Chasing the Sunrise

The morning after our jaunt to Katoomba Falls Richie and I planned to “carpe diem” and wake up early to watch the sun rise over the Blue Mountains.  The girl at the information desk had pointed us to Sublime Point in the next town over, Leura, as a good outlook with easterly views.  The plan was to get a taxi there at 5:10 AM and then hike back along a cliff-side trail.  We woke up at 5 AM but we probably wouldn’t have gotten out of bed if we didn’t see a bright pink streak across the sky outside our window.

That sight mobilized us.  We got our taxi out there but the driver ripped us off—$20 for an eight-minute ride over to Leura.  And it turns out that Leura must be a couple hundred feet lower in elevation than Katoomba because we were firmly in the clouds and couldn’t really see anything.  Our hostel room was above the clouds, but Sublime Point not so much.  A couple times the clouds lifted for a moment so we could see into the valley, but that’s about it.

Peeking under clouds.

We decided to give up at about 6:10 AM and head back.  The experience reminded me of a family vacation to St. John a few years ago when my brothers and I woke up before light to hike out to a promontory named Ram’s Head to see the sunrise.  That attempt failed miserably as well, with a large cloud blocking the sun in front of us.  I don’t have any photos from that event, but here’s an artist’s depiction:

Facebook "graffiti" by Zack Nolan.

Back in the Blue Mountains, Richie and I couldn’t find the cliff-side trail that led back to Katoomba.  We tried bushwhacking for a little ways, but no dice.  We ended up running back along the roads, up the couple hundred feet of elevation.  When we made it to the hostel we passed out for an hour and a half but still managed to catch the 10:20 AM train back to Syndey for a great day/evening/night.

The road to Katoomba.

Later we both decided that it’s fruitless to chase the sunrise, and that you have to let the sunrise come to you.  Under a week later we (with two friends Tommy and Tina) were at a caravan park in Byron Bay, halfway through our road trip from Sydney to Brisbane (more on this later).  After a long night out on the town—I won’t go into details—we were sitting in camp chairs, discussing matters.  The sky slowly began to lighten and before we even realized it there was a sunrise in front of our eyes.

I guess you just can’t force these things.

Blue Mountains Escapade

Back on the morning of the 8^th I landed in Sydney with my friend Richie, a fellow American who lived down the hall from me at Ormond College.  We had a couple days to kill before our other friends arrived for our road trip to Brisbane so we decided to spend the night at the Blue Mountains.  We caught the train out of the city and arrived in Katoomba a little after 3 PM.  We lugged our bags to the cheapest hostel—Katoomba Mountain Lodge or something like that—got a couple beds, and walked up the street until we reached the Echo Point information centre.

After admiring the view from the outlook we entered the information centre.  It was about 4:30 PM so we had a few hours of daylight left to explore the area and the girl behind the desk gave us a map and highlighted a trail and we were on our way.  The trail first took us down a series of steps around a cliff then leveled off for a few km. 

We reached the base of the Katoomba Falls and a little area amid the subtropical rainforest with a few picnic tables called “Katoomba Falls Viewing Area.”  You could only catch a small glimpse of the waterfall through the dense foliage and I was supremely disappointed.  Richie warned me not to have expectations.  We continued up the trail and soon came across a path leading towards the Falls.  We kept getting better and better views and my faith in the Blue Mountains Par Service was restored.  Then we reached a spur that said “Under Falls Trail – 10 min” and promptly took it.

It was incredible.  If you’re ever going to visit the Katoomba Falls I seriously recommend doing it at around 6 PM.  You’ll miss out on the tram ride across the cliffs, but you’re lucky like us there will be no one there.  We had the Falls to ourselves so we could get really close up to them.  It was a pretty magical experience to be alone with something so powerful and impressive in nature.

The top of the Falls, up close.

My friend Richie at the bottom, for scale.

They had two tiers and we were out on the middle level rock platform with the Falls pounding down behind us and then dropping off below us, in front of beautiful views of the blue Mountains.  Amazing.

