Australia. Australia: The Great Ocean Road

Saturday March 14th, 2009 - Monday, March 30th, 2009

Great Ocean Road, Victoria
(Torquay, Anglesea, Fairhaven, Aireys Inlet, Apollo Bay, Princetown, and Lorne!)

"Look ma', the kid can walk!"

That's right, apparently we know how to walk. During this 16 day stretch we averaged just over 10km a day, with almost all of those days involving ~4 babies worth of weight on each of our backs (the "baby" is a unit used to measure weight; each baby represents ~8 lbs or ~4 kilos).. Perhaps these numbers don't seem that impressive, but believe me they certainly feel like they are when live them. The weight alone was like carrying an extra 25% of ourselves -- that's like growing two new legs and one extra head! Anyways, here's a breakdown of our days (distance walked and weight carried):

1. Torquay: ~10.0km; 1kg; bused to Torquay; watched surfers, surveyed surf shops and promised to be surf pros by tomorrow
2. Torquay: ~8.0km; 1kg; too rainy for surfing; decide to sit in cafe and drink; determined to be surf pros by tomorrow; meet backpacking Swedish doctor -- puts us to shame by walking ~20-30km day (overachieving swedes =P)
3. Torquay: ~9.0km; many surfers at beach.. decide not to make them look terrible by surfing (surfers have weak confidence, don't want to undermine it); will become surf pro after big walk tomorrow
4. Anglesea: ~18.0km; 15kg; hiked to Anglsea; long walk; heavy packs; lots of coast; walking on sand with pack found to be difficult -- like walking on a herd of gritty, greased pigs; pass by Tiger Snake breeding ground -- nothing amorous seen
5. Fairhaven: ~12km; 2kg; leave packs in Anglesea, walk to Fairhaven, bus it back to Anglesea -- super-duper-success; walk relatively weightless, and thus "awesome"; celebrate with discount, day-old cinnamon buns
6. Apollo Bay: ~12km; 0kg; bused to Apollo Bay; Fish n' Chips for dinner -- witness "freakishly-aggressive-Jenny" chase seagulls who want our food.. Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; read about skin cancer statistics in newspaper and decide to buy narrow-brim bucket hat (have beard, have hat, have plaid, need fishing rod..)
7. Apollo Bay: ~16km; 4kg; plan on nice relaxing day before first day of big walk; go grocery shopping for Great Ocean Walk; breakdown of shopping:
• walk to town; 2km
• walk first market; 1km; survey prices
• walk second market; 1km; survey prices
• write shopping list
• walk first market; 1km; survey prices
• walk second market; 1km; survey prices
• walk first market; 1km; buy: ramen noodles
• walk second market; 1km; buy: carrots, bread, tuna, vegemite, eggs
• walk first market; 1km; buy: steak and veggies for "last supper"
• Tyler has tiny freak-out about starving on walk
• walk back to campground; 2km
• Tyler has bigger freak-out about starving on walk
• walk to town; 2km
• walk to first market; 1km; buy: bread, cookies, chocolate
• walk back to campground; 2km
8. Elliot Ridge: ~9.9; 18kg; have idea to carry plastic bags of food on stick (like two hunters would carry a dead gazelle: gazelle tied to stick, and stick on shoulders) -- GENIUS! Lots of up and down on the walk -- very sweaty; splash water on selves -- refreshing, but not cleansing..
9. Blanket Bay: ~11.6km; 18kg; long; boring; middle-aged English couple feel pity for our us after seeing soup dinner -- they feed us pasta -- it is delicious (thank-you England)
10. Cape Otway: ~10.5; 18kg; meet Australian named Mathew, who is also on walk -- we all like food, so that's what we talk about for the next 5 days (we also playing a card game called 500 -- fun); buy 6 chocolate bars, 1 ice cream bar and 1 popsicle at Cape Otway Lighthouse kiosk (only place to buy food on the walk); food topic for day: chocolate bars
11. Aire River: ~9.7; feeling smelly and greasy; find cold, slimy, pond to bathe in.. feel less gross (actually produced a little oil slick.. *ick*); koala near walks over us to get at nearby eucalyptus tree -- wow; awesome campgrounds -- feels like a brambly hobbit village; food topic for day: McDonalds
12. Johanna: ~13.6; 17kg; echidna shows us it's prickly butt -- mmm, wildlife-tooshy; awesomer hilltop campgrounds -- view of wavey ocean; food topic for day: pastry and pies
13. Ryans Den: ~12.4; 17kg; hills; hell; up, down, up, down, down, down, up, up, up, up, UP, down, up, down, up, etc.; meet a mob of kangaroos; two leaches jump out of a tree and attack Jenny's left boob -- hilarious; awesomest clifftop campground -- tall, jutty, clifftop view of ocean; food topic for day: food
14. Devils Kitchen: ~15.3; descend a couple hundred steps to Wreck Beach, which has an anchor embedded in some rock -- pretty cool; play cards on the beach -- also pretty cool; ascend a couple hundred steps from Wreck Beach -- not really cool..; pretty cool clifftop campground -- trees, view of ocean
15. Princetown / Glenample homestead: ~12.9km; 16kg; overcast, cold and dry; sunny, hot and dry; overcast, windy and rainy; sunny, windy and dry; sunny, windy and rainy (?!?); food topic for day: pizza and salad
16. Melbourne Lorne: ~?km; -99kg; bused to Melbourne Lorne to relax wait for Melbourne Grand Prix to stop flooding all possible accomodation; Jenny buys a sun dress
17. Lorne: ?km; ?kg; What happened today?
18. Lorne: ?km; ?kg; devonshire scone: scone, jam, cream -- mmm

So, that was the walking adventure. Good times,

Tyler and Jenny