Great Ocean Road (GOR)

Welcome back and hi to all the new readers

I’ve just finished The Great Ocean Road – a 243km long road in the state of Victoria stretching from Allansford in the West to Torquay in the East showing off a magnificent coastline!

Yes, 240km is a short drive, especially for Australian standards 😀

Let me tell you though, a stretch of 1.5 hrs took me a good 10 hrs! Yes this is due to me being me, haha. I literally stopped everywhere and walked all the lookouts etc because I like to do it thoroughly, as I never know when I will be back.

Little secret – I did the GOR 13y ago, BUT, this time I saw so much I haven’t seen last time! As the Aussies say, you can do the loop (travelling the whole coastline of Australia) 5 times and you still haven’t seen it all! It’s true!

Of course I have done the very frequented, touristy and (at least in peak season) very crowded famous spots you would have heard of or read about already: The Bay of Martyrs, Massacre Bay, The Grotto, London Bridge, The Arch, Loch Ard, Twelve Apostles, Gibson Steps, … Even if you avoid touristy places, they are all worth visiting! Just plan it right. If you are travelling in peak season (Christmas until end of January), get up early!! If you are visiting outside the school holidays, take your time.

Anyway, you are not here to read it all again. There are plenty informations on the net about the above.

You want to go where its not mapped out on every page, right?

So for starters, I went to Childers Cove, Sandy Cove and Stanhope Bay – there are no real turn off signs for these, I found them by using the camping app everyone uses in Australia. Absolutely stunning views and obviously not as packed (its school holidays) as they are not on the normal schedule.

I visited Antares Shipwreck and Bay of Islands along tracks that look like they haven’t been used in decades. You need good clearance on your vehicle to do them but its well worth the bumpy roads – short, but full of potholes, or is it the rabbits?

Then the absolute highlight for me this time was the Otway National Park – yes, you do see turn offs to that along the GOR, but its way off the GOR. I didn’t even realise there is such a vast area on the GOR I completely missed the first time. And despite being in the peak holiday season, I barely saw anyone on the visits to Wreck Beach and the Gables. The beach was amazing – be there well before high tide so you can see and walk to the Anchors of lost ships. The coastline there is rough and beautiful and: empty!

I stayed at Bimbi, a very big caravan park in the bush of Otway National Park. Yes, it was very full! They do have bushcamp sections though where you still can park up and not being crammed in as usual. I’ve seen the most Koala’s and enjoyed being out in the bush. Very much suggest staying there if you explore that region. A short drive from there is the lighthouse. You can pay $22 each to visit the lighthouse and the surrounding buildings or opt for the free bushwalk which gives you faraway views of the lighthouse – that was my pick, but I’ve seen enough lighthouses close up 😉

If you use a hiking app you will see that there is an abundance of hikes all around the place along the GOR.