ocean Road. Weighed down by a backpack it could be easy to covet the car and envy those travelling with so little effort - but walking has taken us inside the dressing room of this extraordinarily powerful coast and cultivated a far keener appreciation of its wilds.
AT A GLANCE
Stages of the walk can be explored in day trips from towns along the route. In some parts the trail is just a sliver and it is best to travel from east to west.
CAMPING AND ACCOMMODATION
There is some commercial accommodation at various stages along the walk including at Cape Otway, Glen Aire, Moonlight Head and Princetown. Plan ahead and pre-book your needs. Some of the campgrounds are small and basic and without shower facilities. If travelling in peak times such as Victorian school holidays you will also need to pre-book camping sites.
Information on accommodation is available from The Great Ocean Road Visitor Information Centre at Apollo Bay. Phone +613 5237 6529.
FOR YOUR SAFETY
Walkers are advised to be prepared. Parks Victoria have a detailed list of things to consider before setting out including:
- A good map of the area is essential. The walk frequently traverses beaches and during unfavourable weather including high tides, some of the areas are impassable. Carry a detailed walking guide available from the local Visitor Information Centre. Check tide times at the centre
- The weather in this area can be extraordinarily unpredicatable. Wear sturdy footwear, carry a warm jacket, sunscreen and a hat
- Always carry drinking water and food
- Keep to defined walking tracks for your own safety and to protect soils and vegetation from erosion and disease
For more information check www.parkweb.vic.gov.au or www.greatoceanwalk.com.au