CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
The coastal section from Torquay to Apollo Bay is the part riders come for: the road runs on a ledge between cliff and surf with bend after bend. Inland through the Otways it turns green and technical. Go midweek - this is one of Australia's busiest tourist roads and the viewpoint car parks fill early.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 24 km this is Great Ocean Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Torquay is where the Great Ocean Road begins, or ends, depending on which way you ride. It is a town of about thirteen thousand people on the edge of Bass Strait, and it has a reputation that has little to do with motorcycles: this is the capital of Australian surfing. Bells Beach, a few minutes down the coast, hosts one of the world's oldest surf competitions, held every Easter, and the town gave birth to brands such as Rip Curl and Quiksilver that have since gone global. Surf World, the museum in town, tells the story with boards, photographs and a lot of sun-bleached nostalgia.
Read the complete Torquay write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Torquay is where the day begins. Next is Lorne.
Lorne is where the Great Ocean Road stops being a seaside drive and starts behaving like a mountain road. The town sits on Louttit Bay with the Otway Ranges standing right behind it, steep and thick with eucalypt, tree ferns and the odd waterfall. About twelve hundred people live here, a number that swells enormously in the Australian summer holidays, when Melbourne decamps to the beach and the main street fills with surfboards and ice cream.
Read the complete Lorne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lorne is where this day stops to eat. Next is Apollo Bay.
Apollo Bay is where the Great Ocean Road stops being a headline and starts being a town. It sits in a curve of bay on the south coast of Victoria, with the forested Otway Ranges standing directly behind and Bass Strait rolling in from the front. A population of about fifteen hundred swells in summer when holidaymakers arrive, and you notice the change in how busy the main street and the foreshore are.
Read the complete Apollo Bay write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fill up here — 309 km left and no pump marked after this. Next is Cape Otway.
The lighthouse at Cape Otway has been guiding ships through Bass Strait since 1848, and it is the oldest surviving lighthouse on the Australian mainland. The cape is the point where the Otway Ranges meet the sea, and it is where the Southern Ocean and Bass Strait collide, which makes the water among the roughest in the world. Hundreds of ships were wrecked along this stretch, and the lighthouse was built because too many had gone down with their cargo and crew.
Read the complete Cape Otway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cape Otway, about halfway at 80 m. Next is Twelve Apostles.
Everyone calls them the Twelve Apostles, which is generous. There were never twelve, and the original name was the Sow and Piglets, a rather less holy image that tourism officials decided to retire. Today about eight limestone stacks stand in the surf off Port Campbell National Park, and one collapsed in 2005 in front of a crowd of onlookers. The cliffs are made of soft limestone, and the Southern Ocean is working on them constantly, so the view is never the same twice.
Read the complete Twelve Apostles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Twelve Apostles sits at 154 km, about halfway. Next is Port Campbell.
Port Campbell is a small coastal town of Victoria's southwest, set into a narrow gap in the limestone cliffs and facing the wild Southern Ocean. It is the base for the most famous part of the Great Ocean Road, and its little harbour and beach are protected by a headland, so the town feels sheltered while the coastline on both sides is raw. The nearest bigger places, Timboon and Cobden, are inland and a long way off in the paddocks, so the town has to serve everyone who comes along the coast with fuel, food and a bed.
Read the complete Port Campbell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Port Campbell comes up 193 km in. Next is back through Twelve Apostles.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Twelve Apostles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
232 km in you reach back through Twelve Apostles. Next is back through Cape Otway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cape Otway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cape Otway, about halfway at 80 m. Next is back through Apollo Bay.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Apollo Bay write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Apollo Bay sits at 309 km, late in the day. Next is back through Lorne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lorne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lorne comes up 347 km in. Next is Torquay.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Torquay write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Torquay. That is the ride.