This is my favourite day-trip from Melbourne. The Great Ocean Road is just a 2-4 hour drive from Melbourne, depending on how often you want to stop to enjoy the scenery. It can easily be made shorter or longer depending on where you plan to visit, but it runs from Torquay to Warrnambool. There is plenty to see and do along the way, and I certainly haven't exhausted all of the options in the trips I've taken down this road. You could easily spend a few days or even a week exploring this area, or relaxing at a beach house or cabin by the coast.
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| 12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road |
When it comes to planning a trip, weather can be very unpredictable on the south coast. There's a number of times that I have departed Melbourne on a sunny, warm morning, to find the south coast to be overcast or raining and with a biting antarctic wind (yes, in summer too!). My most recent trip was the first time I have seen beautiful clear skies and warm weather for this road, around Australia day weekend.
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| Great Ocean Road |
Let's begin!
Torquay is the gateway to the Great Ocean Road, all you need to do leaving Melbourne is follow road signs to Geelong and then Torquay, and you'll be starting the beautiful drive in about 1.5 - 2 hours. I've never really bothered to stop in this town so I can't comment too much about it.
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| One of the 12 Apostles |
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| Koala at the Great Otway National Park |
The next major town you'll pass is Lorne, where you can stop for a snack or even for the night if you want to relax by the beach the rest of the day. My favourite town to stop is Apollo Bay. The town has some touristy restaurants and beach stores, and not only a spectacular beach but an extensive rock pool coast. It's also a gateway to the Great Otway National Park, which beyond being a beautiful park to drive through, has a lighthouse to view the coast from, and there are heaps of koalas in the forest if you drive the smaller roads and keep an eye out. I mean, who comes to Australia and doesn't hope to see a koala?
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| View from within the Otway lighthouse |
My first experience at Apollo Bay, was camping, and I'll use this to illustrate how strong the cold winds can get on the coast. We went on a family camping trip, and there was a storm that night. The tent walls were billowing in around us, and we had to reinforce the tent with additional pegs. While doing this, we saw someone else leave their tent to take refuge at the camping facilities. Their tent blew away. This was ages ago of course, probably before 1998. The moral is, bring a windbreaker, even if the weather looks like it'll be fine.
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| An Aussie Shepherd selling the Apollo Bay scenery |
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| London Arch, Great Ocean Road |
The stretch between Princetown and Peterborough is where you will find most of the popular rock formations of the area. A caution, is that most require that you leave any pets in the car. On a hot day, I wouldn't be comfortable to leave my dog in the car to check out these sites, as I experienced on one of these trips. To see the formations, most require a 5-10 minute walk just to get there and back from the car park.
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| Port Fairy beach |
By the time you get to that region, of course it is worth stopping to check out each of the rock formations along the coast. Keep an eye out for signs, because while the Twelve Apostles are the most popular tourist site, it's really easy to drive right past them!
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| 12 Apostles |
From Peterborough, you can choose to take the coast or the inland route back home (probably inland if you're doing this as a day trip, it's a long drive both ways!). If taking an alternative route one direction, I'd recommend driving the Great Ocean Road towards west, so that being on the left side of the road, you will be driving as close to the coast as possible.
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Port Fairy beach
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Pop into one of the many tourist information centres for more ideas of what to see in this region. Following the Great Ocean Road, you can also continue your journey west to Warrnambool, Mount Gambier (I love this town but I'll get into that later), and Adelaide.
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| Great Ocean Road |
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