Finishing off the Great South West Walk

I may have previously said some evil things about this walk, I take all those things back. Having now completed the 250km trail, it is, upon reflection of its entirety, the Great South West Walk is a fantastic trail. It is spectacular, with good facilities and well maintained.

Great South West Walk, Discovery Bay Conservation Park and Coboboonee Forest

We walked the eastern 100km back in Easter, and have just walked the remaining 150km western section. At Easter we walked from Moleside, down the Glenelg River to Nelson, then along the beaches to Mt Richmond. This time we walked from Mt Richmond, along the coastal cliffs and headlands to Portland, then through the forest back to Moleside.



The coastal section here is spectacular. The coastal section from Nelson to Mt Richmond had been dominated by long walks on the beach, perhaps that sounds like something from a dating website, but about half of the beach is avoidable with alternative inland routes. This trip's section was dominated by clifftop walking along headlands, and short beach sections in small bays. It is spectacular. A narrow national park follows much of the coastline. The waves pound at the base of the cliffs, so there is always something good to watch with awe-filled eyes, until a general giddiness and and lack of head-for-heights drags you back from the cliff edge. Much of this area has been formed by volcanic action, so there are different rock types which add much interest.

Our first campsite, at The Springs on Cape Bridgewater, provided a fascinating insight into local geology. Where were the springs, I wondered. The last place I expected! The fresh water is to be found on the large rock platforms a little above where the waves crash, at the base of the coastal cliffs. Yep! I did wonder how the water got that high. Freshwater seaps out of the cliff onto the rock platforms, some of the volcanic rocks is impenetrable, so it flows out horizontally to the cliff edges.

There are many wind turbines along this coast, but on the upside, and much to Graham's disappointment, popular opinion sees them as better to look at than a coal plant. If you are a bit down on not seeing a coal plant though, take heart, walking into Portland you walk three sides of a large aluminium smelter. Curiously, who knew this, depending on where you read though, this single smelter uses 18-25% of Victoria's electricity. It looms large on the horizon, quite why it is sits on a prominent headland I'm not sure, but clearly it needs to be close to the port facilities of Portland, and the large conveyor belt disguised as a massive pipeline from the port to the smelter gives a few clues as to why I suppose. Don't be discouraged though, it is only seen for one day, and if you pivot your head to the right the coastline is still spectacular, the first half of the walk out of Mallee campsite is stunning, you hardly notice the plant. And it's not like we don't all use aluminium, at the very least much of our hiking gear is made of it.

The track is well maintained. We met quite a few locals who knew someone who got out and maintained the trail. Much of the trail in this area needs to be mowed, yes, that will sound strange to a South Australian, but indeed it is mowed, and foliage cut back. The trail is well signposted, we had no trouble following it. There are many interpretive signs along the way, I really appreciated these, so many fascinating things to learn.

A good map, better than the map on the Great South West Walk website, is the map produced by Cartographics and Meridian Maps. It's 1:50 000 scale, topographic, recent, and very accurate with lots of good info marked. It can be purchased online or locally at Portland at the Portland Visitor Information Centre or Davis Newsagency.

Hikers will be pleased to hear there are two cafes along this coastline, which is not bad for a four day section. One is at the beach and carpark called Cape Bridgewater, and another at the Cape Nelson lighthouse. Yum yum, no objections to supplementing our hiking rations here. The guys out at Cape Nelson lighthouse were so friendly and welcoming to us, even offering to top up our water supplies. Such a hiker-friendly attitude is so rarely seen!

The campsites were superbly set up. Each of the six campsites we stayed at, and the three we walked through, had a good size shelter with table and bench, picnic table in the open (for the sunny days), water tank, fire pit and toilet. Some were grassy, some had plenty of shade and protection from the elements, some tent pads, and one with a coastal viewing platform. Each of the campsites came equipped with several others hikers, which was good, I quite like that feature. It was good to chat to others hiking the trail, some were walking in the same direction, others the opposite, some for four or so days, some the complete trail. For the seven days on the trail we chased someone around the trail, but failed to ever catch them as they were walking super fast it seemed. From what I have read every campsite is being upgraded with shelter installations like these, certainly even back in Easter only half of these campsites were listed as having shelters.

