The Great Ocean Walk of Australia and Post-Hike Blues

Dear reader, if you are here because you are debating, just as I did, whether to hike the Great Ocean Walk, I would wholeheartedly say go for it. After weeks of unnecessary consideration and comparing it with other multi-day trails in Australia, I finally hiked the Great Ocean Walk in late April, and it turned out to be one of the finest multi-day trails I had ever hiked.

The 104-kilometer trail, which starts in Apollo Bay and ends at the world-famous (and intentionally misleadingly named) 12 Apostles, offers a unique diversity of scenery that would be hard to find anywhere else. It roughly follows the Great Ocean Road, one of the world’s most picturesque driving routes and the world`s largest war memorial. While the main allure of the trail is the coastal scenery and its proximity to the ocean, I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of terrain and scenery it offered.

What is the Great Ocean Walk?

The history of the Great Ocean Road, the driving route, goes back to the First World War. The 240-kilometer road covering part of coastal Victoria—starting in Torquay and ending at Allansford—was built between 1919 and 1932 by returned soldiers in memory of those who lost their lives in the Gallipoli campaign against the Turkish/Ottoman army. The road built to connect the isolated coastal communities in Victoria is today the largest war memorial in the world, highly elevates the region’s profile, and makes it one of the most visited places in Australia, for all the right reasons.

The Great Ocean Walk, on the other hand, is a much more recent initiative and offers visitors a more intimate experience with this exceptionally beautiful coastal section of Australia. The trail, opened in 2006, is managed by Parks Victoria, the government agency responsible for select nature areas and parks in Victoria. It is a very well-maintained route, with many signposts guiding hikers.

The 104-kilometer-long trail roughly follows the Great Ocean Road. While the road does not offer ocean views in all sections, the trail never wanders too far from the coast and delights hikers each day with ocean views and the sounds of the ocean, even when you cannot see it.

Unlike some of the official multi-day walks in New Zealand, such as the Great Walks like Milford Track, where hikers must spend three nights on the trail, staying at each hut and following the same route, there is no predetermined, mandatory way to hike the Great Ocean Walk.

Great Ocean Walk quick notes

#1 You do not need a permit to hike the Great Ocean Walk unless you will be camping (in which case you need a reservation).

#2 There are no huts along the trail, but designated campsites that require pre-booking. You can book online using Parks Victoria`s booking site. In most sections, there is a special campsite for the Great Ocean Walk hikers separated from the regular campsites, which mainly cater to groups. I was told this was to provide a little more privacy for the hikers, who may prefer early nights and a quieter atmosphere at the campsites.

#3 Along the trail, there are many access points connecting to the driving route. As a result, camping is not your only option for the Great Ocean Walk. If you can arrange your transportation, you can also—as I did—do the hike by staying in hotels or motels scattered throughout the region surrounding the trail. I highly recommend Bimbi Park for base accommodation – reasonably priced and very clean facilities.

#4 Unfortunately, most accommodation facilities are not within a reasonable walking distance of the trailheads, so you will need to use some form of transportation during the hike if you are not camping. Arranging the trail transportation was the trickiest part for me; you can see my notes on this below.

#5 Along the trail, there are no places to buy food or snacks (except for a cafe at Otway Lighthouse, which closed at 4 p.m. when I did the hike in late April/early May). Fortunately, Apollo Bay, the starting point of the hike for many, has a couple of well-stocked grocery stores, which come in handy for stocking up on food before you start the hike.

#6 Regarding water, campgrounds have rainwater tanks, and hikers are welcome to help themselves to the extent that they can filter the water.

#7 For phone reception, which was crucial for me to arrange my pick-up time and location at the end of each day, I was advised to get a Telstra SIM card as the only network offering partial connection along the trail. I followed the advice and had no issues connecting with my transportation provider when needed.

#8 The Great Ocean Walk is not a particularly difficult or technical trail, but it is definitely not a walk in the park. Many sections require you to negotiate successive ascents and descents, with some particularly steep descents. The most difficult day for me was the third day, when I covered the section from Johanna Beach to the Gables.

