2026 Great South West Walk
Portland Temperatures
In choosing to do the Great South West Walk we could have chosen any time of the year but the key factors in our decision included Gill being able to get leave from her work, and my plans to do additional walks later in the year so Autumn looked like the best choice. We also tried to avoid school holidays and this includes Easter as it means that there will be less traffic on the road and potentially less people on the trail.
We were originally looking at the last half of March however the daily temperatures were still a bit hot for our liking, in fact as I write wrote post 24 March 2026, the forecast for Portland Victoria (trail head) was 25 ℃ but by pushing the start date back a month the max/min temperatures drop a couple of degrees to a more reasonable level with night time temperatures being around 12℃. In addition the rainfall days bump up a bit but is still out of the winter peak so overall we are still happy with the weather patterns. So what it came down to time wise was Mid-late April which is when we are starting our walk.
Distance wise this walk will be the biggest walk that I have done in a number of years and given I will be just on 12 month post hip replacement I wanted to take it ‘easy’. By easy I mean not trying to do 30+km days. On this particular walk you are covering either 251km or 263km depending on which option you choose along the southern half of the walk and we have opted for the 263km version which will, if things aren’t going well, allow us to change to the shorter distance and in doing so save a day. We have scheduled in a rest day in Nelson to allow time for us to physically recuperate and to finalise and publish the first on trail podcast episodes for this trail. For those days that we are on trail we will be averaging 19km/day.
Note: We are paying close attention to whats happening in the Middle East at the moment as we will have a 1000km drive to and from the trailhead so we need to be able to purchase petrol to get us there and home! I haven’t gone as far as identifying an alternative walk but it’s in the back of my mind just in case.
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Over the past few weeks I have sorted out most of the accomodation for this walk with includes hotel/motel accomodation in Portland (Victoria) on the night before we start the walk as well as accomodation on the last night before driving home the next day. We will also do hotel/motel accomodation in Nelson on the nights of day 7 and 8 just a tad over half way at just over 133km into the trip arriving towards the days end. This will provide a full rest day to take a break, finalise and publish the podcast, and wash our clothes. The remainder of the accomodation, 11 nights, will be camping. The campsite bookings are mainly (9 nights) through the Parks Victoria website and at the time of doing this walk (April/May 2026) the was cost $12.80 in total for the two of us each night. Two of those nights were booked directly through the Great South West Walk website and these sites don’t attract any charge.
As part of the accomodation booking we needed to decide which direction we were going to travel on this loop trail. There is nothing stopping you from walking clockwise or anticlockwise however the recommendation is to do this walk in an anticlockwise direction at our chosen time of the year as this direction minimises the impacts of the prevailing winds and provides the best views of the coastal cliffs towards the end of the walk. If doing the walk in summer, the recommendation changes to clockwise, again because of the seasonal winds. In our case we opted for the anticlockwise direction mainly because there is an option to shorten the track by 1 day depending on which option you choose. While we are planning on doing the longer walk, if things aren’t going to plan and we are running behind, we can always do the shorter route to pick up a day.
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It’s time again to get back into doing some long distance hikes (over 100km) after three years break away from this style of hiking and in 2026, I have two walks planned with the first being what I consider to be a ‘test walk’. When I say test walk, I mean a walk that challenges my fitness without being excessive.
Our first walk of choice is the 262km Great South West Walk (GSWW) in southwestern Victoria. The GSWW really hadn’t been on our radar but in looking at my long distance hiking over the coming years I cast my net broadly and came up with several walks that I hadn’t previously considered.
Yes, I know that this is a long distance and originally, I was looking at the 164km Grampians Peak Trail, also in Victoria (now scheduled for 2027), and while the GSSW is 102km longer the duration of this walk is only a couple of days difference and in the end three things decided our choice.
Firstly, Gill decided that her preference was the GSSW, and secondly this walk, while no means ‘easy’, has fewer challenging sections (rock scrambling) which was a big factor for me given I had a hip replacement in 2025 and am still testing my limits and abilities. And finally, we have two preferred hiking environments, arid and coastal, and this walk ticks the box on the coastal side.
When I walked the Bibbulmun Track in 2018 I averaged 32km/day with my biggest day being 44km. This time round our daily walking average will be 19km with the biggest planned day being around 29km (but this is on the easier second of the trail) so from that respect ‘we’re taking it easy’.
I’m pretty much in planning mode at the moment, working out all the logistics of this trip, accommodation, getting to and from the trail head, food, gear choices, and all those other considerations that need to be managed as we go.
We look forward updating you on this walk as we get closer to our planned start date and this section of our website will take you through the lead in process, highlighting how we are preparing and what we are thinking. Wherever possible we will be releasing daily posts on the trail once we start walking, although some days may be delayed pending available phone/internet access.
It’s time again to get back into doing some long distance hikes (over 100km) after three years break away from this style of hiking and in 2026, I have two walks planned with the first being what I consider to be a ‘test walk’. When I say test walk, I mean a walk that challenges […]