The Great Ocean Road, Victoria
The Great Ocean Road along Victoria's south western coastline is often voted one of the best scenic drives in the world.
Apart from beautiful scenery, the world-famous surf breaks, and multiple friendly fun-filled coastal holiday towns you will see “The Twelve Apostles”, a series of massive natural limestone stacks standing just off shore in the Port Campbell National Park.
There are now only eight of the outcrops left because they continue to be eroded by the pounding waves of the southern ocean which comes unabated from the South Pole. While it is a popular tourist attraction and the site of many a marriage proposal, this region of the coast it littered with ship wrecks and on a cold and windy day one can really experience the awesome power of Mother Nature. These outcrops continue to erode and crash into the ocean, to this is a ‘must do’ while there are still some standing.
Bitumen that snakes its way around cliffs and stunning sea vistas make the heritage-listed Great Ocean Road in Victoria a must-do drive.
Understandably, it's also on every tourist's list - about eight million people visited it each year, which is why there are so many signs reminding drivers that Australians drive on the left side of the road. Not confidence inspiring - and there's a solid police presence to enforce the 80km/h speed limit.
Cyclists insist on masochistic rides here too, sometimes making this the motoring equivalent of a scenic stroll rather than an all-out automotive assault.
That being the case, it pays to reward the passengers by stopping at some of the idyllic coastal towns.
The 243km stretch officially starts at Torquay, the site of the annual Bells Beach surfing contest and the origin of the Billabong and Rip Curl brands synonymous with the surfie subculture.
Aireys Inlet is worth a stop if there are kids in the car. The Split Point Lighthouse is the home of the Round The Twist TV series and the views from the 70m clifftop - where the white stone beacon is perched - are out of this world.
Back on the road and Lorne beckons, but spare a thought for the returned World War I Diggers who lived up to their nickname by hewing the road from the cliffs with shovels and pickaxes between 1919 and 1932.
It rates as one of the great engineering feats and is the world's longest war memorial.
A 10km detour at Lorne will take visitors to the Erskine Falls, a 30m cascade set amid massive ferns and temperate rainforest.
Apart from beautiful scenery, the world-famous surf breaks, and multiple friendly fun-filled coastal holiday towns you will see “The Twelve Apostles”, a series of massive natural limestone stacks standing just off shore in the Port Campbell National Park.
There are now only eight of the outcrops left because they continue to be eroded by the pounding waves of the southern ocean which comes unabated from the South Pole. While it is a popular tourist attraction and the site of many a marriage proposal, this region of the coast it littered with ship wrecks and on a cold and windy day one can really experience the awesome power of Mother Nature. These outcrops continue to erode and crash into the ocean, to this is a ‘must do’ while there are still some standing.
Bitumen that snakes its way around cliffs and stunning sea vistas make the heritage-listed Great Ocean Road in Victoria a must-do drive.
Understandably, it's also on every tourist's list - about eight million people visited it each year, which is why there are so many signs reminding drivers that Australians drive on the left side of the road. Not confidence inspiring - and there's a solid police presence to enforce the 80km/h speed limit.
Cyclists insist on masochistic rides here too, sometimes making this the motoring equivalent of a scenic stroll rather than an all-out automotive assault.
That being the case, it pays to reward the passengers by stopping at some of the idyllic coastal towns.
The 243km stretch officially starts at Torquay, the site of the annual Bells Beach surfing contest and the origin of the Billabong and Rip Curl brands synonymous with the surfie subculture.
Aireys Inlet is worth a stop if there are kids in the car. The Split Point Lighthouse is the home of the Round The Twist TV series and the views from the 70m clifftop - where the white stone beacon is perched - are out of this world.
Back on the road and Lorne beckons, but spare a thought for the returned World War I Diggers who lived up to their nickname by hewing the road from the cliffs with shovels and pickaxes between 1919 and 1932.
It rates as one of the great engineering feats and is the world's longest war memorial.
A 10km detour at Lorne will take visitors to the Erskine Falls, a 30m cascade set amid massive ferns and temperate rainforest.
BELL'S BEACH, 2018
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ERSKINE FALLS - PHOTO BY ANNABELLE CLARE
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Apollo Bay is the next destination - and the entrance to the Great Otway National Park, where you can figuratively get lost bushwalking, mountain bike riding or just lying back and indulging in down time. It is also where the road leaves the cliffs overlooking Bass Strait, but the inland run offers some of the best corners of the stretch. Drivers smart enough to give themselves some room from the vehicles ahead can genuinely have fun on this twisty section without breaking the speed limit.
The road returns to the sea at Princetown and passes the Twelve Apostles on the run to Port Campbell. There are only eight left, as the waves erode up to 2cm of the limestone stacks each year, but they still rate as one of Victoria's most popular tourist destinations.
Technically there's still another 55km of the Great Ocean Road to travel before it officially ends at Allansford, just out of Warrnambool.
A better route for Victorian-based drivers is to head inland on the Port Campbell Rd (C164) until it hits the Hamilton Highway. Another route less travelled is to backtrack to Lavers Hill and take the Beech Forest-Lavers Rd (C155) run to the Princess Highway.
Both are tidy, twisty bits of tarmac that run through forests and farms that will have the biggest petrolhead showing some appreciation for nature.
The road returns to the sea at Princetown and passes the Twelve Apostles on the run to Port Campbell. There are only eight left, as the waves erode up to 2cm of the limestone stacks each year, but they still rate as one of Victoria's most popular tourist destinations.
Technically there's still another 55km of the Great Ocean Road to travel before it officially ends at Allansford, just out of Warrnambool.
A better route for Victorian-based drivers is to head inland on the Port Campbell Rd (C164) until it hits the Hamilton Highway. Another route less travelled is to backtrack to Lavers Hill and take the Beech Forest-Lavers Rd (C155) run to the Princess Highway.
Both are tidy, twisty bits of tarmac that run through forests and farms that will have the biggest petrolhead showing some appreciation for nature.