We stayed at a motel in Portland, cheap at $100 per night. The Admella motel was good, it had a catchy tagline emphasing how cheap it was, it was clean and neat and had been renovated. Once again, a friendly crowd. A local told us that Mac's was good to stay at for trail hikers cheap at $70 a night for the older rooms in the motel behind the main pub. On the main esplanade too just off the trail, good if you are walking in from the south, and close to take-away foodies.

Google Map of the recent 7-day walk

View in full screen format

Google Map of the whole Great South West Walk hiking trail

View in full screen format

Download the GPS map files for the Great South West Walk hiking trail

Load the GPX files onto your handheld GPS unit to hike the Great South West Walk. Download the KML files to view the trail in Google Earth.

Download all files:

• Download single GPX file with 19 tracks and 16 campsites (load GPX file onto your GPS unit)


• Download all KML files in a single KML ZIP file

Or, download individual track files:

GSWW 01	Portland to Cubbys Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 02	Cubbys Camp to Cut out Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 03	Cut out Camp to Cobboboonee Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 04	Cobboboonee Camp to Fitzroy Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 05	Fitzroy Camp to Moleside Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 06	Moleside Camp to Post and Rail Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 07	Post and Rail Camp to Pattersons Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 08	Pattersons Camp to Simsons Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 09	Simsons Camp to White Sands Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 10a	White Sands Camp to Monibeong Camp via inland route	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 10b	White Sands Camp to Monibeong Camp via beach	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 11	Monibeong Camp to Swan Lake Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 12a	Swan Lake Camp to Tarragal Camp via Mt Richmond	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 12b	Swan Lake Camp to The Springs Camp via beach	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 13	Tarragal Camp to The Springs Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 14	The Springs Camp to Trewalla Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 15	Trewalla Camp to Mallee Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 16	Mallee Camp to Portland	GPX file	KML file

Or, download just the 16 hike-in campsites along the Great South West Walk:

• GPX file


• KML file

Stats	Great South West Walk - eastern half
	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
	26/12/11	27/12/11	28/12/11	29/12/11	30/12/11	31/12/11	1/1/12
	Mt Richmond to The Springs campsite	The Springs campsite to Trewalla campsite	Trewalla campsite to Mallee campsite	Mallee campsite to Portland	Portland to Cubbys campsite	Cubbys campsite to Cobbo-boonee campsite	Cobbo-boonee campsite to Moleside
Distance	20.58km	17.43km	17.22km*	23.47km**	21.48km	25.56km	32.66km
Start Time	1.07pm	8.37am	8.16am	7.30am	7.43am	7.52am	7.36am
End Time	6.37pm	2.29pm	2.02pm	2.04pm	1.24pm	2.56pm	4.38pm
Moving Duration	4h02m	3h40m	4h00m	4h39m	4h10m	5h03m	6h25m
Stationary Duration	1h25m	2h12m	1h46m	1h59m	1h29m	1h59m	2h32m
Moving Average	5.1km/h	4.7km/h	4.3km/h	5.0km/h	5.1km/h	5.1km/h	5.1km/h
Overall Average	3.8km/h	3.0km/h	3.0km/h	3.6km/h	3.8km/h	3.6km/h	3.6km/h
Oodometer	20.58km	38.0km	55.3km	78.8km	100.3km	126.0km	158.7km

* Due to the GPS unit being inside at the cafe at Cape Nelson, this figure is probably 1km too high
** This is to our motel in Portland, not the Portland trailhead. The following day we walked back from the motel to the trailhead.
These three things are not corrected for in the above mileage figures. The Google Map and GPS file downloads are corrected.

More info:

• Official Great South West Walk website: www.greatsouthwestwalk.com


• Great South West Walk Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Great-South-West-Walk-Portland-Vic/192714714081671


• The guys at www.southwestadventures.com.au can be booked for a transfer shuttle if need be

Great South West Walk - western half

The Glenelg River in Victoria is gorgeous, a wide river meandering it's way through a gorge, limestone cliffs, surrounded by dense eucalypt forest and pine forest - and - barely a building or road in sight. It's here that we spent the Easter, walking the western half of the Great South West Walk.

