Great Ocean Walk Day 5 – Ryans Den to Devils Kitchen

First, I would like to acknowledge both the Eastern Maar peoples and the Wadawurrung peoples of the Kulin Nations as the traditional owners of the Great Otway National Park. I want to pay my respects to the past, present and any Indigenous people among us today. I also want to acknowledge that I have profited and benefited from stolen land and that Indigenous people were never ceded sovereignty. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri peoples of, Naarm, where I sit and write this blog and would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the many lands my readers come from.

We woke up very sore yet extremely proud of ourselves for digging deep the day before and smashing out a 28km hike. We chose to have a slower morning and enjoyed yoga and breakfast at the lookout before the days hike of 13kms. Ryan’s Den was by far our favorite spot of the GOW so far and we didn’t want to leave. The hike from Ryan’s Den to Devils Kitchen was mostly inland until we got to Wreck Beach where you could choose to trek along the beach and then back inland and around to devils kitchen or stay on the more direct inland route. If you were to do this trek as a day walk you could start from the car access at Ryans Den Track 1km before Ryans Den Hike-In Campground. Then hike until the Gable Car Park (10km) or the Wreck Beach Car Park (11km) which means you don’t quite make it to Devils Kitchen Hike-In Campground unless you hike all the way there and back, adding 5km to the 11km hike.

The first 4.8km of the inland trail was directly above the ocean on the steep cliffline. After this the trail turned abruptly north and we were technically outside of the Great Otway National Park here we trekked along an access road for 600m before reentering the National Park and travelling west. We were inundated by flys for this short 600m, due to it being so close to farmland and the farm animals there, we were overjoyed to make our way back inside the national park. A lot of this section of the Great Ocean Walk trail is on platforms and involves many boot cleaners. It seemed to be newly constructed and I imagine this is due to the Cinnamon Fungus prevention.

The rest of the walk included a few man made catching features such as the car parks and boot cleaning stations. This helped us with our motivation loss due to the fatigue that a multi-day trip involves by day 5. Each time we passed a ‘checkpoint’ we knew we were that much closer. We chose to walk down the wooden planks to Wreck Beach for morning tea. We left our packs in the bushes at the top of the ‘stairs’ and enjoyed the lighter feeling for the beach scramble. If you do choose to walk along this beach continue to be aware of the tide times due to no inland track exits past this point. I have heard there is some interesting history of the shipwrecks along this beach and various anchors to find. I am sure it is definitely worth a visit. Then we passed the Wreck Beach Carpark and knew we only had 2.6km left until Devil’s Kitchen Hike-In Campground.

Arrival at Devils Kitchen was well deserved, we chose a nice large flat campsite to setup and explored the area. This campsite had the best loo with a view by far out of the entire GOW. We also found a lovely lookout perfect for watching the sunset. We refilled our water bladders and setup monopoly deal inside the group shelter here. After dinner we watched the sunset before crawling into our tents hoping for a long sleep before the final trek out in the morning.

Trail Name	Great Ocean Walk – Ryans Den to Devils Kitchen Hike-In Campground
Distance	13km
Estimated Time	5hrs
Grade	4
Type	One Way – East to West
Park	Great Otway National Park
Access	Hike-in only (2WD access from ??)