Where the Under Falls trail took us.

View from the platform.

It was getting pretty late, though, so we hiked out, walked back along the roads, and stopped at the grocery store to buy the supplies for our feast of sausages and salad.

Last Great Ocean Walk Post

I really have to catch up on what I've done the last two and a half weeks, but I'll have this last post as a place to collect my thoughts about the Great Ocean Walk.  It was the longest backpacking trip I’ve done at 6 days and 100 km.  Going into the hike I thought I could probably do it in 5 days, but now I would not recommend doing it in any less than 6 if you’re carrying all your gear and food.  The track is deceptively hilly and hiking on the beach is not as easy as it sounds.  Walking in the sand worked different leg muscles than normal terrain and really tired out the calves.  Plus on the shorter days (which were 14-15 km) we would just spend an hour or two lying on the beach.

I really enjoyed this hike and it’s nice to know it will only get better.  When I did it there was a fair amount of walking along roads, but Parks Victoria is working on a couple realignments that should be done soon, if not already.  The trail wasn’t crowded at all either.  I can almost count the number of groups we saw on one hand: the father and son team, the elderly crowd, the school group, the army patrol, and the four ladies.  There were a handful of tourists at the more accessible points as well, but for most of the time we had the trail to ourselves.  The campsites were mostly empty as well.  We didn’t reserve any sites and with the exception of Johanna Beach we didn’t have a problem showing up and claiming a spot.

At Cape Otway, Day 2 campsite

From outlook above Ryan's Den, Day 4 campsite

The hike also reaffirmed my belief that the best views don’t come from viewing platforms, but are off the beaten track.  And there’s no railing in front of you either.  In addition to great views we also saw a lot of wildlife.  Here’s my list of the animals we saw:

• 5 black wallabies
• 4 koalas (heard many more)
• 4 echidnas
• 2 pairs of hooded plovers
• 1 bird of prey (kestrel?)
• 1 heron
• Super Fairy Wrens
• Crimson Rosellas
• Yellowtail Black Cockatoos
• Galahs
• Many lizards (one big one)
• Scorpions (found in Sytske’s bag one morning)

And here are my journal entries for each day of the hike:

Great Ocean Walk Day 1

Great Ocean Walk Day 2

Great Ocean Walk Day 3

Great Ocean Walk Day 4

Great Ocean Walk Day 5

Great Ocean Walk Day 6

Great Ocean Walk Day 6

Journal Entry: Friday 3/12/2010

We woke up early today because we had to catch a 3 PM bus from the 12 Apostles.  We made it out of the campsite a little past 8:30 AM and bid farewell to the school group.  The morning was along dirt roads again—the realignments here were not complete either.  At ~11:30 AM we passed Princetown Camp Ground and made a side trip to the town centre.  We stopped at the Talk of the Town pub for a real meal.  I had a burger with the lot and a cold VB.  Delicious.

After lunch we continued down dirt roads with the sun beating down on us.  At this point the hike started to get tedious—toiling away under the hot sun—but soon the road turned to a path and then at the crest of a hill the 12 Apostles came into view, all in a row off in the distance.

Apostles ahead.

The image left me revitalized, and glimpses of the Apostles kept me going the rest of the way.  Before long we broke out onto a parking lot off the Great Ocean Road.  On a wooden post someone had scratched “End GOW.”  Not a very ceremonious end to the hike, but that’s okay because it was more about the sights along the way.

Black wallaby spotting.

We continued down the Great Ocean Road for about 2 kms, walking on the side of the road, until we reached the 12 Apostles car park, which was packed as usual.  As we headed down to the viewing platforms a sudden downpour started, sending all the tourists in search of cover.  We stuck it out with a couple other brave souls and got soaked, but we had the platform to ourselves.  Then as the rain stopped we headed out to the bus stop as everyone came streaming back.  It seemed a fitting end to the hike.

A little wet.