Great South West Walk, Lower Glenelg National Park and Discovery Bay Conservation Park

UPDATE January 2012

I've now completed the whole Great South West Walk hiking trail. Read the second blog entry about the eastern half from Mt Richmond to Portland and back to the Glenelg River.

• View Google Map of entire Great South West Walk trail


• Download the Great South West Walk GPX map files for your handheld GPS unit as a navigational aid to hike the trail


• Download the Great South West Walk KML files to view the trail in Google Earth.

I've paddled down the river three times before, I never imagined that dense eucalypt forest also held a walking trail and walker's campsites.

We walked from Moleside Picnic Area down to Murrells walk-in campsite, up, down, and along the meandering trail. The following day we pushed out the kilometres to reach Simsons walk-in campsite - not quite the isolated campsite that Moleside was, this one is only three kilometres from Nelson. People wandered past walking their dogs, a few 4WDs drove past on the dirt track. Dissapointingly - because I thought I had seen this campsite whilst paddling down the river before - there was no river view for this campsite.

The following day we divided into two groups, Graham and myself pushing out along the beach - after a stopover at the Nelson General Store - to Mo M Beong Lake campsite (also spent Mombeong, or Monibeong). Steve and Krystyna took a more leisurely pace, camping at a campsite midway along the beach. The beach walking was long but beautiful. The guidebook described the sand as "pleasurably hard" which sounds somewhat erotic - I can assure you it wasnt, erotic that is. We took the inland route into Mo M Beong Lake and the campsite, we really enjoyed that route and coming up to the lake. A swim was prevented by the lack of appropriate underwear or all the other car campers around (ok so that hiking underwear went in the bin after this walk).

We made the fourth day our final. We sat eating lunch at Swan Lake campsite, beside the lake, well we think, the location of the actual hike-in campsite was ambiguous, certainly of the campsites we had seen this one had the poorest facilities - all the others we had seen were very good. The nearby car based campsite and surrounding sand dunes were trashed by the tyres of dune buggies. Never have I seen this kinda of wanton damage to a national park from vehicles. We walked on, towards Mt Richmond. We were to camp somewhere ad hoc, to balance the days a little. As we decided to focus on the hours left to walk to the car at Mt Richmond, rather than the kilometres left, we were easily able to make it back to the car by around 4pm, and make that drive into Portland for a pub meal.

Someone asked how it compared with the Great Ocean Walk, well, it may not be a fair comparison. They are different environments. The Great Ocean Road didn't get that name by accident. I love the Glenelg River, but this walk comprises maybe four elements: river; beach; coastal cliffs; forest. In the western half of the trail we did, we walked the river and beach sections. The Great Ocean Walk passes through a more diverse range range of ecosystems, but Great South West Walk is still worth doing, perhaps just not something to rage about. It is much easier walking as the terrain is generally flatter. Despite being on my "To Do List" for a long time, we were only doing this walk now because we couldn't access Wilsons Promontory due to flooding. We met and camped with other walkers, they had intended to do some of the Grampians over Easter, but likewise, couldn't due to flooding. We will get back to finish the eastern half, but being so close to Adelaide I'm not sure when, Christmas maybe (being so close to home it isn't hard to organise a trip there, so I would prefer to use annual leave on trails further away.)

