Great Ocean Walk, Day 2 – Blanket Bay to Aire River Campground, 20km

It was a bit of a drizzly night, but I was nice and warm and slept relatively well considering it was the first night back in the tent.

I was ready quickly and the first to depart camp.  Unlike all the other people I had met last night, I was doing another “jump” and travelling past the next camp at Cape Otway, to Aire River.

It was another epic day!  Gloriously overcast, but with no rain (except for a few squally showers), it was a day made for hiking!

The highlight of the morning was reaching the Parker Inlet.  Within sight, the rain was coming down in a cold drizzle, yet when I got onto the beach, dazzling sunshine. Again, I recognised that feeling you get with long distance hiking, when you see a beautiful location through sheer hard work alone. That feeling of pride and gratefulness never diminishes.

I reached the lighthouse at Cape Otway fairly quickly, and decided to press on rather than pay a visit.  I’ve been there before, and I wanted to keep going whilst the going was good.  I struck up a conservation with a couple of rangers on a lunch break.  It was nice to talk to them about “the business”.  One of the rangers had seen the recent “Last Dog on the Moon” cartoon about the Advena Campbellii snails on Norfolk…and so had plenty of questions to ask about that!

I had a quick break at the Otway campground and then pressed on.  It was relatively easy walking in the afternoon.  Nice flat, easy track winding through coastal vegetation before being propelled out to another stellar view. I saw a couple of wallabies, yellow faced black cockatoos and heaps of other little birds, particularly wrens.  The presence of the sandstone cliffs made themselves more apparent, standing bare above the might of the toiling sea.

The track into Aire River ended in a long, steep, very sandy descent, before traversing a bridge to reach the camp. The walkers campsites have been so great so far…but what’s with the steep stairs from the toilet block back up to the campsite at this one!!  Haha! There were a couple of very slow movers on those stairs…not nice when you are feeling ridiculously stiff from the walking!

Initially, there is only one woman at the campsite, whom very much seems to want to keep to herself.  I’m not expecting she will be a talkative travelling companion.  Oh well.  Each to their own. A school group eventually showed up, but one of the teachers took mercy on me and said they would camp down the bottom of the stairs.  I thanked him heartily.

An early dinner, a beautiful (but deadly), slinky fox patrolling the campsite, moonlit stroll back and forth over the bridge a few times to stretch the legs, and then a dive into bed.  A very satisfying day.