GREAT OCEAN WALK – 27 & 28 March 2026
So, we’re now into days 3 and 4. The Great Ocean walk covers about 100k and it’s recommended to do it over 8 days. We have 7 days at our disposal, with the plan to walk the following distances … 8k, 13.5k, 10.5k, 17.5k, 16k, 18.5k, 19.5k. I’m pretty sure that the group I’m with are keen to do the whole trip, but at my age I’m not sure I’m up for the days over 16k.
I had figured out what days I’d cut short, and let the others soldier on, but how do you know what you’re missing? Would I have major FOMO or feel that I hadn’t “done” the trip, or I’d have “unfinished business”? Fit young people could just go for it, but what about those, let’s say over 50? So, this post and the first one and the next one, may give others the idea of what you can “miss”. Mind you if you’re camping and doing a through trip, you can’t pick and choose – hence the advantage of doing a “supported” walk.
Day 3 – 27 March – Blanket Bay to Cape Otway Lighthouse
The Guide: “… through coastal forest … descending to Parker River … continuing along clifftop to the Lighthouse Station”. There were quite a few opportunities to view the coast but the vast majority of the walk was on a track with coast scrub, not many views at all.
We were picked up at 9am and driven back to Blanket Bay. It had started to rain again, but I took a quick snap of the Bay.
The walk started in nice eucalyptus forest. This is looking good, much better than the coastal vegetation.
Lovely shot back along the coast with what looks like bad weather coming in.
We’re now up higher and the forest has really opened out. I much prefer the forest to the coastal vegetation.
We stopped for morning tea along this part of the route. The weather is still iffy, hence the rain jacket still on Peter.
This gives you an idea of how easy it would have been for the first bushwalkers forging a route through this area.
We’re starting to get back into the coastal scrub, no views here.
When we came to water courses, at some a big tree had been felled and the wood used, strangely, the wood was from a log that wasn’t straight but was curved in the way that the track went (like a curve in the tree).
More, really beautiful eucalypt forest. I really enjoyed walking in this section.
We’re now descending to sea level and a boot washing station (more about that later). We’d caught up to another group by now.
By 11.45am we’re crossing Parker River. We were told to watch out for high tides – Peter had been keeping track of the tides, so we weren’t at all concerned. I took my shoes off and waded across ankle deep water.
The others left their boots on and just waded across.
From Parker River, it is a long, long climb up, approximately 80m elevation, and rock steps had been placed to prevent erosion.
Looking back down on Parker River.
Looking back at Parker Beach.
We’re back on the track with coastal vegetation, which means you can hear the ocean but can’t see it.
Not sure why there’s a boardwalk here, maybe because we’re walking on sand dune and it’s harder to walk on than grass?
Interesting that they’ve put in steps here, quite a long direction, but good views from it.
Good views.
After a considerable amount of coastal vegetation with new views, at 2.30pm we’re finally at the Lighthouse, it is closed for renovation, but I still enjoyed seeing it and we checked out some of the other exhibits they had. The entry fee was paid by Walk 91.
The lighthouse (or Lightstation is it’s called) is supposed to be the oldest surviving lighthouse in mainland Australia (wasn’t sure about that so I Googled it and yes, it is), built in 1848 and has been in continuous operation since then. For thousands of immigrants coming to Australia, after many months at sea, Cape Otway would be their first sight of land after leaving Europe.
So, we’re at the end of the day’s walk, but we’ve been told that we should make our own way to Bimbi Park, apparently a 2k walk away. The directions were given to us, but they were a little ambiguous. Nevertheless, we followed them and soon found our way into farm land, apparently that’s were Bimbi Park was located.
I was a little tired by now. OMG we’d only walked 10k, what was I going to do for the next few days. And, there were lots of “up hills”, the road just kept going and going.
By now it feels like I’ve been walking for an extra 2 hours, I was stuffed, at this stage I think I lost it and told Peter that if we didn’t see the park soon I would sit down and they’d have to get a car to get me. Obviously I didn’t!
Thankfully the park came into view, I was stuffed!
Overall, I enjoyed the day’s walk, the views were stunning! Could have done without the extra 2ks though.
10.5k + 2k walk to cabin – 8 hours – why did it take us so long???? We still haven’t figured that out!
Day 4 – 28 March – Cape Otway Lighthouse to Castle Cove (changed to Aire River)
The Guide: “… meanders towards wild and wonderful Station Beach … with a detour to Rainbow Falls, then after Aire River proceed to Castle Cove (16k, 6.5 hours)”. Whilst there were quite a few opportunities to view the coast, the walk was pretty much the same as yesterday, so we opted to end the days walk at Aire River, cutting our day by 3k, but due to having to walk from accommodation, it would still end up being 13k.
When we started the walk from the cabin back down to the track, we all said “ah but it was all uphill getting to the cabin, it will be downhill back to the track” … nope, there was just as much up as down. We then we lost a little time looking for a small piece of equipment that we’d lost the previous day, nevertheless, we were on task.
First stop was the Cape Otway Cemetery. Many of the early light station keepers’ families are buried here, along with ship-wrecked sailors and settlers. From historical records there are more persons resting here than are gravestones.
A child sized site, such a beautiful gravesite, acknowledging the sorrow from the death of a child.
