Great Ocean Road

When we 'did' the GOR we stayed at Peterborough for a few days and day tripped to various attractions. It does not matter which way you do it. Some of the parking areas are on the south side of the road and some on the north. It was easier doing that without having to worry about a van in tow. The light show at Warnambool, if it is still on, is worth an overnight stay somewhere on the GOR.

Hi Brian,

Re the GOR: the direction that you travel will depend on whether you want to be close to the edge or not! We did it west to east and very much enjoyed the drive although we did note that it would be easier (and safer) to get into some of the stopping bays if you were going east to west. We wrote a few blogs about our trip - have a look here.
While you are in that part of the world try to have a look at The Grampians (as best you can with a dog). Our blogs (including from another trip along the Murray) will also point you to some other spots worthy of a visit.

Cheers,

Val

You have picked the best time of the year to do this. We live near it.
You must be extremely careful of overseas drivers on the wrong side of the road!!!!! Driving E to W at sunset can be a hazard with these wrong side travelers.
Fires can be a worry.
Many of the waterfalls have nice camp grounds particularly Beauchamp. Not as much water though.
The Grampians are magic but at that time of the year Very fire prone, best in Autumn.
Pt. Campbell is a nice pace to stay. Far from free
Geelong Eastern beach is good safe swimming.
Keep your dog on a leash at all times.
Apollo Bay is a lovely beach but camp sites aren't free there. I think Marengo could be. I have some paperwork I could send you but it's fairly old from Parks Vic.
Contact the Geelong tourist place & the Apollo Bay one.
Lorne is nice this time of the year too.
Enjoy.
Take care, safe travels. Ma.

Hi Brian

It sounds like you have a great trip planned. Depending on how much time you have off, you will have many options and places to visit.

Now for your main question.....which way on the Great Ocean Road.

We have driven it many times over the year and seen just how much it has changed. I would recommend travelling from the east to west.....why you may ask......the Lookout.

All of the Tourist Lookouts are on the coast side and some are located on blind corners. I have seen a couple of very close calls when cars travelling east have crossed the white line to pull into the Lookout, only to see a car coming around the corner and a very close call indeed.

There are many was to get there and if you wanted to follow the coast, there are many options and make your way through to the Grampians and then back roads to the start of the Great Ocean Road.

As for other areas, there are some fantastic free camping locations at the bottom end of the Yorke bleep ula and now that the children are back at school, you will have the beaches all to your self.

Here are some images of some free camps with nothing between you and the beach.






Have a great time and you will be seeing some great country.


Cheers



Stephen

Johanna Red beach is a magnificent free camp spot just off the GOR. Turn off near Lavers Hill. Dogs are O.K. Plenty of sheltered camp sites along the track that parallels the beach.New toilets have been constructed.The road into Johanna is a good graded one suitable for any size caravans.To my knowledge there are not too many free camps along the GOR,this however is as good as it gets. Regards

We travelled the GOR last year from East to West in a caravan and found that most of the lookouts were on the ocean side and a big bonus was that if there was faster moving traffic we could edge into the off-road parking and allow them to overtake easily without us stopping and continue on our way. This allowed us to enjoy the trip without impeding others travelling on the road. If travelling the other direction I would not have liked to continually cross the road with a caravan as many times as we stopped to admire the scenery.