26.10.2018 | Australia, Travel

Exploring the Great Ocean Road and Cape Otway Nationalpark

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Hey my loves, in this blog post I want to tell you everything about the Great Ocean Road from Warrnambool to Melbourne. It is absolutely possible to see most things on the Great Ocean in 1-2 days, if you would like to relax sometimes, you should plan 3 days. In general, the GOR is split into two parts. The road on the first part from Warrnambool to Lorne mostly leads through fields and rocks and you will hike short walks to the freestanding rocks and caves in the ocean. The second part from Lorne to Torquay is located directly next to the coast, as you might expect from this road. The road and the view are stunning, partly the road was about 5 meters above the ocean dug into the rocks. The road is 243 kilometers long and is pretty famous for its natural monuments and coastline views.

Meaning of the Great Ocean Road

Previous the fishing harbors weren´t attached, but rather be reached by ship. It was not without reason they called the coast “Shipwreck Coast”. Because of the high drift, the high waves and the fog many ships capsized. 1919 they first started with building the Great Ocean Road. About 3000 homecomings, unemployed soldiers from the first world war built the streets in the course of a job creation scheme and as a war memorial. Because of the high, crumbly rocks, building a road was pretty difficult and took a long time to finish. Only 13 years later they finished the project. Today the road is very touristic. Between Apollo Bay and Aires Inlet was the most beautiful and quiet part of the road with a wonderful ocean view!

Warrnambool and “Thunder Point”

The Great Ocean Road starts in Warrnambool. At the Thunder Point, we had a fantastic view over the ocean and the waves whipped in beautiful blue colors against the rocks. From the Thunder Point, you can choose between beautiful trails on boardwalks along the coast. Again and again, there were spectacular views between the rocks, although the ocean was pretty rough there. The Warrnambool aquarium also offered a great view!

Overnight Stay on the Great Ocean Road

At the very beginning, there was a free rest area near Warrnambool named “Panmure free Camping”. The camping area was located directly next to the street, but the noises were okay.

Allansford – the official start of the Great Ocean Road

Allansford is a little village, however, the famous road starts officially here. Along the little villages like Nirranda the road starts through fields in the interior. 1 Allansford: Start! 2. Bay of Islands: First stop was the Bay of Islands. You will walk along a hiking trail until you see four freestanding islands in the ocean. 3. Bay of Martyrs: At this location, the surge and the wind were very strong.   4. Grotto Scenic Lookout: Past the village Peterborough and you will see a grotto. Along with a trail and a few steps you reach the grotto with one of the most beautiful arches. Through the arch, you see the strong waves crashing against the rocks.   5. London Bridge/Arch: 1990 the arch broke between the two rocks. The rest of it maintained the position.   6. The Arche Lookout: You will see an arch from the top, where the ocean flushed the rocks.   7. Lookout Port Campbell Bay: Here you can take a short break, refuel your car and drink a coffee.   8. Loch-Ard-Gorge: At Razorback you see a pretty high disk of rock standing in the water. At the “Island Arch Lookout” are two big freestanding rocks in the ocean. And reaching the “Loch-Ard-Gorge” you can go down the steps to the bottom of a dripstone cave. Under the cave, I saw a little Lizard. From here you can continue the trail to the “Thunder Cave”, a cave with splashing water until you reach the “Broken Head”.  

9. The 12 Apostles

Then we arrived at the 12 Apostles, actually, only 8 of them are still existing, it was extremely touristic. Don´t know where all the people suddenly came from. Be the early bird! There was a gigantic car park with a lot of parking touristic buses. Continuously there were helicopters flying above our heads. The Apostel stood in a dense fog in the water looking very mystic. Along with a wooden bridge, you can walk next to the water on top of one freestanding rock.  

10. The Gipson Steps

The Gipson Steps are a lot of steps down to a beach behind the Apostel. Personally, I liked it a lot more than the actual Apostel viewpoint. Even though there was a lot of traffic on the steps, you can walk to the right side of the beach to the two freestanding rocks in the water, actually, there was no one else. They are looking at least as good as the Apostel.  

