Great Ocean Walk - The Gables to Princetown
For reasons that should be quite obvious Sylvia's fire standby was cancelled over the weekend - nothing was going to burn after that rain! We spent Saturday catching up on chores - well Sylvia cleaning the house from top to bottom while I did "stuff".
On Sunday the weather looked overcast but serious rain didn't seem likely so we decided to go and walk a new stretch of the Great Ocean Walk. It is a part of the walk that we never bothered with previously because it followed a 4WD track that wasn't very appealing.
Parks Victoria are re-aligning parts of the Great Ocean Walk wherever they can to remove these types of sections. Just before Christmas they completed the new alignment from The Gables to Princetown which is now a purpose built walking track passing through natural bush and along the cliff tops never far from the sea.
The only sensible way to do this walk was with a car shuffle. We set off in a car each and as we got to the other side of Cape Otway the clouds disappeared. We left one car at the Princetown end of the walk before returning to The Gables car park. After a quick bite to eat at the Gables lookout we set off walking in pleasant sunshine with the temperature at around 20C - perfect.
The Gables lookout is on a promontory of one of the highest sea cliffs on mainland Australia. The approach is through a grove of casuarinas so it is scenic both to get there and when you arrive.
We timed our walk especially to start at low tide because at any other time Wreck Beach is not an option and hikers have to take the inland route instead. After leaving the lookout you walk down 370 steps (yep - Sylvia counted them) to get to Wreck Beach. This beach is most famous for the anchors of the Marie Gabrielle, wrecked in 1880, and the Fiji, wrecked in 1891.
 |  |
|
|
|
After a rock scramble half way down the beach you take a track back up the cliff to rejoin Great Ocean Walk track at its new alignment (just near the Devil's Kitchen Hike-in Campsite for hikers doing the whole walk).
The walk from there is through well vegetated areas with pools of water dotted along the trail. The track has been covered with mulch where possible and board walks have been built over the small wetlands. And I am assured that those wet areas will still be there most of the year - not just after major rainfall.
|
|
|
 |  |
The track follows the coastline to a spot called Rivernook (there was once a guest house there) which has access to Rivernook beach. The track stays up on the cliffline as (it looks like) there is no way past the headland off the end of the beach. You eventually descend from the cliffline at the mouth of the Gellibrand River - where Princetown is and where we left our car.
All that was left was to drive home and make Tandoori Chicken Pizzas - yum!
Great Ocean Walk - The Gables to Princetown
Posts