#9 If you plan to hike sections of the Great Ocean Walk rather than the whole hike, I would recommend almost any of the sections after the Cape Otway Lighthouse (and even a little earlier for the wonderful cliff views featuring the lighthouse).

#10 There is a very friendly Facebook group dedicated to Great Ocean Walk tips, which I benefited greatly from while planning my hike.

#11 I recommend buying the Official Walkers Map/Booklet published by Parks Victoria before the hike to study the distances, elevation profile, and overall trail conditions. I bought it a little late and had it shipped to my accommodation. However, having it during the actual planning stage would be much better.

How long does the Great Ocean Walk take?

The Great Ocean Walk is officially designed as an eight-day walk, with a night stop at seven different campsites. Most people would agree that eight days is a very relaxed time frame for finishing the hike, allowing one plenty of rest time each day. Along the trail, I met people who previously did the hike in two days (by running certain sections) as well as those who were taking their time with a nightly stop at each campsite, committing to a full eight-day schedule.

As for me, given that I traveled from Japan and only had a week off, doing the hike in eight days was not an option. After studying the hike map and assessing the distances and elevation profile, I settled on a schedule and itinerary that would allow me to finish the hike in 3.5 days. The fact that I did not camp and had a full pack with all my food, clothes, and camera equipment only on the first day surely helped me. At the end of the trail, I was very pleased with the overall schedule, which required me to push myself a little while also allowing me the time and energy to enjoy the outstanding scenery along the way. Another important factor was the weather. During the four days I was out on the trail, I did not face any adverse weather situations and was blessed with sunny skies for most of the hike, an aspect that greatly helped with my average pace.

Just to give you some background info about me in case you are assessing your situation: I am a 45-year-old female. I would not call myself very fit, but I have relatively strong lower legs and some experience with multi-day hikes. The month preceding the hike, I visited the gym 3-4 times weekly before work to do incline treadmill running. The steep descents during the hike challenged me (and particularly my toes) much more than the climbs.

Great Ocean Walk sections and distances

How did I hike the Great Ocean Walk?

While I occasionally camp if it is the only available option or if the campsite is particularly attractive, I am not one of those people who would still opt for a tent even if a hut is available. The reason is very simple—I am a terrible nighttime sleeper. Following a brief deep sleep phase that starts as soon as I shut my eyes, I wake up multiple times during the night. And the situation worsens in a tent, and I feel lucky to get just two hours of sleep. For the Great Ocean Walk, there was no hut option. And it was already late in the season, with possibly cold nights. Although it increased the trip cost, I decided to book a private trail shuttle and stay at hotels near the trail.

Trail transportation

Unfortunately, there are not many pooling options for trail transportation. While one company offers a walk shuttle, this inevitably and understandably requires hikers to follow a pre-fixed walking itinerary, which would not work for me. The public transportation also only runs three times a week between the 12 Apostles and Apollo Bay, and the schedule is not very suitable for hikers.

After exchanging emails with many companies and service providers, I chose the transportation service offered by Lee and Jenny Bryant, who patiently responded to all my emails and commented on my itinerary. At the end of the day, I could not be happier with my choice. Jenny and Lee were both very easy to talk to (having a nice chat in the car at the end of a long day of hiking was wonderful), and knowing the area so well, they gave me wonderful trail tips. They were also very flexible regarding pickup times and locations. For contact: albee287@gmail.com

Accommodation

As for accommodation, I highly recommend Bimbi Park, which is located near the Cape Otway Lighthouse. The facility offers a range of accommodations, from fully equipped cottages to tents. It is a reasonably priced and very well-managed facility. They also have a small store on-site if you need to supplement your food (and drink) supply during the hike.

Food

Although I didn’t camp, I still had to carry my own food supply. Almost all facilities in the area offer self-catered accommodation, with access to a private or shared kitchen, but no on-site restaurants or cafes. I did my shopping at Food Works in Apollo Bay (open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.). As usual, I stocked up on tortillas and dry meat for lunch, pasta for dinner, and a lot of protein bars for snack time.