I’ll put up a post soon with a little debrief about the Great Ocean Walk and a list of the wildlife we spotted.  I’ve done so much since the Walk too that I have to catch up on.

Great Ocean Walk Day 5

Journal Entry: Thursday 2/12/10

“Today is gonna be a hot one.”  Sytske’s first words to me as she pokes her head in the tent.  She’s been up for an hour and she expected me to wake up too, but she didn’t know how deep a sleeper I am.  Today’s hike has been pretty usual (for the Great Ocean Walk).  At least in the morning.  Lots of ups and downs with outlooks scattered along the trail.  Eventually we broke out onto a road (dirt) and saw the school group’s van.  They were heading out early to skip ahead to the 12 Apostles, staying the night at the next campsite, then heading back to Brisbane.

Echidna petting.

Down the road a ways they caught up to us and gave us a ~5 minute lift to the next junction.  They’re hiking into the campsite tonight so we’ll see them one more time.  After continuing on dirt roads for a while we descended the 366 steps to Wreck Beach.  We arrived at low tide, which was the perfect time to see the anchors embedded in the sand.

After we hiked along the beach a while we got to the point where the trail veers inland, up to the campsite.  We stopped to eat lunch and I sit here now, roasting in the mid-afternoon sun.  Today has been the first really nice weather day—by normal standards, anyway.  Hot and sunny most of the day while the others have been overcast and cool.  Those days are better for hiking, though, because I have been sweating buckets today.  We’ve been on this beach for 1+ hour and haven’t seen another soul.

. . .

I took a quick dip in the ocean, basically just wading in and then diving under a wave—the beach wasn’t great for swimming because there were rocks everywhere and a strong rip.  From the beach it took about 30 minutes to hike up the gully to Devil’s Kitchen Campsite.  It was deserted.  There was a great outlook above the last campsite and from the camp toilet.

As I was sitting up there I noticed what I thought looked like smoke but I wasn’t sure.  Then, as Sytske and I were watching the sunset ash started to fall from the sky.  The school group hadn’t shown up either so I was starting to get a little worried.  In my mind I was planning a mad dash back down to the beach to escape the approaching flames.  But eventually the group arrived at 9 PM and reported that as they were driving they saw the smoke of a bush fire off in the distance.  They didn’t seem too worried about it so I forgot about the threat.  The skies cleared up and the stars that night were amazing—I even saw a few shooting stars.

Great Ocean Walk Day 4

Journal Entry: Wednesday 1/12/10

This morning was a much less glamorous section of the hike.  It started well, with pastoral hills dotted with cows that very much reminded me of Ireland.  The sun was peeking out through the clouds and I was sweating going up the first hill.  At the top I turned to Sytske and said, “I don’t want to jinx it, but if it’s this warm this early, it’s gonna be a hot one.”  Pretty soon the wind picked up, clouds descended, and the mist came in.  I was even more reminded of Ireland.

The trail ahead.

The entire walk before lunch (~10 km) was on dirt road past the occasional home.  One house left out water and had marmalade for sale.  Sytske bought a jar.  We finally made it down to the beach where we stopped for lunch. 

We saw them in real life, too.

As we were eating a group of four ladies walked by.  As we packed up and started walking further down the beach they were coming back towards us.  One of them, the short round one, was soaking wet.  “You can’t go that way,” they said.  “It’s too dangerous.”  We told them we would check it out and, yes, with the tide coming in we did have to scramble a bit, but we made it.

Past the scramble.

There was an extremely helpful rock formation that left round stones poking out of the rock face, providing perfect foot and hand holds and we may not have made it without those.  From the beach we ascended through short jungle-like scrub with magnificent views of the cliffs below.  The afternoon definitely made up for the dull morning.  I had to remind myself to enjoy the view not through my camera, but in person.  A few times we spotted a black wallaby bounding up the trail ahead of us.

Afternoon's views. 

