GREAT OCEAN WALK – 31 March 2026
For those of you wondering if Peter and I could manage six nights with only 1 x 2l of cask wine. You’ll be pleased to know that we managed just fine. Confirmation that neither of us are alcoholics, but Peter did need to make a quick stop at the liquor store after we got back to the Big4 Caravan Park on Sunday night!
But I digress, one of the main reasons that I’d booked into this trip was to visit the Apostles again. The last time I was down this way had to be around 1998 when I did a road trip/bushwalk trip in what was then known as the Waterfall Way. We visited the Apostles at the end of the trip, and I was disappointed that (at that time) we couldn’t get down to the beach for a “total immersion” experience.
I don’t think there were steps down to the beach at the Apostles at that time, goodness, I doubt there was even a viewing platform LOL.
So, what are the Apostles you’re wondering (for those overseas)? The Twelve Apostles are limestone rock formations (stacks) along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, 275km west of Melbourne. Despite being called the Twelve Apostles, it’s possible that in the last 200 years, there were only ever 9 (who’s to say there weren’t 12 before colonization). Anyway, the limestone unit that forms Apostles is referred to as the Port Campbell Limestone, which was deposited in the Mid-Late Miocene, around 15 to 5 million years ago. The Apostles were formed by erosion, and the harsh and extreme weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually eroded the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then become arches that eventually collapsed, leaving rock stacks up to 50 m high. One stack collapsed in 2005, and another collapsed in 2009, leaving seven remaining.
Getting there …
Day 7 – 31 March – The Gable to The Twelve Apostles (changged)
The Guide: “… the walk meanders high above the beach … the vegetation is dense but breaks give more immense coastal views … the track descends onto a sandy track … you’ll then traverse cliff tops and undulating dunes before reaching the Twelve Apostles”. Sounded a lot like the previous 6 days.
On Sunday morning, we sat around the table with our driver and ascertained what our options were. If we started from The Gable (where we were supposed to finish yesterday), then our walk to The Twelve Apostles would have been 19.5k. None of us wanted to walk 19k LOL. The driver suggested two other options – (1) We drive to Gellibrand River and then follow the Old Coach road maybe for 5k – this would mean that we would be walking 12k for the day – our best option, but (2) if that didn’t walk, we’d start at Gellibrand River and only walk 7k – this seemed like “not enough” for the day. Anyway, we packed up all our gear and the driver took us to the fire trail to see whether or not he could drive up the trail, After 2k we got to “4WD only ” track so that wasn’t going to work, so we drove back to the bridge and opted for a 7k walk.
I have to say, when I started my legs were complaining quite a bit. 3k into the walk I was very happy we’d chosen the 7k option because so far all we’d walked through was the usual coastal heath where we couldn’t see anything. Let’s just say that for 6k of the walk there were only 5 spots where we could see either the ocean and waves on a beach, or the Apostles in the distance.
At one spot, Peter and I followed a well worn fire trail which after 50m came to an access route down to a beach. Looked like the access route was private property and locals could drive in through the private property to access the beach. It looked stunning, lovely yellow sand and not a footprint on the beach. If I’d been an independent walker, I would have considered dropping the 300m of scrubb/track and camped on the beach!
The walk was pretty much the same with no views until we were about 4k from our goal! The Apostles in the distance.
And just for a change, more steps LOL.
And a nice view, also we were able to watch some surfboarders being *** by a III and then they would release the *** and surf in some pretty good waves.
And then we’re out of the typical coastal vegetation and we’re into proper heath (knee high vegetation).
At the 5k mark we arrived at a lookout where we were “relatively” close to the Apostles and everyone took photos.
At 6.8k, we arrived at a carpark on the road to the Apostles and were able to take the steps to drop down onto the beach where you could get fairly close to the “first Apostle” Therese and I took the steps down, I’d heard that there were “lots of steps”, but really there weren’t that many (although whoever built them made them far too high LOL).
I was down on the beach with 30 or so tourists, I managed to get a shot without any tourists in the photo. in the distance there’s like a barrel, turns out that was part of the visitor centre and a lookout for the tourists which gets you up close and personal. It looks like it’s hanging over the beach but in fact it’s hanging out over that rock/cliff which is attached to the mainland and will probably be eroded to another Apostle in thousands of years.
The beach in the other direction, with some tourists on the beach who you can barely see.
We then walked the last 1.5k to the Visitor Centre and then did the obligatory walk along the tourist section where you could get better views of the Apostles, despite all the bloody tourists, it was worth the walk in the sun! Here’s where you can see the remaining Apostles (and the tourists).
A closer view of the Apostles.
And then the view looking down to the beach I walked on.
And another view, they are really impressive.
