Great Ocean Walk Day 2: Shelly Beach to Blanket Bay

Remember yesterday when I said it just wasn’t our day to see koalas? Well, today was our day.

Our driver this morning coached us on what to watch for — green pellets on the trail and little furry blobs way up high in the canopy. She was right on both counts.

Within minutes of hitting the trail, we spotted the telltale signs, and Bob picked out the first gray furry blob.

Once you know what you’re looking for, they seem to appear everywhere. We spent most of the morning with our necks craned upward.

Today’s route was almost entirely inland on old logging roads. After passing through a towering, wonderfully aromatic eucalyptus grove (full of koalas), we entered a forest of mountain ash — truly gigantic trees, some reaching 250 feet tall.

The only tree in the world that grows taller than the mountain ash is the California redwood.

Fun fact: Mountain ash trees shed their bark in long, dramatic ribbons. And know what those ribbons look like once they’ve fallen to the ground and started to decay? Snakes. We’ve already been warned about several species to watch for on the trail, so every curling strip of bark had us doing a double-take. No actual snakes so far — but plenty of false alarms today.

More of those enormous ferns today. We battle with their tiny cousin in our garden back home!

Nine miles later, we arrived at Blanket Bay, the end of today’s walk.

While we relaxed and waited for our pickup, the day had one more surprise in store: a wallaby, chomping on some grass in the brush near the beach. He wasn’t concerned about us in the least!

For the next several days, we’ll be based at Chi Farm, a very remote B&B near our trail. Our friendly hosts take a unique hands off approach to feeding their guests, where they stock our in suite fridge with a gorgeous spread for dinner and breakfast and sack lunch for the next day. We heat dinner in our room whenever we’re ready to eat. No timetable for getting to dinner - it’s great!

Tonight’s delicious meal included homemade focaccia, beef and lentil lasagna, a homegrown salad, and espresso brownies with ice cream. A gorgeous meal!

We wrapped up the day relaxing in our suite and watching Australian Rugby League