A shorter day than the rest, we reached Ryan’s Den Campsite a little past 3 PM.  Deserted.  There was a great lookout at the top of the camp site that we sat and enjoyed for a while then we played cards until the school group showed up at maybe 4:30.  I beat Sytske at every card game we played: Spit, Speed, and an epic game of Egyptian Rat Screw.  After the school group no one else showed up at the campsite so we claimed a spot and set up.

We shared the shelter/kitchen with the school group and their leader and talked and told stories for a few hours.  They had just finished Year 12 and were from Brisbane.  It was fun to watch the banter between them.  We’re staying at the same campsite tomorrow too… 

Great Ocean Walk Day 3

Journal Entry: Tuesday 30/11/10

Another grueling day on the Great Ocean Walk. And unfortunately not as interesting as yesterday. During the night I got up to pee and the stars greeted me when I poked my head out of the tent. I’ve been yearning to see that many stars since I’ve been in Australia. It was too cold to stay out long, though, and I quickly reentered the warmth of my sleeping bag.

Not long after hitting the trail in the morning we found ourselves in the middle of an army patrol. They were hiking about the same speed as us so we trades places a few times. Apparently they were just out for a hike—a little training. If that’s what the army does, sign me up. When we hit the beach, however, we pretty much lost them for good.

It was a pristine beach—we were the first ones on it that day—and we took the obligatory footprints in the sand photos. It was fun to hike barefoot in the sand. From there we hiked some hilly sections, passing a grounds crew that was weedwhacking the trail. We dropped down near sea level again and crossed the Aire River by bridge, ~10 km into the day.

We ate lunch there but did not stay long because we still had to walk along Johanna Beach (there was no inland track) and high tide was coming up in the evening and we didn’t know how wide the beach was. From Aire River to Johanna Beach campsite was about 12.4 km and a lot of the hike was ups and downs and parts were hard to appreciate because we were so tired.

Eventually we descended to Johanna Beach where we stripped down for a quick swim. It was a beautiful beach, very wide and completely sandy with no rocks. The only thing was the current, which I could feel sucking me out as I dove under waves. The GOW campsite turned out to be ful so we had to hike back down to the campground and found a nice spot under some trees. Only it must have been the windiest spot for a mile in any direction. Inside the tent felt like Everest base camp. We also saw a couple pairs of hooded plovers today.

Great Ocean Walk Day 2

Journal Entry: Monday 29/11/10

We emerged from the tent pretty late this morning. Allen and Aiden were already up and we joined them in the shelter for brekkie. After packing up we left the campsite around 10:30. The hike before lunch was all inland through mostly open Eucalypt forest, with some patches that looked like temperate rain forest. Sytske and I swapped knowledge of the biota. We spotted a few birds but no large animals. We found out why when we caught up to a group of elderly hikers from Sydney tramping through the forest like the Elephant Brigade from the Jungle Book. Sytske got a chuckle out of that wisecrack. They said they saw a black wallaby a little ways back run off the trail. We made sure to pass them before they disturbed anymore of our wildlife.

After ~10 km we arrived at Blanket Bay, where we lunched. There were many dead birds on the beach and even a dead seal. I guess it must happen on more accessible beaches too, but on this remote one no one is there to clean it up. We stopped for a while and I took a short nap. At about 3 PM we pressed on, determined to make it to the Cape Otway campsite just past the lighthouse.

Not long after lunch we had to take our boots of to cross the 10-foot wide Parker Inlet. That was a little annoying. Then we had to climb Parker’s Hill. That was also a little annoying. Then when we got to the top I went to take a photo of the view and found that my lens cap was gone. I had to run all the way down the hill and found the cap where it fell out of my pocket as I was putting my boots back on then run all the way back up the 293 stone steps. That was really annoying.

But we continued on, needing to cover about 10 km of track just inland from the coast. One of the best parts of the hike so far is how the vegetation and environments change so dramatically so often. At one point we broke out onto a road and could see the lighthouse off in the distance, 4 km away. This was at about 5 PM. We pressed on and Sytske and I we re both getting cranky and tired. The trail continued just off to the side of a paved road and the flies were relentless, adding to our woes.

