12 Apostles Guided Hike

March 3-6, 2026 - Our final walk with the Tasmanian Walking Company is the highlights of the 12 Apostles Walk, considered one of the great walks of Australia. This is a subset of the Great Ocean Walk, along the rugged shipwreck coast, by the Otway lighthouse to the 12 Apostles sea stacks. Tas Walking Co cut out some of the inland sections of the track which would have made things a few days longer.

My thoughts about this walk: Views: Some beautiful and dangerous coastline. Rating 10/10. Apostles are stunning. Food: great. Rating: 9/10. Accommodation: wonderful (ensuite bathroom, power in the room). We were in the same lodge for all nights which was great. Rating 9/10. Hiking: medium and rated 5/10 - rather boring other than the views and lots of sand walking. The guide wouldn't let us off leash, so we were always hiking in a line which was not really enjoyable. Weather - wonderful and sunny and rated 10/10.

March 3, 2026 - Drive 3 hours from Melbourne to the coast - Apollo Bay and over to Blanket Bay. 

The walk itself took us from Blanket Bay to the Cape Otway lighthouse.  This walk was 6.3 miles with 1180 elevation gain.

Here's a time lapse from our room in the AC Hotel

We met this morning at 7:45 at the Mercure Hotel.  We have 9 in our group this time.  No Radiologists.

The guides were:

Julia (left)- driving and overall team leader.

Bruce (right) - main guide- ex-police officer/detective (retired after 31.5 years). He was involved in the Alphonse Gangetano/Jason Moran investigation which was the basis for the award winning Australian show called "Underbelly". (I tried to watch this, but not sure I can recommend it - it's showing on Amazon for those interested).   He lives in Torquay and we picked him up along the way. Turns out Bruce also made the finals for the "Solo Leman" advert in Australia many years ago. For those interested: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18Pu9UXTJr/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Dana- cook/host/care taker at the 12 Apostles Lodge and Kirstie from Glasgow- first hike as guide.   She is here on a work visa. (no photos of these two).

Our group is:

Johmar and Kelly Anne are Sydney based, but they are Indonesian. Johmar works in IT, but worked at the Commonwealth Bank with Andrew in Indonesia. Just retired. (Johmar is in foreground and Kelly Anne is in the black hat)

Andrew and Claire from Sydney- Andrew is a corporate guy who ran the Indonesian branch of the bank and is now back in Sydney. (Andrew is in the back row/green T-shirt and Clare is in front - green hat)

Pierre/Courtney - Pierre is french, Courtney is American and they are based in New York. Pierre is in IT and works as a consultant. (Pierre = left back row, Courtney = grey T-Shirt next to Clare)

Fiona is from the Republic of Ireland. She is single and is taking a break from marketing. (Black T-Shirt - no hat).She is traveling together with Pierre and Courtney.

Us (Chris = back row in hat, me = between Fiona and Chris)

The drive down was pretty boring. 

We stopped for coffee and there were an amazing number of cockatoos in the trees.  Chris managed to spill his coffee somehow.

We finally got to the coast and turned on the Great Coast Road which was built by de-mobbed military personnel after the First World War (about 1919-1921) to commemorate their fallen WW1 comrades.

We stopped for our second break in Apollo Bay.  It felt like a California beach town.  While Bruce was gassing up, we waited in the park and, again, the trees were filled with these crazy cockatoos.  I wanted to get a boom box and play loud rock music to see if they would dance to it.

We finally reached Blanket Bay and had lunch at a picnic area before starting.  The highlight here was seeing my first wild koala sitting in a tree.  It was the heat of the day, so it was just sitting there like a lump. 

Lunch was pretty good. There were some very interested Fairywrens.

The walk started along the beach (ugh) before going onto more of a hiking track. 

On the way down to the beach I saw my first echidna which is very hard to see in this photo.

We washed our feet to avoid spreading disease and the track took us into a forested area - unfortunately no more wildlife, but we did see a Rose colored hyacinth orchid.

Trainee Kirstie was supposed to be the back marker and she walked the entire day in the middle of the pack, so was glad no one had any issues or got lost.

We saw a white faced heron at Parker’s Inlet and the first remains of the Eric the Red shipwreck.

The highlight of the day for me was walking  on the rocky area after Parker’s Inlet, about half way along the route.  The waves were starting to get high.  This area had a great number of ship wrecks and we saw several items from the Red Beard.

We saw a second echidna not long after the beach walk portion of today’s walk. Again, difficult to make out....photo on the right is what it should look like.

The lighthouse finally came into view, but kept somehow moving further away as we should have been approaching it:)

We finally got to the lighthouse which was rather underwhelming and had some of the worst public toilets.  The lighthouse itself was undergoing maintenance, so it was disappointing we couldn’t go in.   Bruce isn’t the most knowledgeable guide…

We finished up the day with a 30 minute drive to the 12 Apostles Lodge located near Johanna Beach.  It seems really luxurious after the 7 days on the Overland Track.  We have a large room with an en-suite bathroom big enough to be classified as ”accessible”. (check ou the video).

A nice bonus was a foot spa area for hot foot soaks complete with epsom salts and canapes.

Dinner was half a lobster (technically crayfish because it didn’t have claws) and seafood paella. 

I only had the lobster and the clam and shrimp from the paella which was a lot of food and all were amazing.  Dessert was pear with vanilla ice cream.

We were distracted during dessert when someone saw a Koala in a nearby tree.  It was pretty active and fun to watch.  Also, there is a single sheep which keeps coming into the lodge yard to eat grass - it’s not supposed to be there, but the owner can’t seem to get it to stay with the herd. No photos of the sheep....

After dinner there was a lovely bonfire and we listened to the kookaburra sing. No stars because it's a full moon....

