Snakes, Scorpians, and Tides, Oh My!

Thanks to the Victorian Labor Day weekend (different States celebrate Labor day on different days), we had a three day weekend to plan a hiking/camping trip.  I'd heard about the Great Ocean Road a good bit from friends, which is a two-lane highway that runs along the picturesque southern Victorian coast.  My cousin Ian took a tour bus along the scenic drive when he was in town back in October, and Lydia and I knew we to wanted to go (you can read Ian's post about it here).  With the new freedom of having the Golf, we figured the long weekend would be perfect to head down to the coast before it gets too cold.  While independently researching camping in Victoria, I stumbled across the Great Ocean Walk, which runs for about 40km parallel to the Great Ocean Rd, but actually along the coast (the road has some stretches that deviate from the coastline).  We figured it'd be worthwhile as our first multi-night trip in Australia.

Kangaroo tracks along the path, and Lydia's foot backwards

The trip was really unlike any other camping trip I've been on before.  I guess the closest I could equate it to was a long weekend up on the AT with Will back in 2010, except replace Appalachian forests with Australian scrub and brush and the threat of bear attack with stinging and biting creatures.  Unlike the AT, the Great Ocean Walk is a much more closely regulated hiking trail- Australia in general is much more of a nanny State than the US, which is both endearing and annoying.  To hike the trail, we had to submit "applications," which includes a $28 fee per night per camp site, with a requirement that you cannot stay at a given camp site more than one night and you had to hike East to West.  The application fee is nice in that it guarantees that there will be a camping site available, but annoying because... well because it was $28 for a camp site per night.  Since Lydia and I did the hike with just ourselves (so only one car), we circumvented the "one night only" rule by booking the same site two nights in a row, under different names.  There was some discussion around parking the car at the end then taking a taxi back to the trail head, but since we had never hiked (or been in the area) before, and I'm inherently suspicious of Taxis, particularly in non-urban areas, we opted to just hike in, stay two nights, and hike out.  We also somewhat overlooked the "East to West" rule, as the most convenient parking and prettiest part of the hike was West of the camp site... We figured if we got caught, we could always play the 'Stupid American' card.  Fortunately enough, we were never confronted with our transgressions.

View along the ride on the hike in

The 7.6 km hike in was incredible- the trail runs all along the natural ridges that adjoin the coast, so you're almost always 50 feet above the beach and within earshot and view of the considerable waves of the Victorian coast.  The landscape and flora changes abruptly throughout the hike- from dry brush, to coastal dune scrub, to Eucalypt forests.  The trail was pretty well-marked and labeled, and I had purchased a detailed map of the walk before we left Melbourne, so we made it to our camp site relatively painlessly.  One nice thing about Australia is there are no large natural predators- no bears to evade or coyotes to be wary of.  There's also no rabies on the continent, so if you were unluck enough to be bitten by a wallaby or Koala, you'd be in the clear.  Unfortunately the lack of teeth and claws have been replaced with well-evolved venom and stingers.  Bill Bryson muses in his book, In a Sunburned Country, about how unnecessarily potent the venom of Australian creatures are, and I have to admit that I too am amazed.  Why would a snake, who need only posses enough venom to take down a mouse or frog, in fact pack a venom potent enough to kill ten men in one bite?

Eastern Brown Snake

It just so happened that our hike included an otherwise unwanted encounter with an Eastern Brown Snake, the second most venomous snake in the world- second only to the Inland Taipan (also found in Australia, though fortunately not really in Victoria).  On our day hike we took a wrong turn and ended up in some overgrown tall grass.  When we had realized our mistake, we turned to walk out when about a yard away, directly along our exit, lay the brown snake, and it wouldn't budge.  At first I grabbed a few quick photos (after all, if it's not on Facebook, it didn't happen), then tried to jump around and stomp to get the snake to head for cover- no go.  I found out later after that part of the Brown's danger, aside from the potency of its venom, is their brazen attitude toward humans. After the passive attempts failed and impassioned insults didn't work, I resorted to strategically throwing sticks to get it to move.  It took a total of three sticks to encourage the snake to make his exit, two of which had to actually make contact before he'd slither away.


In addition to our not-so-friendly Brown, we later had the pleasure of sharing our camp site with an abundant number of scorpians.  While sitting back and relaxing as the sun set, we could see little critters scamper around our camp site.  Upon closer investigation, we learned these critters were actually little scorpians, out on the hunt.  We're not exactly suer how venomous they were, but we were quite happy to not have the displeasure of finding out the hard way.

