Great Ocean Road 2024

Day 1: Melbourne to Apollo Bay

The day started with one of our group being sick as a dog and unable to come. Margie was an important member as she was in charge of the first aid kit! (Jim was in charge of the emergency beacon and I was in charge of the trail mix)

After some quick reorganisation (Alice retrieved the first aid kit and borrowed her mother’s car as the five of us would not have fit into Izzy’s car ) and a yummy breakfast, we finally got on the road. Deena’s navigation skills failed at first instance ( she had assumed we would be walking to the freeway which would have taken us a day a half instead of 15 minutes!)

We arrived at Apollo Bay about an hour late, and checked into our accommodation. At first glance the building looked like it was about to fall down, but the owners assured us that the inside had been recently renovated, and they were getting around to the outside “soon”. We had to be careful walking the corridors as the carpets had just been cleaned! A bit of a shame as we were going to pollute them with dirty boots.

We collected our lunch from a local cafe and off we went. Glorious sunny day. 10 km trek to Shelley Beach.

After dinner at the local Italian, we retired for the night. And then the rain came, and came, and came. Sweeping, heavy rain which came in under my windowsill and dripped on the new carpet.

Day 2: Shelley beach to Cape Otway light station.

When we regrouped for breakfast, we decided to switch our day around. Rather than walk to the Otway lighthouse , we would drive there, hope the rain would be gone by lunchtime, and then do a walk. It worked as planned.

The lighthouse and telegraph station at Cape Otway were interesting. We ran between the cottages between heavy downpours of rain. Built in 1848, the lighthouse was the second lighthouse on the mainland and the oldest surviving one. It was designed to show a light that could be seen 48 kms away. It was replaced in 1994 by a smaller solar powered, automated light beacon.

The area also housed a Telegraph station built in 1859. It was used variously as a school, post office,naval signal station and lookout during the two world wars and as additional accommodation for the lighthouse keepers and their families.

Every good historic lighthouse has a cafe, and Cape Otway was no exception, famous for its tea and scones, which we sampled.

By this time, the rain had mostly gone so we ventured down many steps to an inlet which we were meant to cross if we had done the proper walk. ( we decided against during this part of the walk because we would have had to wade knee deep across the inlet). The inlet was no longer knee deep but we would have had to take our boots off to cross the creek.

Then an easy walk to Crayfish Bay, before driving to our accommodation, called Chi Medicinal farm. In the middle of nowhere, it is run by a lovely couple who had stocked our fridges with dinner, salads, cake and food for breakfast and lunch the next day. Deena, Jim and I were in the main part of the complex. The girls were in a 3 bedroom house with huge kitchen, lounge, fireplace and dining room table. This is where we had our meals. The owners Suzie and Shane must have had shares in a plastic container company because all our meals came in plastic containers, elaborately labelled with written instructions as to how to turn them into quick meals.

Dinner was chicken curry, a huge green salad, and vanilla iced cake with pineapple and pomegranate for dessert. Yum

Day 3: Cape Otway to castle cove

A longish day – 16 km in total. We started with a visit to the Otway cemetery.

Then we made our way down to Station beach, which we could walk along because tide was low ( if tides too high, there’s an alternative inland route) . We walked along the beach for a couple of kilometres, where Jim spotted a hooded plover – one of only 600 in Victoria.

Then we climbed up through the sand dunes to a seat with a view. ( we forgot to get the view!)

We walked down to Aire river where we hit our first obstacle… a huge puddle.

This has to be climbed around, which we all did with panache, particularly Izzy who showed her pioneering spirit by carving her way through the bush.

Time for lunch.

Then a climb up through high vegetation to another seat with a view ( this seemed to take forever and we never found this particular seat). Arrived at Castle Cove. Another lovely view, and just a short walk down the hill to our accommodation.

Dinner tonight was a Tuscan stew with meatballs, followed by brownies for dessert. An extra bonus was seeing the Aurora Australis

Day 4: Milanesia to Moonlight Head

While this section was only 12 kilometres, there were lots of challenges. Some slippery sections, lots of stairs up and down ( steep up and steep down). We walked down to Milanesia beach where we saw cannonball rocks and a nature-made outdoor climbing wall.

After walking along the beach, we arrived at a track which “rises abruptly”….it sure did! A long uphill climb to a grassy knoll where we encountered some kangaroos.

Our driver had warned us about the kangaroos along the way. When you encounter one, it is best to sit down (so that you are lower than them) and wait until they hop away.Then an emergency access track took us up and down to Ryan’s Den. Another lovely lunchtime view.

More up and down and we reached viewpoint 1 – Cape Volney where you could see two huge caves in the landscape.

Along the way to the next viewpoint was a lost Apostle with a bird perched on top.

At viewpoint 2, you could see Moonlight Head, and look back along the coast.

Then a long climb up to the top of Moonlight Head, the headland seen by Matthew Flinders in 1802. It is notable for the vertical cliffs up to 50 metres high (hence a very hard climb up to the top). There’s a massive active landslip in the area, and as a consequence amethyst stones, which give the place its name, can be found on the pebbly beach. This stretch of the coast is renowned for its shipwrecks ( which we read about at Cape Otway.

We made it but all felt very tired.

Dinner tonight ….chicken and lentil stew with mashed potatoes, followed by pear cake. You can see that we are not starving.

Day 5: Princeton to the 12 apostles

Our wild and woolly driver Brad has kindly taken a photo of us at the start of each day, when we look fresh and energetic

As you can see, it looked like it was going to rain ( it didn’t…… until the last hour of the walk when it poured down and we all got very wet). Today was a much gentler walk.

Izzy found this sign ….still trying to work out the missing letter

We were able to see a number of the Apostles as we walked along.

Then we reached the “iconic” viewing spot for the Apostles…it was very windy and Izzy does a great “Michelin man “ impersonation

We had lunch sheltering under cover at the Apostles Visitors centre until our driver picked us up and took us back to pick up our cars for the drive home to Melbourne. We bought some delicious fish pies from Apollo Bay bakery, which we had for dinner.

Tuesday morning and deena, jim and sara all flew home to Sydney (thank goodness I had some trail mix for the flight)….But wait….why is that hot air balloon flying towards deena and Jim’s apartment in Melbourne?

Could this be Suzie and Shane’s new method for delivering food to us?

Thanks everyone for a fun trip and enjoy this memory.