March 4, 2026: Milanesia Track to Moonlight Head - 8 miles, 2500 altitude increase.  Weather was great, but a bit hot out of the breeze.  This was supposedly the hardest day on this trip.   We skipped a bunch of the inland side of the walk - not sure how much we skipped, but supposedly it "wasn't interesting".

Along the way to the trailhead we saw a koala crossing the road.  They sure look funny when they are on the ground. We also drove by a grouping of kangaroos....

The hiking was undulating with nice views of the ocean.  It reminded me of the SW Coast Path. We stopped along the way for a tea break and had some wonderful AnZAC cookies - I wish I remembered to request the recipe....

Lunch was at a camp site and Andy got a leech that crawled onto him from the bench.  Lunch was quinoa salad, hummus and falafel.  (no photos)

After lunch we ended up stopping at a place where the sign said "no stopping"....

More undulating after lunch with a big uphill at the end.

Afternoon tea was scones with cream (and champagne)

Dinner was venison ragou and polenta with orange cake for desert - it was Andrew’s birthday yesterday so we all sang to him.

March 5, 2026 - Moonlight Head to Wreck Beach (second photo from left) and short walk through a ‘rain forest” to Anne’s Cascade (final 2 photos on right).  9 Miles, 1700 elevation gain.

Breakfast was a sort of huevos rancheros which I didn’t have, but there was a lovely guacamole sauce which I used to make avocado toast. (no photos).

We continued where we left off yesterday.

It was cold and windy when we left today.  We started with a 30 minute drive to the trail head. My clothing wasn’t totally dry from the wash last night and I was freezing while we were waiting for people to dink around.  Finally they let us go on our own to the start of our nature walk and I practically ran to try to warm up.  

Today's group photo (eye roll).

The next part of the walk was a bit like a nature quiet meditation walk through the forest on our own.  We did finally see/hear some cockatoos and parrots.  Other than that it wasn’t too spectacular, except for a very large crushed bug. 

The next part was walking down 200steps to the beach for a mile beach walk.  Amazing scenery.

We went to see the anchor of  the Fiji where 11 sailors were killed. They were buried in the cliff, above (see below).  Thankfully things had warmed up by then.

This whole area was very difficult to navigate and there were many ship wrecks, even after the lighthouses were built.

The surf was rather difficult to navigate and even thought it was low tide were in danger of getting wet feet if we didn’t time things correctly.  I ended up running along to beat the waves.

We had tea break at the beach and had some lovely brownies.  

After tea we walked back up into the hills, thankfully not up 200 steps.  Before lunch we went to see the Fiji monument (mentioned above).  

Lunch had a very nice drop toilet with a view of the sea. Here's the toilet from the beach.

After lunch we walked back to the car, about 50 minutes - along the side of the hills through a eucalyptus forest.

and drove over to the ”rain forest” at Melba Gully National Park. 

Frankly, I could have done without  this last hike.  The forest was nice, but not as nice as in Tasmania.  There was champagne

and quite a few tree ferns and a pleasant walk,

but on return we had to walk up quite a few stairs and my knees had had enough for the day.

Back to the lodge and another foot soak.  Our canapés were baked Brie, hummus and other nibbles.

I finally saw the wallaby with its large baby in its pouch. 

Dinner was roasted lamb, roasted asparagus and broccoli, roasted potatoes.  Desert was a meringue roll with a sorbet. No photos because phone was charging:(

The hiking was ”ok”, but the sea views were beautiful. 

March 6, 2026 - Last Day - Princetown to the Twelve Apostles.

We were to be packed up with luggage out by breakfast which was 6:30. Breakfast was a frittata and there are no photos because my phone was back charging:(

There was time for another group photo (eye roll). Dane (host) is in the bottom center of the photo....

Our hike started in a wetland area as we started towards the coast

The hike was generally undulating today with amazing views once we finally got to the coast (after 2 miles of boring scrub walking).

We saw some kangaroos along the way

and a blue tongued lizard

The view was as good behind as in front.

The Apostles finally came into view

Most people walk this from the 12 Apostles towards the lighthouse (we did it the opposite way). At the Apostle view before the visitor's center, there is a sign where we had another official photo of our feet....

A few more shots at this landmark

Next was a short drive to the Gibson Steps at Port Campbell National Park before heading over to the Visitor's Center. These steps were just re-opened last week. Our group almost a bad situation at the bottom of the Steps. The beach area is the only place to see 1 of the apostles from the beach level, so it's very interesting. The down side is that the surf can be a challenge as there are series' of rouge waves that can come up.

Kelly Anne asked Johmar to join Andrew for a photo. Andrew was below the high water mark (you already know what's coming). As Johmar we walking towards him, a wave came up and wiped out Andrew (Andrew is somewhere in the wave of the second photo). Johmar was able to "save" him and get him up on the beach. We were already walking up the stairs again when Bruce was running down the 100 or so stairs to try to help. I think by the time he was down the stairs, Andrew would have been far out to sea....

Then to the visitor's center where we saw the rest of the apostles

Then a short drive to the area where the wreck of the Loch Ard occurred. I'm surprised anyone survivied.

From here we started our return trip via lunch at a dairy. I had the tuna bagel and a malt milk shake for lunch (not to be confused with the US version - this was like milk with some malt in it - not thick at all)

Surprisingly they had many green bunnies

We made our same half way stop and the cockatoos were still there

We took a final group shot (eye roll) at the airport before Fiona, Courtney and Pierre flew off to Tasmania.

We went on to the Westin in Melbourne. We have a very nice room.

This is an F1 race weekend, so the town is mobbed. We had 2 McLarens parked in front of the hotel....

Tomorrow it's up for a very early flight to start the next phase of our trip - 3 months in New Zealand.