The Great Ocean Road 

Posted on by eandbfarfromhome

10th January 17 – 16th January  17 

Following the recommendation of some friends who went travelling last year (thanks Becki and Chris) we decided to rent a camper-van for this part of the trip as they advised it would give us greater freedom to explore – they were right! Luckily they also warned us about the size of the van. By the end of the week, we had grown very fond of the Hipper Camper we affectionately named ‘Ned’ after the Australian love or loathe figure Ned Kelly, however driving, living and sleeping in something so small was challenging at times!

What we particularly liked about Ned was his masculine paint job, the fact he’d only got 397,000km on the clock and he did 0-60mph in about 2 minutes.

We allocated a week for the Great Ocean Road and retrospectively we feel this is more than enough time to do it justice. The distances between each of the key towns are not as far as you would think. 

Our route consisted of the following: 

  • Melbourne to Torquay (via a stop at Geelong) – we used Torquay for our base for 2 nights 
  • Torquay to Queenscliff (day trip)
  • Torquay to Lorne (we camped at Lorne one night) 
  • Lorne to Cape Otway (we used Cape Otway for our base for 3 nights as it was a central location to travel from) 
  • Cape Otway to Port Fairy (day trip)
  • Cape Otway and surrounding area (day trip) 
  • Cape Otway back to Melbourne 

Highlights from the trip (in no particular order):

  • The lovely little seaside towns of Queenscliff and Lorne 
  • Surfing in Torquay, the Australian home of the surf (we blew the budget on a surf lesson but it was totally worth it!)


    • Seeing Koalas and Wallabies out in their natural habitat at Camp Otway (including a baby Koala – so cute)


      • The amazing scenery, it changes the further down the coast you go, from dry grassland, ocean views to rainforests 
      • Seeing the Split Point Lighthouse, used in the filming of the classic kids TV show ‘Round the Twist’

      • Treetop walk through the rainforest – another suggestion from Becki and Chris 



      • Seeing the 12 Apostles (I had to pinch myself to believe I was so fortunate to see such an iconic location in real life)  


        Note of warning – if you plan to do the Great Ocean Road during the Australian school summer holidays which we did (by accident) then you will need to pre-book campsites as they were almost all fully booked by the time we arrived. In addition don’t have high expectations! I’ve camped a lot in the UK, been a Scout, done my Duke of Edinburgh Award and survived Glasto (3 times) but even I wasn’t prepared for how basic some of the sites were for the price you pay – one of them looked like it could be the set for a post-apocalyptic film!  

        Even though camping in Oz isn’t for the faint hearted (I was on high alert for snakes, spiders and all sorts of other critters the whole time) we still really enjoyed the experience, for the views and wildlife more than anything, and we recommend you put this road trip on your bucket list (just make sure you have a good playlist and a torch). 

        Next stop, Sydney…

        (Posted by Em)

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