Great Ocean Road Trip 2014

Day 1

Narre Warren - Torquay - Winkipop - Bells Beach - Anglesea - Aireys Inlet - Lorne - Apollo Bay (The Surf Coast)

Prelude:

Having survived the 2 previous stinking hot 43 degree days in Melbourne, our last day was a cool 23 degrees and just right to have lunch in Melbourne CBD and then catchup with friends in the afternoon. We went to a good old fashioned Drive In movie on our last night in Melbourne with Lauren and Aaron and family.

" Come on baby, surfin safari
Yes I'm gonna take you surfin with me"

We left Narre Warren at a very leisurely 10am for the trip through the outskirts of Melbourne heading towards Geelong and the start of the Great Ocean Road.
Our first stop was Torquay and we pulled into the Visitors Centre to hog as many car spots as we could as they didn't have any caravan parking! The Visitors Centre houses the Australian Surfing Museum which we were very keen to check out. It's a great museum full of all sorts of board styles - from the very first Duke style planks to experimental designs and even has Simon Anderson's first ever thruster and Layne's board she used when she won her 7th world title. There are so many boards in that place! I even found a Hot Buttered Terry Fitzgerald that is exactly the same era as the HB board I have at home! Lots of other stuff too. There is a Kombi split in half and kitted out in true surfer style, rashies that are signed, all sorts of wetsuits and a display of different surf waxes the kids found quite amusing. Waxes like Smurfs Poo and Griptonite , Hot Honey and the good old Mrs Palmers!
The museum also houses the Surfing Hall of Fame. Steph Gilmore was inducted last in 2013 as 5 time world champ.
From Torquay we drove along the coast straight to the Bells Beach Surfing reserve.

"The sea was rough that day my friends..."

A real howler of an onshore gale and choppy mess put paid to any attempt for us to get in the water at Bells or Winkipop. There was one diehard only out at Bells and a handful at Winki. High tide didn't help and they even threw in a few blueys to keep it interesting! The water temp was so nice though! Just crazy windy and rough.

We left Bells and drove through Anglesea and up to the lookout overlooking Point Roadknight and back onto the beach at Anglesea and back up the coast. The turquoise water was very different to Bells deep green.
From there it was onto Aireys Inlet where we managed to get onto narrow dirt roads and found some bush walking tracks that took us out onto the cliff edge and some spectacular views of the lighthouse at Split Point. The Disco and Van were far too big to drive to the lighthouse unfortunately - much to Corinne's disappointment and so we continued on towards Lorne.

There is a fair amount of money that has been ploughed into the design and building of the homes that line the hills around Fairhaven the next town from Aireys Inlet and with the view to match you can see why!

We stopped at the Memorial Arch to read about the biggest War Memorial in the world and it was from there that the road really gets interesting!
The road begins to twist and turn continually from Eastern View all the way to Lorne. We loved slaloming the Disco and Van through the tight turns and bends - you can only travel at 40-50ks with our rig anyway due to the sharpness of the cornering!

We also loved pulling into the turnouts to let other cars pass us as we got to see some spectacular views of the cliffs, road and turquoise waters that define the road. We climbed as high as 100m in some parts and were as low as the beach it seemed in others.

We twisted into Lorne and wanted to see and walk the suspension bridge that Lorne is famous for - but it has been completely removed for restoration and so we just walked the boardwalk and beach instead.
Lorne was extremely busy- people everywhere and it is now really developed into a tourist town. I was glad to be travelling thru!

From Lorne we continued our twisty slalom along the coast to Apollo Bay. We are staying for 2 nights here as a central base. This is where the Surf Coast part of the road ends.

We can explore the Otway Ranges and waterfalls and walks along this section back and forth van free over the next few days.

We are staying in the camping reserve just over the GOR from the beach.