Havey’s Australia & New Zealand Adventure Part 5 – Great Ocean Walk (Shelley Beach to Parker Hill)

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Rough Night…

It certainly was a rough night with jet lag, getting locked out of my room, trying to find somewhere to sleep and then the prospect of a long coastal trek ahead of me on the 2nd day of this Great Ocean Walk. Thankfully I had some matchsticks ready to prop my eyes open and I had never drunk so much coffee in my life haha! Still, I was as ready as I could be to get going on this hike.

Great Ocean Walk Day 2

Entering The Forest From Shelley Beach

The second day of the walking tour involved a 20km hike from Shelley Beach picnic area to Parker Hill Camping Area. Here, the path goes inland for a while as we enter the forest of Mountain Ash, which, we were told, are the 2nd tallest tree in the world (the tallest being Redwood trees like the Grand Sequoia).

One of the tall Mountain Ash trees we saw on our hike

This walk started off with a steep downhill section to a river crossing before climbing up hill again. As we got down to the river crossing, we noticed some pretty patterns on the rocks. These little dimples form due to the slightly acidic rain landing on the rock and forming pools that slowly corrode it over time.

The river crossing at the beginning of the walk

Interesting patterns on the surface of rocks formed by rain

The climb uphill wasn’t really that high in terms of altitude but you’ll soon find out your fitness levels due to the steepness of the slope! One thing that struck me was how dense the forest was once it started plateauing. Trees in VAST quantities, the like I had never seen before as we don’t get them quite like that in the UK. Pictures don’t really do it justice (they never do though really).

The forest gets more dense the further in you go

Rejoining The Coastline

Once we navigated through the forestry, hills and slopes, the path rejoined the coastline at Blanket Bay, which is where we stopped for lunch. After that, it was a case of following the path as it meanders its way through the cliff tops and coastal forests to Parker Hill.

Walking along the Beach at Blanket Bay to our lunch stop

The coastal path leads through more thick forests…

…and opens out to a beautiful view point.

When we got to the view point above, we could see the rain clouds approaching, which “forced our hand” as we had to speed up our walking and head down to the cove for a short lesson on wildlife and how these forests formed – although it was cut short as it began to pour! Even the sea gulls were fleeing for safety as you can see below!

Seagulls fleeing the bay to avoid the rain!

Final Ascent

When you’ve done 19km of hiking, it was time for a well-earned rest. But wait, I thought you said it was a 20km walk? Oh yea, that’s right! The final kilometre involved walking up 400 wet steps to where the bus was meeting us at Parker Hill to take us back to Cape Otway… eesh! Never the less, we made it!

Some of the 400 steps to get to the top!

Cape Otway Light Station

When we got back to our accommodation, the Cape Otway Light Station was still open which gave an opportunity to have a look around and learn a little more about it! It was built in 1848 and is situated off the infamous section of sea known as “Bass Strait” [Source]. Infamous due to the many hundreds of shipwrecks that happened in this stretch of water as it was treacherous. More on the light station in a future blog as we do walk past it.

Nowadays the light station has been replaced by a smaller, automated but more powerful light a bit further down the cliff face. The original station is mainly a tourist attraction with some great views at the top and it’s open all year round except Christmas Day from 09:00 – 17:00 (around $19AUD for adults, $7AUD for kids) [Source].

Views from the top of Cape Otway Lightstation

Funny Moment Of The Day

Today’s amusing moment came from a conversation I was having with one of the walkers about cryptocurrencies as he was a lawyer and found it pretty interesting. Then I started talking to him about all the music platforms out there that use cryptocurrencies to pay artists for streaming and of course, mentioned the @emalliance, steem and dsound 😀 So it looks like we have another new follower in to the space 😉

Well, that was tiring, at least we don’t have a big walk like that again… oh wait, there’s a 23km hike coming up in the next blog 🙂

Take it easy

Nicky

PHC Top 3 – A Chance To Win From A Growing Prize Pool

Well, whilst I’m here, I might as well take the chance to tell you about a new contest that I’ve been a part of with the Power House Creatives called @phctop3. All you need to do is tell us what your top 3 favourites for a chance to win from a growing prize pool – more info here.

EMA is a growing electronic music community run by electronic musicians FOR electronic musicians. We have weekly playlists on a variety of platforms to cater for all streaming preferences – make sure you follow our blog for your weekly dose here. We’re also launching a new community run label called Electronic Alliance Records which aims to spread the word even more for our artists – check the latest developments and what music is coming up here