Notes from the trail

Apollo Bay to Cape Otway Lighthouse (32-kilometers)

There are two things that I passionately dislike about hiking multi-day trails. First is the logistics part: most multi-day trails require you to spend a substantial amount of time sorting out the logistics (where to buy food, how much, transportation, accommodation/camp booking, water supply locations, etc.). Australia’s notoriously difficult immigration controls also add another layer of complexity if you are traveling from abroad, as they, for understandable reasons to protect the country’s unique biodiversity, discourage anyone from bringing food from abroad. I arrived at Apollo Bay at 6 p.m. and had two hours to do my food shopping before the stores closed.

The Great Ocean Walk, especially if you are not camping, requires a lot of planning due to the lack of a centralized transportation and accommodation booking system. Sure, there are companies that will take care of all that burden off your shoulders, but for a very high price (I got quotes above 3.000 Australian Dollars, whereas my overall cost ended up being just a little above 1.000 Australian Dollars).

Living in Japan, getting to the trailhead also required some effort, as in one long, one short plane ride, followed by a train, and then a 3-hour bus ride. So, by the time I was standing in front of the Apollo Bay Visitor Center at 7.30 a.m. on the first day of the hike and watching the hiking groups joyfully posing in front of the Great Ocean Walk sculpture, I was sure ready to charge ahead and forget about everything else for the next four days.

The first day on the trail was a perfect introduction to the variety of the landscape scenery ahead. The hike started with a road walk (but with ocean scenery nonetheless), followed by a beach walk, and a long forest section (as lovely as the coastal sections on a sunny day, thanks to tall trees) that eventually led to Blanket Bay, reuniting me with the ocean scenery.

I had my longest break of the walk at Blanket Bay, with its gorgeous campsite facing directly to the ocean, where I chatted with two friendly hikers from Australia who kindly gave me some trail tips. One of them hiked the trail in two days before (by running parts of the sections), so I think he needed another visit to enjoy the scenery.

The first day was my longest on the trail, and I was, understandably and gently, advised against it. But I had my reasons. The weather forecast was very promising, with sunny skies all day. I wanted to experience as much of the trail, particularly the section with views of the Cape Otway Lighthouse, as I could in sunny weather. With the thrill of being out in the wild after 20 hours of travel from Japan and thanks to the sunny weather, I arrived at the Cape Otway Lighthouse at around 4 p.m., leaving me with one hour to kill before the pick-up time. I strolled around the lighthouse, which is unfortunately closed to visitors at the moment, and enjoyed the company of kangaroos happily jumping around. My accommodation for the night was Bimbi Park, where I had the luxury of a hot shower and a comfortable bed.

Cape Otway Lighthouse to Johanna Bay (25.3 kilometers)

The second day on the trail started around 8.30 a.m. with some forest walking, followed by a ridge walk offering fantastic ocean views. One of the things I most enjoyed about the Great Ocean Walk was the intensity of the ocean sounds, even in sections where you could not see the ocean, reminding you it is right there and that you will soon see it.

During my morning ride, Lee mentioned that I could either walk on the beach in the section covering Station Beach or follow the cliff section overlooking the ocean. Knowing I was going to do beach walking at Johanna Beach at the end of the day, I decided to follow the trail that goes over a cliff, offering views of the ocean but not of the beach.

The second day on the trail was fairly easy, again offering a mixture of inland, cliff, and beach walking. The last section was a 2-kilometer walk on Johanna Beach, which was beautiful, dramatic, and felt, due to not being able to see the exit signs from afar, endless. I had the entire beach to myself until I ran into a colony of seagulls looking at the ocean, as it was the most mesmerizing thing they had seen. Agreeing with them, I decided to join the party and watch the roaring waves, all the possible shades of blue reflected in the ocean, and the seagulls who occasionally took off to enjoy the beauty of all of it from above for more than ten minutes.

The second day on the trail ended at around 2 p.m., leaving me with plenty of time to relax at Bimbi Park and get ready for the third and hardest day of the walk.