11. Cape Otway Nationalpark and the prettiest Rest area on our road trip

After this marathon of freestanding rocks and tourists, we looked after silence and nature. We found it in the Otway National Park. Along curved roads and jungle forests we drove to the campsite in the Otway National Park named “Air River East Campground”.  We were surrounded by massive fern, gigantic dripping trees, and a light fog. After passing the green smooth hills next to the ocean and a short gravel road we arrived at the campground. Already the way to the campsite was fantastic. You should look for koalas in the trees at the camp area! The area is located in the middle of the forest next to a lake and we were the only guests. However, there was no mobile net anyway :). The campsite is well known for the koalas and when we looked up to the trees in the next morning, we actually saw 2 koalas sitting in the trees and swinging in the wind. The next day we drove to the Cape Otway lighthouse. Unfortunately, the entrance fee was very expensive (per person 20 Aus Dollar). The free trail at the information doesn´t lead to the ocean! Luckily a secret trail, before you reach the lighthouse, offers you a free look on the lighthouse and ocean.

12. “Mails Rest Rainforest Walk”

This hiking trail through the jungle was my absolute favorite and I would highly recommend it! It was extremely beautiful! You will need about 30 minutes for the trail, meanwhile, you will see huge fern and enormous eucalyptus trees (up to 100 meters high). It is perfect to get a feeling for nature at this place. The way leads over bridges and boardwalks and the light drizzle in the morning made the jungle to a foggy dream.   13. Apollo Bay Apollo Bay is a little touristic village offering surfing classes at the beaches. I highly recommend the “Rar Bar”, they had tasty granola bowls! From here to Torquay the Great Ocean Road became even more beautiful because the street is located directly next to the ocean and partly passes a few meters above the sea buried into the rocks.   14. Kennett River Kennet River is perfect for doing a little picnic with a great view over the ocean. We just talked with two nice Australian people when we saw a little sweet seal on the beach. It was waddling back and forth.   15. Lorne If you are looking for cool surf shops or surf clothes, you should visit the surfer shop “Ghanda”. We shopped a few pretty things 🙂  

16. Bells Beach and surfing in Torquay

Bells Beach is pretty cool and famous for professional surfing competitions worldwide. The waves are extremely high and you will find extremely good surfers pretty everywhere in the water as well as a lot of viewers on the viewpoints. Torquay is all about surfing, a typical surfer town on the Australian coast. We spent our evening with a lot of locals in the “Philologe” restaurant, a crazy modern ramen restaurant. We slept at the Torquay Holiday Park. The next day we discovered the big Rip Curl, Billabong, Quicksilver and Roxy outlets.   Then we absolutely wanted to go surfing and inside the fresh water. We got our equipment at the best surf school 🙂 of Torquay “Torquay Surf Academie” from Gally Galbraight and his sweet surfer dog Reemie. A few years ago Gally was a competitive surfer as well and trained big surf stars. Because the last surf group was already in the water, uncomplicated as Australian people are, he gave us all the necessary things and told us about the important things in his beautiful surf shop. He was very relaxed and cool. Reemie, the dog, always lay down on our surfboards when we did dry practice. The dog was used to surf with Gally on one surfboard!  Are you interested in the surf basics? Then I will write a separate blog post about that. We got a thick 4 mm neoprene, changed in the back of the store, and went with the surfboards under our arms barefoot to the beach, recommended by Gally ;). The waves were pretty high and it wasn´t easy to stay on the board and not being overrun by the waves. We lay flat on the board and shift the weight to the knees so that the wave can flow through under your belly. With this technic, you will stay on your board while paddling offshore. There were at least 30 surfers, a lot of beginners and the advanced slightly further out. After a while, I could surf waves for a short time. You will learn fastly! Surfing is an Australian social sport as well, most people use it for small talk sitting on their boards far out on the water.  Back at the surf shop, we were pretty exhausted, however, we talked with Gally for some time. We stayed at the “Bird View Point” near the Jan Juc beach hearing the sounds of the ocean. But be careful! At 7:30 am a ranger controlled the parking space, luckily we were already got up and packed everything, therefore he couldn´t say something. The view over the ocean was extremely beautiful!  

 Surf Museum Torquay

I highly recommend the surf museum in Torquay! They show all the information about the beginnings of surfing in Hawaii and Australia, also they have old boards and pictures of the first surfing women. They showed pictures and movies of the professionals nowadays.  

Roadtrip in the direction to Melbourne

We then drove in the direction to Melbourne crossing Geelong. Because Melbourne is a traffic chaos you should plan a little time.   *** Dieser Artikel enthält Werbung, da Marken genannt werden.