Just before the second wave of the Coronavirus hit the shores of Australia’s Surf Coast, we ventured down to start of the Great Ocean Road to watch the oceans’ waves roll in at Bells Beach.
Although we weren’t in the water, there were still plenty of decent surfers out there trying to enter the green room.
We had spent the last day visiting each beach in and around Torquay, which happens to be Australia’s surfing capital, so naturally when we woke up the day after, we felt like children of the ocean and Bells was on the agenda.
Bells Beach is just a few minutes down the road from Torquay. It’s known to produce some of the best waves on the planet, home to the Rip Curl World Championships of surfing and where at the end of Point Break, Bodie goes missing while trying to surf his dream wave and at the same time, never giving in to the authorities.
This time, we didn’t have our surfboards with us, but we had our Wolf that needed to stretch his legs, a good attitude and a sign that pointed to the Surf Coast Walk.
The Surf Coast Walk begins a little to the east of Torquay and ends at Fairhaven Beach, which is a little to the west of Aireys Inlet (around 30kms away). We could see that after about 8kms from Bells Southside Beach, the trail went past Point Addis, which is possibly the most spectacular place on the entire coastline.
Off we went.
The trail is dog friendly and well maintained. There are some small ups-and-downs in the elevation along the way, but you’ll remember this as a relaxing bush walk through some incredible coastal scenery, rather than a fitness challenge.
Surrounding the trail are Eucalyptus trees, Kangaroo Tails (plant) and loads of other special Australian native plants. The further you walk, the more varieties of the trees and plants you’ll be able to admire, often with views of the beautiful blue ocean behind the forest green.
The trail is near the coast the whole way, but sometimes it come slightly inland and there’s no sight of the ocean through the dense trees, then all of a sudden you’ll hear the crashing waves again be at the waters edge.
Although there are a lot of stunning ocean views along the walk, nothing is better than when trail arrives on top of a huge Sandstone cliff with views of the Point Addis beach and headland.
Once we finally reached Point Addis, there was small board walk and lookout that gave us views of cliffs we had just walked across to the east, then we could see out to Split Point Lighthouse with Lorne in the distance to the west.
Our beast was tired, so we put him in the back pack, went and got one last view of Point Addis and started the 8km walk back to the Bells Beach car park.
Like many great men have felt before, I was tired from my effort, although exhausted by knowing that Eva discovered that the Surf Coast Walk continues for 25kms past Point Addis and there’s no doubt that we’ll be back tomorrow to finish it off.
For another dog friendly day hike close to Melbourne, take a look at the Lake Elizabeth Loop in the Great Otway National Park.