Following a hearty cafe breakfast, I drive to Portland’s Information Centre along the harbour foreshore. The walk leaves and ends here and I’m leaving my vehicle here while I walk. The parking lot is lighted with CCTV so it seems like a safe place. I stopped through the Information Centre yesterday to declare my walk intentions and to ask them keep an eye on my vehicle. Me to I-Centre staffer: “G’day. I’m going to hike the GSWW walk tomorrow.” Staffer: “Really? 250kms in one day. Impressive!” Smart-arse! Actually, the staffer was quite helpful and, well, informative. 😉 If you walk the GSWW as a loop, it’s worth stopping into the Info Centre for a chat - and to look at the huge 25kg aluminium ingot on display! I start my walk at 9 am under partially cloudy skies. Some people complain about the first day as much of it is urban or along roads as you travel north, then west out of Portland. Me, I just enjoy the act of walking with a pack on my back. Take that, belly fat! Besides it gives me time to get my mental game together before I face the awful leeches battles to come! 😬 The walk starts along Portland Bay’s foreshore. Although Portland Bay is a bit industrialised, they have put in nice path and beach infrastructure and the walk is scenic in its own way - beach, cliffs, clear water and flowers, both wild and cultivated, blooming along the path plus large ships in the port and also queued up offshore waiting to enter the port. I soon pass by a small picturesque lighthouse on the headlands, Whalers Bluff lighthouse, first lit on May 1859 and running today. The walk from here gets less interesting but follows a rocky shoreline. Home owners on Dutton Way seem to be divided on a proposed abalone farm with crudely crafted signs everywhere - a few in support of the aquaculture project but most saying go away, NIMBY. I finally leave the ocean and turn inland, heading up a hill into a forest reserve. It’s time to pull out the hiking poles even though the grade is gentle and the path clear. Eyes keenly alert for my leech enemies, I stroll through the bush coming across a few shy Roos and a very bushy eared Koala perched up in a tree who wakes up and stares down at me when I loudly greet him and wish him good health. The bush doesn’t last nearly long enough as I start a long section of road walking. I quickly do a leech check and, yay!, no leeches. First score: Carl 1, Leeches 0. Or perhaps it is a forfeit as I don’t think the leeches have shown up yet... By 11:30, it’s turned grey overhead and occasionally I feel the odd raindrop, foreshadowing what is to come over the next days. Despite a gentle pace, I’ve already walked half of the 20kms to today’s camp. I found some picnic tables near a primary school and decide to sit around and have a snack. It is a pleasant place with a green field next to it full of prancing and sleeping lambs. 🐑 I reckon it would be perfect if not for the flies. Not outback terrible flies but still enough flies around to be annoying! Surprisingly, what I thought would be road walking turns into bush walking along a narrow road reserve. I go by a pretty lake and then follow a railway line. Fortunate too, as at times, the dirt track is completely flooded, becoming a canal but I can cut over to the elevated railway line. I have to cross a few tricky spots but I only get muddy feet rather than wet. Earlier walkers wrote in the camp log book that they weren’t so fortunate. Finally I enter the Cobboboonee Forest, which is a dry native hardwood forest with waist high brackens and ferns. Very pleasant. I reach my first camp, Cubby’s, before too long as I complete an easy 20kms. It’s a lovely camp - thanks, Friends of GSWW! Looks like I’ve got the camp to myself. The last person through was here three days ago. I’ve completed my camp set up chores and I’m ready to enjoy a fire tonight as I’m unlikely to have another this week due to rain. Now if I only had Lisa with me plus a bottle of wine 🍷, life would be absolutely perfect!

Hiking/Backpacking

You may be able to walk along the railway if the adjacent track is flooded.

Victoria, Great South West Walk, GSWW

Victoria, Australia

time : Oct 14, 2019 8:50 AM

duration : 5h 32m 52s

distance : 19.6 km

total_ascent : 220 m

highest_point : 67 m

avg_speed : 4.2 km/h

user_id : gstreet

user_firstname : Carl

user_lastname : Greenstreet

Following a hearty cafe breakfast, I drive to Portland’s Information Centre along the harbour foreshore. The walk leaves and ends here and I’m leaving my vehicle here while I walk. The parking lot is lighted with CCTV so it seems like a safe place. I stopped through the Information Centre yesterday to declare my walk intentions and to ask them keep an eye on my vehicle. Me to I-Centre staffer: “G’day. I’m going to hike the GSWW walk tomorrow.” Staffer: “Really? 250kms in one day. Impressive!” Smart-arse! Actually, the staffer was quite helpful and, well, informative. 😉 If you walk the GSWW as a loop, it’s worth stopping into the Info Centre for a chat - and to look at the huge 25kg aluminium ingot on display! I start my walk at 9 am under partially cloudy skies. Some people complain about the first day as much of it is urban or along roads as you travel north, then west out of Portland. Me, I just enjoy the act of walking with a pack on my back. Take that, belly fat! Besides it gives me time to get my mental game together before I face the awful leeches battles to come! 😬 The walk starts along Portland Bay’s foreshore. Although Portland Bay is a bit industrialised, they have put in nice path and beach infrastructure and the walk is scenic in its own way - beach, cliffs, clear water and flowers, both wild and cultivated, blooming along the path plus large ships in the port and also queued up offshore waiting to enter the port. I soon pass by a small picturesque lighthouse on the headlands, Whalers Bluff lighthouse, first lit on May 1859 and running today. The walk from here gets less interesting but follows a rocky shoreline. Home owners on Dutton Way seem to be divided on a proposed abalone farm with crudely crafted signs everywhere - a few in support of the aquaculture project but most saying go away, NIMBY. I finally leave the ocean and turn inland, heading up a hill into a forest reserve. It’s time to pull out the hiking poles even though the grade is gentle and the path clear. Eyes keenly alert for my leech enemies, I stroll through the bush coming across a few shy Roos and a very bushy eared Koala perched up in a tree who wakes up and stares down at me when I loudly greet him and wish him good health. The bush doesn’t last nearly long enough as I start a long section of road walking. I quickly do a leech check and, yay!, no leeches. First score: Carl 1, Leeches 0. Or perhaps it is a forfeit as I don’t think the leeches have shown up yet... By 11:30, it’s turned grey overhead and occasionally I feel the odd raindrop, foreshadowing what is to come over the next days. Despite a gentle pace, I’ve already walked half of the 20kms to today’s camp. I found some picnic tables near a primary school and decide to sit around and have a snack. It is a pleasant place with a green field next to it full of prancing and sleeping lambs. 🐑 I reckon it would be perfect if not for the flies. Not outback terrible flies but still enough flies around to be annoying! Surprisingly, what I thought would be road walking turns into bush walking along a narrow road reserve. I go by a pretty lake and then follow a railway line. Fortunate too, as at times, the dirt track is completely flooded, becoming a canal but I can cut over to the elevated railway line. I have to cross a few tricky spots but I only get muddy feet rather than wet. Earlier walkers wrote in the camp log book that they weren’t so fortunate. Finally I enter the Cobboboonee Forest, which is a dry native hardwood forest with waist high brackens and ferns. Very pleasant. I reach my first camp, Cubby’s, before too long as I complete an easy 20kms. It’s a lovely camp - thanks, Friends of GSWW! Looks like I’ve got the camp to myself. The last person through was here three days ago. I’ve completed my camp set up chores and I’m ready to enjoy a fire tonight as I’m unlikely to have another this week due to rain. Now if I only had Lisa with me plus a bottle of wine 🍷, life would be absolutely perfect!