Great Ocean Road & Otways, Geelong

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Geelong to the Great Ocean Road
One part of living in Victoria that I love is our beaches, and the history of those beaches. Along the Great Ocean Road there are numerous places where many ships and mariners died off the coast in the 18th and 19th Century. Warnambool is a particularly good place to go to find out about all things maritime (Check out http://www.flagstaffhill.com/#).

Other places to see on the Great Ocean Road: Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge and the 12 Apostles.

Towns or places to check out, between Geelong and the Great Ocean Road: Queenscliff, Point Lonsdale, Torquay, Bells Beach, Apollo Bay, Lorne and Port Campbell. All have good beaches.

Or if you are looking to move away from the beach and into a bit of nature - go to the Otways. The Otways National Park is a great place to enjoy bushwalking, see waterfalls and amazing views of the coast along the Great Ocean Road. It goes from Apollo Bay to Princetown, see the website below for more details.

*The photos for this tip were taken at the main beach at Pt Lonsdale near the lighthouse*

Torquay faces Bass Strait and is the gateway to the Great Ocean Road. The area is famous for its surf beaches with Jan Juc and the world renowned Bells Beach which is located at the southern end of the town. Only 21 km. south of Geelong.

This Billabong (little pond) is located quite deep in the rainforest, at the end of a quite rough gravel road beyond the town of Colac, around Beech Forest (the lake is poorly signposted and even with a map we struggled to find it because the road isn't labelled till you're several kms down it, but it's well worth the effort to find). This place is not on the Great Ocean Rd, but on the way to it.

There is free camping here, and even facilities provided (quite unusual) and looks a great place to try out...we were only here a short while but saw yellow robins, parrots and lots of other birdlife. We took the short walk to the Billabong, but didn't have time to go further. Another hour's walk or so will bring you to Lake Elizabeth itself, a large lake which contains many platypus (and canoe tours to see them are conducted here)

Johanna beach is situated on the Great Ocean Road between The Twelve Apostles and Apollo Bay. It's a back-up surfing championship beach for the famous Bells Beach at Torquay, though I'd never heard of Johanna before.

It was a great spot to camp and a bonus was seeing 2 endangered species little Plovers (only 600 or so left in Austalia) running across the beach so fast you could hardly see their legs move. Rather funny to watch - like they were on wheels (but still no match for a wily fox, their main predator)

Moonlight Head is a pretty spot we discovered quite by accident by choosing a random spot on our map that sounded romantic. It was well worth the gravel road drive 'off the beaten track' to get there. There are at least two walks you can take from the clifftop.

It's just some kms east of the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road.

Who can miss the main attractions of the Great OCean Road?? They are the 12 Apostles, infact theres only 10 left,and their eroding away quickly, so get your bottom over here soon!

Along The 'GREAT OCEAN ROAD' there are many hidden cliff-faces, and water-ways that are just so Beautiful to look at...hoenstly you can stare at them all day.

Many are so attatched with the views of the Great Ocean road that they forget they pass two National parks, this is Otway Forest National Park, dont miss it!