Deb and I have had a brilliant time doing the Great Ocean Walk over autumn and winter, in between Melbourne lockdowns – which is quite an achievement in itself as we now carry the dubious title of ‘Longest Locked Down City in the World’ and still going strong. We’ve been pining for some open vistas and dirt tracks, but at least have had the actual writing and editing of the book to keep us entertained. We’re both pretty excited with the final product and hope that you are also. It’s the first ever independent guidebook to this iconic 100km walk along Victoria’s wild southern coastline.
The guidebook is available now in bookstores and directly via our publishers, Sydney-based Woodslane Press website – if you use this link and enter JULIEM15 at check out, you will receive a 15% discount on this and any of my guidebooks.
It’s lightweight enough to carry in your pack, but with enough pictures and information to help inspire and plan your adventure to come. It provides a number of options for different ways of tackling the Walk – as a series of day walks, or a through-walk, camping or staying in accommodation, and with options for a variety of distances, from 4 to 9 days. We have also included information about local history, including the many shipwrecks, environment, geology, wildlife, flowers and fungi to be found along the way. the maps are clear and easy to follow, and there are also histograms, showing the altitude gain and loss each day. There is lots of information about planning the walk, what to pack, how to get there, and contact details for accommodation, transportation and guided options. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed walking it! Let us know what you think 🙂
My goodness, it’s been a very long time between blog posts – mostly because my co-conspirator Deb (that’s her above walking south from Mt Rosea) and I have been busy researching, walking, writing and now editing our next guidebook, Best Walks of the Gariwed – Grampians National Park, which will hit the shelves in December 2019. If you haven’t had the chance to walk in the Grampians, just 3 hours west of Melbourne, or even if you have and want another reason to fall in love with it all over again, get yourself west with your boots and backpack. What a place – it offers everything: rugged sandstone ranges, whacky rock formations, ridge-walking, heart-stopping scrambling, waterfalls, lakes and gentle creekside ambles, spectacular wildflowers, serenity, and more wildlife than you have ever seen in one place. There’s controversy at the moment too of course, as long time users of the National Park navigate their way through changes to its use. There is also a lot of track realignment going on at the moment, as work to complete the long distance Grampians Peaks Trail continues. None of this detracts from the walking experience, and winter/spring is a brilliant time to get up there, before the crowds and heat arrive in summer.
The 106km ‘W Walk’ around the Torres del Paine massif in Chile has been on my bucket list since I first saw a photo of those incredible spires 20 years ago. And it did not disappoint at all. A long flight from Melbourne to Santiago, then to Punta Arenas and then a bus to quaint Puerto Natales and yet another bus into the NP was rewarded with a magnificent refugio-to-refugio walk in pretty amazing weather (we were very lucky!). We did the walk independently (very easily) using a local Chilean travel agent to book the refugios and connecting transport, which was very easy and saved us huge wadges of cash. 
The refugios are clean – have rooms with multiple bunk beds (If you prebook you can get the lower ones – some are pretty vertiginous!), hot communal showers and can be pre-booked with linen so you don’t have to carry heavy packs, and full board – evening meals are hearty 2 courses and will line your stomachs – and lunchpacks consist of (huge) slabs of bread with meat and cheese and a muesli bar and fruit. For those with more stamina and who are seriously pack-fit, there are excellent camping grounds beside all the refugios.
Melbourne Walks 