View in full screen format Download GPX file - for use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit Download KML file - view in Google Earth

Stats	Great South West Walk - western half
	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday
	22/04/2011	23/04/2011	24/04/2011	25/04/2011
	Moleside Creek Picnic Area to Murrells Hike-In Campsite	Murrells Hike-In Campsite to Simsons Hike-In Campsite	Simsons Hike-In Campsite to Lake Mo M Beong Campsite	Lake Mo M Beong Campsite to Mt Richmond
Distance	25.15km	27.01km	25.62km	32.1km*
Start Time	9.16am	7.52am	7.43am	7.49am
End Time	3.52pm	2.55pm	2.53pm	4.13pm
Moving Duration	4h38m	5h10m	4h52m	6h08m
Stationary Duration	1h24m	1h22m	1h48m	1h52m
Moving Average	5.4km/h	5.3km/h	5.3km/h	5.2km/h
Overall Average	4.2km/h	4.1km/h	3.8km/h	4.0km/h
Oodometer	25.1km	52.2km	77.8km	109.9km*
*About 600m longer than actual trail, meadering around Swan Lake campsite looking for water

Paddling Down the Glenelg River

A three day canoe trek down the Glenelg River through the Lower Glenelg National Park with Alex and Bec. Highlight (apart from canoeing down an isolated, natural river) was seeing a platypus.

Friday March 6 to Sunday March 8, 2009
55km, Pines Landing to Nelson, Glenelg River, Victoria

The platypus is notoriously shy. We saw it one morning as we were packing the canoe the kayak. The river was still, dead smooth, and the platypus emerged amidst bubbles about 8-10m from us in front of the landing, before diving down again. "Shhhh!" as I pushed Bec in the back, this was no time for talk. The platypus surfaced twice more for another look around, before disappearing. Btw that's not my photo, I didn't want to loose the magic of the moment by mucking around with a camera, but this photo is the closest to what we saw that I could find on the internet.

We took Friday off work, driving down through Mt Gambier on Thursday night after work. We camped at the beach campsite at Piccaninnie Ponds. Next morning we drove into Nelson, and left our car there as the canoe hire guys drove us out to Pines Landing, from where we would paddle back to Nelson over four days. Pines Landing is where we started this little adventure last time I did it. I was struck by how much this place reminded me of that day four years ago, and of Stephen.

From here we paddled 20km to Skipworth Springs, seeing almost no-one. It took a little while to get the canoe technique right, and we each tried out the kayak and canoe to see where we might fare well. The following two days we improved our technique, improving our 5.0km/h average to 5.5km/h. We paddled hard, only stopping to rest at landings, and not, as previously, at random spots to drift. I think was because this time we had the benefit of the GPS unit, so were able to estimate how much longer we needed to keep up the paddling before the next landing.

Friday was planned to be our longest day, at 20km, with Saturday to be 14km, Sunday 7km and Monday 14km. We had booked the campsites late, not knowing it was also a long weekend in Victoria. So the short 7km day was unavoidable. But on Sunday, we reached our planned campsite at Bowds, 14km downstream. Since it was only 3pm, we decided to paddle the additional 7km to Lasletts, where we had planned to stay Sunday night. Even though we were only staying at canoe campsites, where space was more limited than the car-based campsites, it seemed likely there would still be space for our two small hiking tents.

Friday night we spent at Skipworth Springs, and had it all to ourselves. Small tents are an advantage at this campsite, as the sites are small since the campground is on a hill. Like all the campsites, there is a toilet, picnic table and at least one fire place. These facilities aren't always marked on the official map, not sure why. There is also rainwater available, except here where there is a natural spring. We hunted down some dry wood, from some dead fallen and not so fallen trees, for a campfire. Victoria is different than South Australia in that fires are permitted during the Fire Danger Season (except on days of total fire ban) and collection of firewood in a national park is permitted. We were visited by the ever fearless possums, who came to our picnic table to clean up our crumbs. For a few moments it looked like we might have a stand-off between two possums, but they resolved their differences and chased each other up a nearby tree.

Saturday night we camped at Lasletts, this time sharing the campsite with a group of eleven and a group of five. So we didn't get in on either of the fire places, but then we didn't actually have a booking for this campsite anyway. Bec's idea of bringing along a picnic rug, as we chairs were too cumbersome, was a real winner. We set up camp in the corner of the campsite, looking over the river and cliffs. These were the same cliffs that us boys had scaled last time to walk into Nelson to collect Julie's car so she could go home for work a day earlier than the rest of us.