Johanna Bay to the Gables (24-kilometers)

I knew that the third day would be the hardest of the walk. The day started with a climb up the old coach road, which soon joined a gravel road open to cars (but I only ran into one vehicle) before descending very steeply to Milenasia Beach. Looking back, I would say that – not the climb but the endless descent down to Milenasia Beach on very muddy and soft ground was the least pleasant part of the hike for me (and the only section where I pulled out my hiking poles). Fortunately, the view at Milenasia Beach, with the ocean on one side and Scotland-like greenery (even featuring a picture-perfect stone house), was worth the trouble.

The rest of the trail, leading all the way up to Moonlight Head, was the section that made me appreciate that the Great Ocean Walk is not a walk but a full hike. There were endless ups and downs for about 3-4 hours, with very few short, flat sections. I was glad I decided to pack only one camera and one lens for this section, instead of the two-camera, four-lens set I carried on the first two days.

In terms of terrain variety, this section, from Johanna Beach to the Gables, was the most interesting part of the hike. Offering a combination of road walking, deep forest walking, and cliff walking, with an end at the Gables viewpoint, left me not only tired but also very entertained all the way. This was also the section where I encountered some actual rain, which luckily came only after I arrived at the Gables and finished the hike, with a big reward of a gigantic rainbow over the roaring ocean.

Gables to 12 Apostles (19-kilometers) and post-hike blues

Having covered the most difficult section of the trail the day before, my final day on the trail was mostly easy and flat, leaving me plenty of time and energy to enjoy the last day of the hike and the (truly) iconic scenery.

The day, which started at 8:30 a.m., mostly involved walking through thick bushes with no ocean views. But I had no complaints. Starting the day with bushwalking gradually built anticipation for that first view of the 12 Apostles, culminating in a crescendo moment (as in jumping around joyfully) at that first sight.

There is a debate among the hikers and service providers on whether the Great Ocean Walk hike should actually be done in reverse order (you are welcome to do that, by the way, and I ran into a few hikers who started at 12 Apostles with plans to finish at the Apollo Bay) as Apollo Bay is a wonderful town to finish the hike, with many dining, drinking, and accommodation options for a celebratory and relaxed few days after the hike whereas there is not much around 12 Apostles unless you travel further to Princetown.

But now, having done the hike and experienced the euphoric joy of that first view of the 12 Apostles from afar, I am fully in favor of starting at Apollo Bay and ending at the 12 Apostles. Nothing can beat the excitement and joy of finishing a 100-kilometer walk through the rewarding, truly iconic scenery of the 12 Apostles. Despite the name, there are not 12 rocks making up the 12 Apostles; there are now only six, and there have never been 12 rocks. But the name was obviously too catchy to ignore, so they went with it, and it seems to have worked.

Knowing the offerings available in Apollo Bay, I canceled my stay near the 12 Apostles after the hike and booked transportation back to Apollo Bay. I stayed for two nights, enjoying many showers, good food, and some wine, and occasionally taking my legs out for a test run to see if they still worked. And this is also where I experienced the second thing that I passionately dislike about multi-day hikes: the post-hike blues. After days on the trail chasing and experiencing good scenery and continuously getting the dopamine rush triggered by physical activity, the post-hike blues—my old friend—soon came to visit me. I have already experienced the post-hike blues before. So, knowing the cause helped me not to fight against it, but let it wash over me and then leave me alone after a few days.

But the whole thing was sure worth the post-hike blues, and I would happily do it again if presented with the opportunity. Having done a few multi-day hikes in some of the world’s most beautiful nature locations, I would not hesitate to call the Great Ocean Walk one of the finest multi-day hikes in the world.

For more multi-day trails, last year I wrote about the three Great Walks of New Zealand: Milford Track, Routeburn Track, and Kepler Track.

For multi-day trails in Japan, the pilgrimage routes offer a perfect blend of nature and cultural experiences for those who want to see a different side of the country.

For those looking for shorter options, I have another post listing some of my favorite hikes in Japan, including day and multi-day options.

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