Walk91 picked us up from the Visitor Centre and then it was a 2 hour drive back to Apollo Bay where we checked into the Big4 mobile home park where we booked into our cabin. We cleaned up and then headed down to Apollo Bay for fish and chips and the traditional dinner to thank the leader.
Thank you to Therese, Peter and Marion for your company and a BIG thank you to Therese for putting this walk on the calendar, was well worth the trip for me and I finally got to walk on the beach at the base of them!!
Finally, keep reading until the end to see some good flora shots, and my granddaughter picked the thumbnail and banner for you all.
So, what’s the verdict for the Great Ocean Walk? I thought the walk deserved a bit of a review, it will not be the walk for some people, but for others, a real highlight.
For novices: The GOW is well worth doing, BUT if you’re camping make sure you do the 9 day trip, doing 7 days was way too many ks on some of the days (like the 19k day). We came across one group that did it over 9 days and they were “over the moon” some of them saying they’d definitely do it again. They did a few “luxury days” staying at Bimbi Park, and that worked out well for them on the rainy day. You can walk from Bimbi Park down to the Rainbow Falls and the Lighthouse, and you can access Johanna Beach from Johanna Seaside Cottages so it’s feasible to do a cross between full on camping and a bit of glamping. Bear in mind though, there are only 7 official GOW campsites (with amenities). If your group had a couple of vehicles, or one designated driver, you could also do “food drops” so you weren’t carrying a full 9 days of food. Some of the campsites are actually public campsites but the one that we saw Ryans Den was nicely set up with individual camp sites and a shelter, tank of water and nice toilet – and a great view to watch the sunset or sunrise.
For experienced independent walkers: I figured roughly 75% (maybe 65%) of the walk was through coastal vegetation, that is, not much to see other than the odd lookout. Having said that, the sections of the walk (on the track) that were through native forest were stunning. The campsite that I saw was fine but the tent sites were very compacted, I’m used to nice grassy campsites, so I would have been a bit disappointed if I’d been camping and you might need something to bang the pegs into the ground (or have a free standing tent). This should not be enough to put you off, but it’s good not to have high expectations.
For older experienced walkers such as myself: If you don’t want to do the whole 104k, you can cut out some of the less interesting sections (as we did), you need not do large sections of the coastal heath. The 6th day, which we were told was “hard” Peter and I figured that over the 6h 20m that we did, we climbed approximately 580m in elevation with approximately 12 “hills”. Ordinarily, climbing that much wouldn’t be a big deal, but for some reason, this became quite tiresome in the heat and whilst we all initially thought we’d do the full 18.5k, which they suggest would take 7 hours, we’d only made 2/3 of the distance in just under 7 hours. We were extremely thankful that there was the option to exit at Moonlight Head. None of us wanted to do the final section! To put this in context, we’d done quite a few 15+ days and I’d just completed 2 x 17k+ days two weeks earlier, so it wasn’t because we were unfit LOL.
Points to note …
- If you’ve done any of the Tassie walks like the 3 Capes Walk, Frenchmens Cap or Walls of Jerusalem, there are either nice seats looking out at a view, or rocks/fallen trees to sit down on for a rest. I counted maybe 10 seats over the 7 days that we did, hardly any rocks to use as a seat or fallen trees to sit on. If you wanted to sit down for lunch, it was mostly almost on the track, they could do with some more seats!!!
- During the summer months, I have heard that there are lots of snakes. We only saw one, but the track is very sunny (and snakes like to lay in the sun to warm up and digest the dinner that they caught the night before). Someone told me that a friend had seen 10 snakes on the track during the summer.
- The 25m of track before the Gibson Steps, is used as a toilet by the tourists that have driven to the Steps, watch where you’re stepping – one turd looked like it was from a giant.
- Be prepared when you get to the Visitor Centre that there are 100s of people (even on a weekday), and they are upgrading the parking and facilities, so it’s quite possible that the numbers will grow exponentially, and it’s possible that there will be a charge in the future to visit the lookouts.
Sadly, the “Indigenous Plants” handout for the Southern Otway Region didn’t have any information about fungus. Nevertheless, I liked the look of the one on the right, and the beautiful colour on the left.
One of only two Grass Trigger-plant (Stylidium Graminifollum” terrestrial orchids I found (on the left). On the right is possibly a Snowy Daisy-bush or Oleria lirata.
A really strange fungus on the right, and an interesting fungus on the left (but could be the difficult to find “boob fungus”).
That black fungus, if I didn’t know better could be a “death cap fungus” (which is actually white all over, but this one def looks “deadly”), the fungus on the right could be “small brown quail fungus”, really should get myself a fungus identification book LOL.