We decided a swim was in order here, yet Alex stated he was off to test the water first. "What? Test the water? Whatever dude." You see, you just don't do that. You decide to swim, if it's nice then that's just a bonus. So Bec and I chatted, and a few moments later Alex emerged soaking wet. I was shocked, he was totally wet. He was surprised as neither of us had heard him bomb it in off the landing. Alex and I returned to the landing where I ran off the end. It was cool, but not freezing, and we both avoided touching the bottom. That night we used my little gas lantern I had found by chance on Friday. I car-camping size gas light with a 2-3kg gas bottle was too big to bring, but this tiny one fitted onto a 300g hiking gas canister, and was much better than a torch.

Now I include a random jaws video, it seemed it wasn't only platypus that occupied the waters of this river.

Australia being in drought, we weren't sure what to expect with the water level. We were surprised when we arrived in Nelson on Friday morning to find the river high, indeed, very close to some riverbank buildings. The canoe guy told us the river mouth had silted up just a few days previously, so the river wasn't flowing and was backfilling. At Skipworth Springs, the water level was a mere 10cm from the landing deck. Sunday lunchtime we had trouble finding Forest Camp North, another canoe only campsite. The shorter canoe camp landings can be harder to find, as they are simpler structures than the higher car-camping landings and boat ramps. This particular one even more so, the landing deck being about 10cm below the water surface. Last time we were here, I recall Julie rolling around in the mud beside the landing. Throughout the canoe trek we found a few other landings beneath the water surface.

Monday we paddled the last 14km into Nelson. We stopped at a cliff near Princess Margaret Rose Caves, and climbed part of the cliff to a cave entrance. It turned out this is part of the Princess Margaret Rose Caves network, but has been separated from it by cave-ins. At the main caves landing, we walked up to the shop to grab a cool drink and some food. We hunted around for a while to find a water tank that wasn't contaminated with too much eucalyptus, as Lasletts had also been contaminated.

I recall the stretch from the caves into Nelson as being particularly long and boring, there are not many landings to break up the day. Despite the head wind along Taylors Straight, which slowed us considerably down from 6-7km/h to just 4km/h, bringing our moving average down to 5.2km/h.

Back in Nelson a day early, I took Alex and Bec on their first tour of Mt Gambier's lakes and sink holes, before we returned to Piccaninnie Ponds to camp. We had the campsite to ourselves this time, or so we first thought, before the late night disturbances began. The pubs/nightclubs of Mt Gambier must have closed around 12-1am, as after that until dawn the car park near the beach was hoon central.

After a quick swim in Piccaninnie Ponds on Monday morning - well it was cold and Alex was a poopy head and didn't want to come for a swim so it's a pretty short one - and some yummy pancakes with Nutella, we returned to Adelaide. We stopped off at Bool Lagoon for a look-in, perhaps we could return here and camp for a weekend and do some bird watching, but despite the apparently recent photo on the RAA map, the lagoon was dry with no surface water. We wondered if it might fill a little in winter?

Download Google Earth KML file of the Glenelg River

Download kml file to view in Google Earth or adapt to use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit

Nelson Boat and Canoe Hire
Chris and Cheryl
(08) 8738 4048
www.nelsonboatandcanoehire.com.au
The canoe hire was $45 per day, and the kayak $40 per day, with a $40 drop off fee to Pines Landing - total cost $295. My car was securely stored in Nelson.

Stats	Glenelg River
	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
	6/3/2009	7/3/2009	8/3/2009
	Pines Landing to Skipworth Springs	Skipworth Springs to Lasletts	Lasletts to Nelson
Distance	20.3km	22.6km	14.8km
Start Time	9.58am	10.22am	9.35am
End Time	4.24pm	4.53pm	1.59pm
Moving Duration	4h2m	4h5m	2h51m
Stationary Duration	2h12m	2h25m	1h34m
Moving Average	5.0km/h	5.5km/h	5.2km/h
Overall Average	3.2km/h	3.5km/h	3.3km/h
Maximum Speed	8.1km/h	8.1km/h	7.7km/h
Oodometer	20.3km	42.8km	57.6km