Twelve Apostles Lodge Women's Walk

Available by request for private groups

Our Women's Walks are guided by women and for women only groups.

Would you prefer to walk with a group of women? These departures provide a safe place for adventures and encourage the sharing of stories, laughter and challenges. They enourage the sharing of challenges that lead to enduring memories and friendships.

This is a journey on foot along the Great Ocean Walk from Castle Cove to the Twelve Apostles where everything is taken care of. We’ll show you the way, carry all the extras on our back and point out natural features along the way. We’ll supply sumptuous lunches to sustain you, daypacks and walking sticks, and cool lemonade at the end of each walk. Return each evening to our private eco-lodge, to soothing foot baths and nightly dinners complemented by local wines and beers.

For all enquiries and bookings please contact bookings@auswalkingco.com.au.

Journey on foot along the Great Ocean Walk from Castle Cove to the Twelve Apostles

Quick Facts

Tour Duration: 3 nights & 4 days.

Departs and returns: Mercure, Southbank, 9 Riverside Quay, Southbank Victoria.

Minimum Group Size: 5 guests.

Maximum Group Size: 10 guests.

Includes female guides (In the case of an emergency or illness, a male guide may need to be employed).

Includes: Accommodation, meals, local beer and wine and all transport

Vegetarian and vegan diets can be catered for. We offer menus featuring seasonal and fresh local produce.

The Twelve Apostles Lodge Walk

It doesn’t take long for the city sounds to fade on our four-day Twelve Apostles escape. In no time, find yourself sipping tea in our eco-lodge. We then hit the trail at Castle Cove, weaving through grass tree forest before dropping down to Johanna Beach. Bare feet are encouraged!

Each eve we retreat for chatter around the fire and sumptuous meals. Day two is the most challenging; Milanesia Track to Moonlight Head. Raw and wild, we venture through remote areas of the Great Ocean Walk, knowing a foot spa awaits at the day’s end. By day three, you’ll know shipwrecks by name. The final day is all about those glorious Apostles - walk beneath them and fly above them by chopper. You’ve made it!

Day 1: Castle Cove to Johanna Beach

Approximately 3 hours walking

Time to lace up in the ‘mud room’ and step out on track for day one. This is not before a lodge welcome and walk briefing over morning tea. It’s then a short drive out to Castle Cove to begin your walk, with a tasty hiker lunch tucked in your pack.

Today begins in the tea-trees with a few tantalising vistas out to the Southern Ocean. This will be your constant neighbour for the next four days. Enter a flawlessly-groomed grass tree forest and hear tales dating back 104 million years at Dinosaur Cove. Bring those boots to a halt and consider a time when dinosaurs occupied your very location.

Next, drop down onto Johanna Beach. This is an opportunity to kick off the boots and walk barefoot; wind-swept waves just metres away. This two-kilometre stretch has a knack of clearing busy minds and washing away city stresses. Take your own pace across sands frequented by hooded plovers.

At the end of the beach awaits your cool water and lemonade greeting, a constant across all four days.

Twelve Apostles Lodge Walk - Ken Spence Photography

Day 3: Moonlight Head to Princetown

Approximately 6.5 hours walking

Today is about shipwrecks, sandy pathways, exposed heathland and maybe even first glimpse of the Apostles. What better place to commence the walk and get your bearings than The Gables Lookout, one of Australia’s highest cliff-top vistas. After the challenging undulations of yesterday, day three is pleasantly less furrowed.

More than 300 ships have come to grief on this stretch of coastline. Your first stop is aptly named Wreck Beach. It’s a suitable reminder of those early days and treacherous ocean voyages. If conditions allow, you’ll drop down to Wreck Beach and hear tales of pillaging and misfortune including a ship which travelled from China whose cargo of tea coloured the ocean. Depending on the tide, an alternate route leads through to Devils Kitchen, home to arguably Australia’s best lavatory vista!

Following lunch, notice how the geology begins to change from sandstone to limestone. Thick Eucalypt forest gives way to sections of moonscape, indicators of what’s in store. Keep an eye out for native rosemary, cushion plants and wildflowers in season.

Your first glimpse of the Gellibrand River marks the entrance to Port Campbell National Park. This freshwater river near the sleepy hamlet of Princetown is an easy downhill stroll. After some 17 kilometres, reward yourself with a cooling river dip.

Day 2: Milanesia Track to Moonlight Head

Approximately 6.5 hours walking

Challenge delivers great reward. Wild, weathered headlands give the sense you’re at the world’s edge. Day two is your hardest day out on the track. But with it comes spectacular seascapes and personal triumph. Beginning at Milanesia Track, it covers some of the most remote sections of the Great Ocean Walk. This is your day of wild. Your day of rugged.

