A short day took us through nice forest roads to a campsite just off the ocean.
With no alarm set because we had less than 12 km to hike today, CareFree and I didn’t get up until after 7 am. Shortly after 8:30, we were off.
Except for the final short stretch of trail to the campground, the entire day was inland, in a nice forest with tall trees, and along wide dirt roads. At one point, I joked that we must have accidentally turned off the Great Ocean Walk and joined the Great Forest Walk instead.
Except for the koalas we could still see at camp before we left, we didn’t see any other koalas during our hike this morning. But, there were plenty of birds keeping us company along the way. A wallaby shortly ahead of us jumped almost completely over the road, clearly in a rush to cross as we approached.
After gently climbing for roughly the first half of the day, we then gradually descended. Nearing the ocean, the trail turned off the road and became a regular trail, switchbacking its way down to the beach at Blanket Bay. Ahead, we could hear children screaming in excitement.
We passed the two hikers we had dinner with last night, crossed an estuary that was flowing so lightly that it disappeared into the sand, and walked up to the Blanket Bay campsite.
We arrived at 11:30, after less than three hours of hiking. Today was one of the easiest days on a long-distance hike I’ve ever had. This really felt like cheating — we could easily go on from here to tomorrow’s campsite, but campsites are pre-booked. Also, we’re on vacation, and planned to be lazy today, so the task was just to enjoy it.
We were by far the first people to arrive today, so early in fact that a large group here last night was still packing up to leave.
The shelter at Blanket Bay was nice, except the table was a bit far from the benches around the edges, so you couldn’t really sit down while cooking. But it was still serviceable.
Sadly, the water tank at the shelter was empty. Fortunately, there was plenty of water at the car campground, near the toilets, not too far away.
We set the tent up, got plenty of water for the day, and relaxed in the shelter, listening to the crash of the ocean on the beach.
We saw a koala near the toilets, and also a mother and joey along the road near the hiker campground. They barely moved the whole time we were here.
Other animal highlights included a lizard in the shelter, and a bright blue bird hopping around the field facing the ocean.
Towards sunset, after the tide had gone out considerably, we took a short walk on the beach, before returning to our tent.
Tomorrow will be an even shorter day, with a bonus: a cafe along the way. We joked that we could wait until almost noon to leave, which would give us a full 24 hours in camp, and still make it to tomorrow’s campsite in the early afternoon.
We almost didn’t set an alarm, but opted for 6 am so we could get up to see the sun rise over the ocean tomorrow.