We have a “secret” National Park camping ground we escape to each summer for a week or two “bush” camping.
As you can see from the pictures below this is NOT lightweight camping and we take everything including the kitchen sink, dish rack and a full cutlery and crockery set.

It is camping on a grand scale.

Frank has just returned and thought he would share a few pictures of this great holiday spot that is near the Great Ocean Walk in southern Victoria, Australia.

Sorry about the quality of the images, we left our camera at home and had to use an iPhone!…

The Great South West Walk third section is from Discovery Bay to Mount Richmond and Tarragal Camp.

If you like beach walking, sand and sand dunes this section is for you!

If you hate march flies, be prepared…..

In his third guest post, Dave Tomlinson shares some great information about this section of the GSWW. You can check out the map here

Dave’s footprints, Discovery Bay – soft sand makes for hard walking

The Discovery Bay Coastal Park begins at Nelson and extends virtually all the way along the coast to Portland. It is recommended to walk the direction I did…

Want to spend 2 weeks hiking in Victoria in a variety of interesting scenery including sea, river and forest?

Love the beach and bush and want a bushwalking trip that takes you these environments and more?

Looking for a multi day hike that offers a lot of variety?

The Great South West Walk may be for you!

The 250km long Great South West Walk provides a fascinating variety of scenery and wildlife in the southwest of Victoria. The track winds inland from the town of Portland and reaches Nelson via the Cobboboonee Forest and Glenelg River. From there, it returns along the beaches and rugged…

Many thanks to Jacq for this trip report on a overnight walk into the Billywing Gorge of the Grampians in Victoria. Jacq has kindly let us reproduce an email she sent to a friend who did not make the trip. We also could not make it, and after reading Jacq’s notes, are quite happy about spending the weekend at home.
The plan was to find a “hidden cave” , know as the Goat Cave and camp there overnight. Below is the “Goat Cave”

What you missed out on over the weekend:

About 6:30 Friday night it started to drizzle, then progressively pour, so by the…

While not purely hiking related, our annual summer holiday to Blanket Bay provides us with a great relaxing experience and the chance to be very comfortable for a week’s base camping. We recently posted about base camping compared to hiking before the holiday.

Blanket Bay is the second camping area on the Great Ocean Walk, so we had the opportunity to meet several hikers, and enjoy their company. The number of walkers travelling through seemed quite small (maybe 2-5 per night) Several of them were on supported walks where they had their food and gear delivered to each campsite by Abby of GOR…

Lightweight hiking is a goal for all, but when it comes to a summer camping trip all rational thought goes out the window. We head off early tomorrow on our annual camping holiday to Blanket Bay, in the Otway National Park.

Blanket Bay is a small National Park camping ground near Cape Otway Lighthouse in southern Victoria. There are only 20 odd sites with no power, a small amount of water and long drop dunnies. No generators are allowed. We have been going there on and off for over 30 years.

A double rainbow at Blanket Bay

The great 24 hour packing exercise…

There have been many hits on “Our Hiking Blog” looking for information regarding access and track conditions in the Mt Howitt area following the fires in late 2006. We are not very familiar with this area, but hope the following information is useful and points you in the right direction. If you are heading up that way this summer, enjoy.

We are subscribed to aus.bushwalking , an excellent bushwalking discussion group hosted by Google, and there are several posts discussing access to Mt Howitt and the Australian Alps Walking Track. The posts regarding Mt Howitt access are quite detailed. Australian hiking guru…

Hiking Mt Howitt to  McAlister Springs?

Thinking of bushwalking the Crosscut Saw and Mt Buggery?

Going to attack Mt Speculation?

Snow in November in the Victorian Alps?

That is only part of the story our guest blogger John has to tell in his great story about a walk on Melbourne Cup weekend. John has been on several walks with us since discovering bushwalking in the last few years. We have done the South Coast Track, Overland Track and the Great Ocean Walk together. If you look around the blog further you will see him starring in many photo’s and stories. Many thanks John for your…

We were contacted recently by Bob Padula from Mont Albert, in the east of Melbourne letting us know about his walking related web pages and blog. We had a good look around this afternoon and discovered a gold mine of information that has been put together by Bob.

In Bob’s own words:

I am a Professional Engineer, providing technical consultancy services in the area of high-frequency broadcasting – I graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1967, and was employed by Telstra Corporation until 1998.

I have been actively involved in bushwalking since 1954, and regularly undertake short walks around Greater Melbourne…