The ocean is your steadfast companion across 14.5 kilometres of rolling terrain today, beginning with a descent onto Milanesia Beach. Here, your guide will point out a ‘natural rock wall’ that would be the envy of any budding young climber. After a fleeting beach visit, it’s a short but bracing climb that whispers of inclines to come.

Over the next hours, the trail carves its way through deep gullies with tree ferns and towering remnant Eucalypts. There are 132 steps to ascend before trailing west out of the forest to Ryans Den. On suitable days, this is your lunch perch. The Den gifts with unsurpassed views across to Cape Volney and Cape Otway.

Further along, the trail, as it mimics the tumbles and rising of the coastline, keep an eye out for Cape Volney. There’s a bench that, if time allowed, could swallow hours. Heaving seas disappear into watery caves. Views west travel to the horizon’s edge. And the entire spectacle is framed by the forest.

Day 4: Princetown to the Twelve Apostles

Approximately 3 hours walking

Today invites new heights. Not only will you conquer the final steps of your Great Ocean Walk but top this with a 15-minute helicopter flight. Depart from the quiet shores of Princetown by the Gellibrand River, beginning with an easy 30 minute wander to reveal your first full view of the Apostles. Gasps aside, keep an eye out for two resident mobs of kangaroos across the hillsides to your right.

There’s a sense of elation today as you draw nearer to the mighty limestone Apostles. No, there’s not 12, which may come as no surprise. But amongst the proudly standing 7, lie 5 recently discovered apostles beneath the ocean’s surface. Weathered but not beaten, those in view lose a couple of centimetres each year to the perilous swells and winds whipping up from the Southern Ocean.

Drawing closer, hear the romantic tale of Tom and Eva. Tom, a gallant local who swam more than an hour to rescue Eva from the Loch Ard, perhaps Victoria’s best-known shipwreck. Of 63 on board, Eva was one of the lucky two to survive, whisked to a cave by Tom and ‘administered’ brandy to remain conscious.

The Apostles reveal gradually along this stretch, reappearing as the trail rises. There’s a viewing platform exclusive to walkers on the final stretch before your arrival at the Visitor Centre. It’s the official end to your walk and an appropriate locale to get cozy with the Apostles in a group snap.

If conditions permit, don’t miss the opportunity to descend 80-plus steps to the beach below. This final perspective gives a sense of the Apostles brooding heights, one 73-metres tall, nudging the equivalent of a 20-storey building. It’s here with sand under your boots, a sense of monumental achievement and wonder sets in.

Take to the skies to bid farewell with a 15-minute helicopter flight. Capturing the chiselled coastline from above gives scale not only to the Apostles but the trek you’ve completed. Follow this with a final lunch in the sleepy fishing town of Port Campbell before returning to Melbourne.

Exclusive Accommodation

True shelter, something that gives protection and refuge, simple and sustainable, clean and comfortable.

Our groups have exclusive use of our Twelve Apostles Lodge your forest hugged home just three hours from Melbourne.

The Twelve Apostles Lodge

At the end of a day out on track, the Twelve Apostles Lodge is a forest-hugged refuge three hours from Melbourne. This is where the foot spa awaits, rainforest showers, kitchen garden, dining room stocked with local wines, and your king bedroom with spacious en-suite.

The architectural-designed lodge has been crafted with environmental sensitivity in mind. This translates to passive solar design, hydronic heating, low consumption electric and water fittings, on-site wastewater treatment and composting, plus a self-sufficient water supply. And there’s a reason this eco-development is award-winning, delivering modern comforts with equal rigour. Expect Myrtle & Moss toiletries, hair dryers, library, mobile coverage (Telstra only).

What’s more, the lodge is exclusively yours. The only way to stay is to join one of our walks or trail runs. That means the moment you arrive, consider it home. Unpack your bags and get comfy. Five generous bedrooms can be converted to twin share or two single rooms depending on group requirements - all enjoying access to private en-suite bathrooms.

The dining room has a lounge area well-suited for canapes when the fire pit isn’t crackling with friend-huddling flames. After a glass of regional red, move to the long table for your nightly two-course regional menu.

Onsite you’ll also find 24-hour tea and coffee facilities, gear drying room, daily newspapers and a lodge library well stocked with magazines, reference and fictional books or ask about the lodge property walks. You’re not alone if you don’t stray far from the foot spa and dining table though!

*Alcoholic beverages are available in the lounge. These are included in your package. We stock a small selection of house and premium wines and locally brewed beers by the bottle. As an eco-accredited operator, we support local wine and beer

*One complimentary clothes wash (including soap) is included in your package, the Lodge Manager will explain how this is organised at your briefing on day one. Additional loads are charged to your tab to discourage excessive usage/environmental impact.