Great Ocean Track: Stage 1: Apollo Bay to Cape Otway Light Station, 28kms, Rain, sun, wind 22

A Stormy Night at the Light Station!

A beautiful walk today as I sit here drinking my traditional beer at the end of the walking day. Picked up by our sponsor at 8am and dropped to the trail head with a nice couple, Andy and June, from Coventry, England.

It was raining, but that quickly gave way to just cloud as we found our legs. After some wonderful visits with our Canberra pals and Melbourne friends it was time to walk off a little food and drink...ok, so there was a bit more than a little!

The four of us started off together at low tide and walked an amazing section of foreshore, over a very interesting sandstone base that's been carved up over the ages by the wave action.

 The waves were just pounding in continuously and the roar was huge!

In fact, as the winds built through the day the wave trains off the Southern Ocean just seemed to get bigger and bigger! 

Across a number of lovely sandy beaches too! Not another soul in sight...just my kind of walk:-)  A little more of the scenery. 

Finally the blue sky started to make an appearance and we knew that the day might improve nicely, which it did!

Lots of reminders about the friends we might meet along the way!

We did meet a number of the locals, including two black wallabies,

a brown White Lipped snake (very nasty customer)

and a strange looking creature that we initially thought was the dreaded Tiger snake, but fortunately turned out to be a Blotched Blue Tongue lizard...he never did stick out his tongue so we can't be sure?

I also saw a couple of red,blue parrots, but no photo. Oddly no Koalas, but we think tomorrow will be our day!

We said goodbye to our friends as we had further to walk today and tracked inland for about three hours. Very nice trails....beautiful eucalyptus trees.

The wind continued to build and we had some concerns about branches coming down. There were many warnings and Peter had also given us a heads up about the problem as a number of folks have been killed this year.

We came back down to the ocean at Blanket Bay and found some quite amazing waves there as the tide flooded and the winds blew! 

Eventually we had to wade across the back bay at Parker Creek as the tide had cut us off.

It was a safe crossing and we climbed up to the headland to be met by our ride and the two from the UK who had been picked up back down the track. We were dropped at the light station and treated to tea at the cafe! 

I walked out to the light house and climbed to the top where I sucked it up and climbed out on the very narrow walkway to get a few photos.

I was fine until I'd finished taking my photos, but then it was a very difficult walk back to the door! It's a long way down to the rocks below, and did I say something about the wind? 

The Light house dates back to 1848 and was initially powered by kerosene lights with a mirror, carrying the light some 48 kms out...very impressive! Now decommissioned as so many at home have been, replaced by a satellite guided system...argh!

Tonight we are staying at the station in what was the family home in one of the original rooms.

The cafe has provided us with food for dinner, breakfast and lunch tomorrow, and while they have all gone home, we remain for the night...as it storms on and on outside. The windows rattle and the wind blows through the leaky windows, but it's unique and a pretty cool experience!