My adventure hike took place on the the Great Ocean Walk for a distance of 33.5 kilometres. There were 6 Scouts who participated in my hike including myself and 2 leaders.
On the first day of the hike all of the participants met up at the Scout Hall except for 2 who were already in the Otways Area ready to join us on the hike. At the Scout Hall I divided up the food and tents and helped pack it into everyone’s bags. We then split into the 2 cars and headed towards the Otways National Park and the Great Ocean Walk.
While this was the beginning of the hike, it had been a long and challenging journey just to get to this point ... planning, organising, promoting, oganising logistics and ensuring everyone had the correct gear and were ready to go. When we arrived at the Shelley Beach Picnic Area we helped finalise the packing of food and tents into everyone's bag, before we started walking.
Day 1:- Shelley Beach Picnic Area to Blanket Bay Campground
Distance:- 14km
The hike started with a large uphill which a few people struggled with but after a quick break at the top and a few small breaks along the way we all made it to the top. The rest of the hike was fairly flat and we did it reasonably easily with our only major break being when we stopped for lunch which for that day was bring your own.
When we arrived at the campground, we put up tents and set up our packs straight away and then just messed around until it started to get dark. We then cooked up some fried rice and ate dinner in the shelter. After that we went for a few mini hikes along the beach and everyone sat around talking until around 9:30pm. People then got into tents and talked until we got tired and all eventually fell asleep ... somewhere between 10:00pm & 1:30am!!!
Day 2:- Blanket Bay Campground to Cape Otway
Distance:- 9.5km
The next morning we all got up between 6:30am - 7:00am and started to pack up and have breakfast to then leave at 9:30am. At the start of the walk I made a mistake and we started walking on the wrong road. This became apparent when we came to a bitumen road. I then found a different route that saved us backtracking but meant that we would have to walk along a road the rest of the way. After getting the others opinions, I decided that we should continue along the road. This ended up taking 1.5 kms off the end amount. We got to the end point at the estimated time still and met up with the water carriers at the campground.
We ended up spending about an hour warming up and then proceeded to put up our tents and set up our packs. We then just sat around and talked until dinner which was Spaghetti Bolognese; then we went to our tents and talked from 10:00pm to between 11:30pm - 2:00am before finally falling asleep.
Day 3:- Cape Otway to Aire River
Distance:- 10km
In the morning we got up at 7:00am and packed up and had breakfast ready to leave at the same time as day 2.
This day went perfectly weather wise as it did not rain once and it was not windy along the coast. We got some awesome views and enjoyed this day thoroughly. On this day we celebrated one of the Scouts 13th birthdays and we finished at Aire River, before travelling into Apollo Bay where we enjoyed our traditional end of Expedition Bakery Lunch.
This hike was mostly successful with one of the main things that went wrong being the wrong turn on the second day, however, I could have improved on a lot throughout the hike. These things include: checking the map more to avoid taking any wrong turns, checking peoples bags are adjusted correctly so they will not be a problem during the hike, checking if everyone is doing OK more often and offering people more help in the morning so that we can pack up and leaving earlier.
In conclusion, I think that this hike was a big success, and everyone on it, including myself, thoroughly enjoyed the Above Average Ocean Walk.