Two of the children (1yr and 11 months) of William & Kathrine Evens who was the assistant lighthouse keeper between 1858 and 1868, and then he returned for another stint, 1872 – 1884.
Apparently, also buried in the Cemetery are those who died in the Blanket Bay Disaster of 1896. 3 of the crew drowned when a small boat from the Lady Lock (carrying 6 months of supplies to be taken ashore to Blanket Bay and then transported to the Lighthouse) capsized in heavy seas. There’s a great report here from the Melbourne Weekly Times on 28 March 1896.
Back on the track.
This is a nice part of the coastal vegetation, I like the bower formed by the trees. I estimated that between 60 & 70% of the track was along the coast but you couldn’t see much because of the vegetation, so, I probably wont do many more photos of the track (unless something changes), and will send shots of the parts of the track where we could see the coast.
View down to the coast.
It is worthwhile giving some thought to those who forced this track, was it explorers (early bushwalkers) or pastoralists, who had cut a route through this vegetation. Or was it a route forged thousands of years ago by the Gadubanud Aboriginals, as hinted to in this Journal by Lawrence Niewojt on page 95. Whoever did it, it would have been hard work!
When the track turned to sand it was hard walking!
Another unofficial lookout viewing Station Beach. From this spot I could see half a dozen people walking on the beach heading for Rainbow Falls.
Station beach is about 2k of beach walking, with 2 access routes. However, there’s an “inland” track for when the tide is too high or for those who don’t want to walk on sand.
Not sure why boardwalk appeared on the track, but it was good not to have to walk on sand.
By about 11am, we arrived at the turnoff to Rainbow Falls. I was keen to see the Falls, but Peter, Therese and Marion decided that they didn’t want to do the 1.6k round trip (side trip). This was a mystery for me as they were originally happy to do the 16k walk, so we parted company, I’d meet them at the end of the walk.
Thankfully, the 800m of sand dunes that you had to walk was all board walk, which was probably to ensure that you didn’t get lost LOL.
I was down on the beach in 10 minutes and then hightailed it to the end, I wanted to catch up with the people I’d spotted from the lookout 1/2 an hour ago so that there were people around when I crossed to the waterfall.
The first bluff that I had to get around, I hadn’t caught up to the group yet, so I was in luck, they were possibly still at the waterfall.
And there it was, Rainbow Falls – spring feed and algae has grown on the water course, which is why it’s a “rainbow”. I asked the group if they could hang around whilst I was there (if I fell on the rock surface, it would be a while till someone found me lol). If I’d been with one of my group then I would have done some investigation of the caves, but I didn’t want to hold up the people who’d already been there for an hour or so. Visiting the waterfall was well worth the detour.
Heading back to the beach.
I was happy that I didn’t have to walk the 2k on the beach after sitting on some rocks eating lunch and admiring the view, I headed back to the trail.
And here’s where I took an unintended detour. When I got back to the trail, instead of getting out the “map”, I spied a lot of footprints on a very wide track and assumed it was the GOW track. After walking for 15 minutes I noticed that the footprints were no longer that prominent, but I figured there’d been some rain and they were flattened out. After another 15 minutes I came to a gate and no GOW track markers (yellow arrows). I was pretty sure I wasn’t on the track and rang the Walks91 person and told them that I’d taken a detour and would backtrack to see where I went wrong. Half an hour later I was back where I started, confirmed with Walks91 that I was on the right track and hightailed it to Aire River. What I didn’t realise is that I’d dropped my favourite Rayban sunglasses, when I figured out I’d dropped them, I wasn’t going back to look for them!!! Ah well.
Mark from Walks91 said “text him from the lookout”., I came to this spot, looked like a lookout to me, so I texted. Nice view, then headed on.
And 10 minutes later came to the “actual” lookout, looking towards the Aire River outlet. This one had a seat, so I stopped to enjoy the view.
From the lookout the track turned inland and then became 1.5k of sandy track, some of which was tedious to walk on (sinking in the soft sand). Have to say I was pleased to get to the end of this part of the track, there was a good 300m once out of the sand, but this was well used vehicle track, quite muddy after the rain.
I met up with the others, they must have had a leisurely walk as they weren’t far in front of me. The Walks91 van turned up 10 minutes later and we were off to our accommodation at Bimbi Park and a hot shower!
11k + 2k start + 1.6k Waterfall + 1.5k “on wrong track and back to right track” for a total of 15k – 7 Hours
We’re all getting into the hang of the walk now, and even though the kilometers are higher than I usually like to do, it was relatively easy walking and I’d seen some interesting sections of the coast. The answer to the question at the top, we had chosen to skip some sections of the track, and now that I know what the track is like, I don’t feel that we’ve missed out on anything and the parts of the track that we did avoid would have mostly been coastal heath so, I think we made the right decision. So, what’s coming up for days 5 & 6! – see the next post.
Banner: a shot of mussels from the rocks at Rainbow Falls, they were quite tiny and I hadn’t seen them before on rock platforms.
Thumbnail: White Correa Correa alba a common flower found along the coastal track. Common from NSW to South Australia but I hadn’t seen it before.
Oh no! I am sorry you did not get to explore the caves! They looked pretty interesting. NPWS sure have put a lot of work into improving the track! What has the accommodation been like?