Great Ocean Road: Torquay to Twelve Apostles

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Torquay

   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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Torquay is where the day begins. Next is Lorne.

2. 2. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Lorne comes up about 48 km into the recorded legs. Next is Apollo Bay.

3. 3. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Apollo Bay. Next is Cape Otway.

4. 4. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cape Otway, late in the day. Next is Twelve Apostles.

5. 5. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Twelve Apostles. That is the ride.