The Great Ocean Walk - Elliot Ridge to Blanker Bay - Day 2

Day 2 started off a bit damp. It had rained overnight and the wind had got up a bit - not that the wind affected us too much in our tents that night. We all had a reasonable sleep and were beginning to get up at 8am for what was a fairly easy 12 KM day down to Blanket Bay.

Cam had some new fangled breakfast that involved "blue berries" that worked really well - however, there was an underestimation of the Blue Berries required that lead to an immediate Blue Berry crisis - a first for Dodgey.

We left camp at about 10.30am for a fairly leisurely walk through the Otway Forest. It was really nice walking. Along the way we meet a bunch of cyclists - mountain bike type - who were out doing a race. With the rain overnight the track had become very muddy and they were covered in it. We found a frog swimming in a pool of water in the middle of the road. All in all nice walking.

We made Blanket Bay camp site by 1.30pm and proceeded to setup camp. We had lunch and found out that the Vita Wheat biscuit packs had reduced the number of crackers per box by about 2 which meant that our rations were a little down. We forecast a Vita Wheat crisis in the days to come.

JB and I decided to do some fishing. The swell was so high that it made lure fishing really difficult and we caught a lot of sea weed, but no fish. With the size of the swell you really had to pay attention to the waves as they came in, so it was no surprise seeing JB get totally enveloped in a wave - really very funny. Pete suffered a similar fate but not quite as badly as JB.

The later afternoon saw us sitting on the beach enjoying the last of the sun slowly sipping on some very fine port. Dinner that night was taco's with re-hydrated meat.

There were a group of walkers that had started from Apollo Bay and walked through to Blanket Bay on the Saturday. These walkers were been supported by a tour group. The camp site at Blanket Bay supports both walkers and drive in campers were as Elliot Ridge only supports walk in campers. When we arrived at the camp site the beach front site was full of the tourist walkers. These walkers only carry a small day pack with their immediate needs for the days walking - lunch and snacks, water, clothing and I guess their personal first aid kits.