Excited to experience, walk and explore a new walking track, we met up at the Ballan Scout Hall, divided up our food, tents, and cooking equipment between us and then departed ready to enjoy a walk along the Surf Coast. Arriving at Jan Juc Caravan Park we located our designated campsite, set up camp and then ate our pizzas for dinner, accompanied by some garlic bread and drinks. The Scouts and Leaders then had some social time to talk and get ready for bed. When we finally went to bed, we were ready to wake up, explore and enjoy the Surf Coast environment for a couple of days.
The next morning everyone packed up the inside of our tents, had our cereal and milk in a Ziplock bag for breakfast, packed down our campsite, fitted our packs, and departed at 8:30am. We walked 3.3km from the Caravan Park in town, out to the Bells Beach lookout where we had our first 10min break. By this time, we had now made it to the Surf Coast Walk trail, which we would now be following right to the end of the hike. Just after we left the lookout, our Leader tripped over whilst trying to take photos, she was alright after we helped her up, but now had a nice bruise on her forehead.
Once she was satisfied that she was okay, we continued to walk (and talk) all the way to Point Addis, where we had a lunch break to eat our wraps.
The views on the walk were absolutely stunning.
We would be hiking along the coastal cliffs, from which we could see the beaches and ocean in great detail, watching surfers catch the waves and people walking their dogs on the sand, it was a really nice sight.
We then had our first encounter with walking on the beach, from Point Addis to Red Rocks, we did about 1km of trudging through the sand (and sometimes falling *cough *cough ‘Black Widow’) with our heavy packs, although it felt much longer. When we reached the stairs back up to the trail, we all had a non-designated break because of how much effort it takes to walk along the shore. During that small break we spotted a seal in the waves less than 100 meters from where we were sitting. By now we were over two thirds of the way there, so we continued hiking until we finally reached Eumeralla Scout Camp. After checking in, we carried our gear down to the ‘Fernery Campground’ where we were camping for the second night.
We once again set up camp and unpacked anything we would need for the next few hours. We cooked our dinners on trangias and boiled some hot chocolate afterwards for dessert. After cleaning up, we then had our preparation and social time before bed.
The following morning, we were once again woken up at around 7:00am, and prepared for the day: we packed up our camp, taped up our feet, and filled up our water ready for another 15km. We headed off along the Surf Coast Track, hiking all the way into Anglesea. We stopped for a 10min break once we had crossed the river, and checked the tide along the beach we were about to walk along. After our break, we then did so. We walked up to Point Roadknight, then headed down to the beach, which we walked along for about 4.5km, only stopping for short breaks, because the tide was slowly rising. We discovered a fun little trick, that if you walk in someone else’s footprints on the sand, it actually makes it easier to walk because the sand beneath you has already compacted, and therefore doesn’t move as much.
We finally reached our destination for lunch (Urquart Bluff) in surprisingly remarkable time. One of the participants had a re-occurring foot injury that was sparked by all the kms she had done, so we decided she should be picked up from this point, and wouldn’t have to do the rest of the hike. After she was picked up, the rest of us continued to walk to the Aireys Inlet lighthouse, our final destination for the hike. At the finish line, we all practically collapsed at the car park, so thankful that the walking was over. We loaded our packs into the trailer, and drove off to our celebratory location: The Great Ocean Road Chocolate Factory.
All in all, the participants of this hike had a great time, which is really what it was all about. We were extremely lucky with the weather, considering the forecast, as we had no rain, until we literally got into the cars at the finishing point. Lessons learned for next time include: spreading out the km in more than 15km chunks, planning slightly better for beach walks, and not bringing too much extra food (specifically milk powder). Thanks to all those who made this hike possible.