But then we spotted a koala, two black wallabies, and an echidna in short succession and those spotting definitely raised our spirits. We trudged on, past the lighthouse (which was already closed to the public because it was so late) and finally arrived at the campsite close to 7 PM. There was a group occupying the group site but that was it. We chose a site (we had 8 to choose from), set up the tent and made dinner, first 4-cheese pasta and then Mi Goreng.

For after-dinner entertainment a koala climbed right up a tree right in front of us, munching away on the tree’s few remaining leaves. As I write this now the stars are starting to come out. I’ll probably sit and enjoy them for a minute before I go to bed—it’s not too cold, although I realize I should have brought pants. We are now a third of the way through the hike, both in distance and time.

Great Ocean Walk Day 1

For the next six posts I am typing up the journal entries I wrote while on the Great Ocean Walk, with only minor edits.  I did the walk with one other person—Sytske, a fellow American—who I had met once before.  We had a mutual friend who was supposed to come with us but dropped out, leaving just her and me.  Here’s the first entry…

Journal Entry: Sunday 28/11/10

Woke up pretty early (~7:30 AM) to get to Southern Cross train station.  Met up with Sytske and took a train and a bus to Apollo Bay, and arrived around 12:45 PM.   After lunch we got on the trail (which was actually a sidewalk) and pretty soon lost the path, even though we were still in the town.  We eventually found we had gone down the wrong street and picked up the correct sidewalk again.  After walking through some developments we finally got onto the beach.

I should mention all the way down from Melbourne it was raining off and on but when we started hiking it cleared to party cloudy—I got to wear my new hat, even though it threatened to blow off multiple times.  The trail switched between beach and inland and at a few decision points we chose to walk inland because the tide was on its way in.  Then we got to Decision Point 4, where the trail either turned way inland or went along a stretch of rock shore.

Inland section of the track.

It was about 3:45 and high tide was at 4:30 PM.  The safe choice would have been to take the inland route, but we were adventurous and skipped across the rocks.  It got tricky at times and a wave washed into my boot at least once.  Another time I had to wade barefoot because the water had reached the rock wall and covered the footholds.

The camp shelter/kitchen. One at every site.

But we made it up to the Elliot Ridge campsite without too much trouble.  It was deserted except for about eight people in the group site and father and son Allen and Aiden.  As we were setting up our tent we started to hear something that sounded like the oinking of a pig.  I was expecting a wild boar to crash through the underbrush at any moment but it turned out to be a koala up in a tree making the racket.  He is up there doing it now (mating call?) as I write this.  After dinner we played cards with Allen and Aiden.  I lost pretty badly in a version of Kings.  Sytske won.  Time for bed because it’s gonna be a long day tomorrow.

Parents Visit 3/3 - Great Ocean Road

I'll keep this post short since the visit was a while ago (November 12th?) and I have a bunch of posts coming up about my recent expedition: the Great Ocean Walk.  In fact, it was so long ago that I can't really remember anything notable that happened.  It took well over three hours to get to the road—way longer than I envisioned—as we started at the 12 Apostles and worked our way back along the coast.  The day was overcast but the crowds still turned up.

Parents and Apostles.

We made it to Apollo Bay at dinnertime and stopped to eat at Cafe 153.  As I recall the maître d’ vaguely resembled Michael Caine.  My mom and I both had the fish special—perhaps it was grouper—which was fresh and simple.  To drink I had a local microbrew that used rainwater from the region.

A good beer, as far as I can remember.

After the sun set on our way back we decided to cut inland thinking the road would be less windy and shorter, but for the first 50 km it was probably worse.  We eventually made it back to the city pretty late.

I just got back from the 6-day Great Ocean Walk, so over the next week I will post my journal entries from each day along with some of the photos I took (there are over 400 but I’ve already selected the 114 best...).  For the rest of my time here in Australia my internet access will probably be spotty so bear with me if there are long breaks between posts.