Aside from the venomous critters on the trip, we were fortunate enough to bump into less nefarious creatures over the weekend.  We came across about a half-dozen swamp wallabies, which were always as surprised to see us as we were them.  While not particularly smart animals, we found them much more endearing than a deer or rabbit, but perhaps that's simply because we're dough-eyed Americans.  The swamp wallabies are about 4 feet tall when standing upright, and they're pretty skittish.  We found that they appeared to like the camp sites due to the availability of water (each site has a large container of rain water- quite convenient, but needs to be treated/filtered).  On more than one occasion, I walked around a blind corner where I'd find myself staring face to face with one.  Typically, they'd stare back eye-to-eye for 20 seconds or so, do an about-face (Kangaroos can't hop backwards), and spring up in the brush at a safe distance, where they cautiously and inquisitively watch.  It's kind of funny really- they just hang up in the bushes and stare at you, as if taking notes.  I kind of half-expected them to try and mimic our language at some point, given how intently they appeared to study us.

Echidna along the path

We were also fortunate enough to bump into an Echidna on the hike in, which are marsupial versions of the porcupine.  They aren't particularly gifted with hearing, sight, or intelligence, so they're pretty easy to sneak up on.  Similar to one of the wallabies we encountered, their "defense" (other than their spines) is to simply walk to the closest cover, stick there head in and pretend that since they can't see you, you can't see them, as if playing peek-a-boo.

Wreck Beach

Our adventures didn't end with the wildlife. We faced the challenge of having to gauge the tides for our Sunday hike along wreck beach.  The hike from the camp site is a loop around away and back to the coast.  It's the alternate route for thru-hikers when the tide is up, as the beach is supposedly impassable - throughout the 40 km walk, there are a number of "Decision Points" for hikers to take alternate routes depending on weather conditions and tides.  Before Lydia and I had left home on Saturday, we did have the good sense to check the tides, however we lacked the aforementioned good sense when neither of decided to write down the times.  Coupled with no cell phone reception to call the Parks Vic office or a wireless data connection, we were left to our own memories to try and recall from memory.  Lydia remembered it as around 1on, whereas I was convinced it was closer to 2:30.  We went with the assumption that high-tide was at 2:30, so that way we'd time it so we wouldn't be on the beach until after that time, to ensure that we weren't under the gun with the tides rising.  When we finally made it to the Wreck Beach, we were disheartened to find what appeared to be a high tide, and no one present who knew the actual high tide times.  We discussed it at length, weighed our options, and decided that we'd try and make a stab at making the hike.  If were reached an impassible spot, we could simply turn around and hike out the way we went in, so long as we left the beach before 4:00, to ensure that we'd have enough light for the hike back to the camp site.  Our strategy worked, where we managed to keep all but our ankles dry.  We did have a "rock scramble' where we had to climb over some rocks on the beach, but given what we had read, this was an obstacle even when the tide was out.

Lydia looking happy

Hanging by the second wreck

Aside from the imminent danger of drowning or being swept out to sea, the hike was pretty cool.  The water is absolutely beautiful and crystal clear, and along the beach you can see the remnants of two late-nineteenth century wrecks.  It's actually pretty perplexing that the ships ran aground where they did- the anchors are literally on the beach, which would imply that the captains either weren't very good navigators, or had been sipping on a bit too much rum - I'm sure that Italian cruise ship captain who's received international attention lately could better defend what appeared to be some significant oversights.

Because of our rule "circumvention", we were able to set up the second night on the best camp site, site #8, which had its own private bench overlooking the coast and ridge.  We enjoyed a dinner of Tuna Alfredo, followed by some Thai ramen, overlooking the Indian/Pacific Ocean (it's not clear to me which exactly we were looking at, and Wikipedia is not a great help).  Not to break tradition, we rounded out the evening with a bit of Wild Turkey Honey Bourbon and some Port (also known as Tawny here) over candlelight (fires are closely regulated in Australia due to the risk of brush fires, so we opted for the safer and easier option of tea candles).

Tuna Alfredo

Campsite on the ridge

On Monday, we cleaned up camp, and had a pretty uneventful hike out back to the car.  From there, we hopped in the Golf and headed 5km West to the 12 Apostles- a popular tourist spot along the Great Ocean Road which overlooks about 10 free-standing rock formations separated from the coast line.  The view was pretty stunning, which made up for the fact that there aren't actually 12 "Apostles."  We hung around for twenty minutes or so to snap some photos and see how many Japanese tourist photos we could be in, before hopping the car and taking the less-scenic (though much faster) route back to the apartment.  

"12" Apostles

Some more Apostles

To cap off the adventure, our route passed by a controlled burn which was pretty cool to see.  We got close enough to see the flames in the air, literally with the air on fire.

Controlled Burn

I think for the next trip, we'll head down to Wilson's Prom, the southernmost point in mainland Australia, and maybe with friends next time (who are better prepared in the Australian bush).  Definitely a good trip, and I give Lydia credit as a new camper.  We successfully survived our second camping adventure in Australia and are looking forward to more to come!