2 months ago
22
Tracey Croke
January 5, 2026 — 5:00am
“Is it true you get four seasons in one day in these parts?” I ask Hampden Hotel owner Simon Myers.
“You’ll get six tomorrow,” he replies, pulling a pint of pale ale. I’m perched at the bar with my husband Paul, picking Myers’ brain because he’s cycled the first part of a new self-guided route we’re about to start, which explores one of Australia’s most celebrated coastal landscapes – Victoria’s Great Ocean Road – the quieter way.
“We’ve got waterproofs,” I explain.
“It’s the winds you gotta worry about on those trails,” Myers says, puffing his cheeks out.
Until now, no superlative under the glorious Australian sun could convince me to ride on the Great Ocean Road. As spectacular and dramatic as it may be, a blustery coastal highway with pencil-thin verges is not my cycling bag. But this five-day, on-and-off-road trip from historical Camperdown to coastal Lorne, averaging 50 kilometres per day, promises something different. It comes with a bounty of peaceful hinterland detours including dirt roads, rail trails – even cheeky forest tracks – yet doesn’t miss out on famous lookouts like the Twelve Apostles.
Alas, the morning arrives with pelting rain, high winds and a real risk of flying branches clobbering us. Concerned management at our cosy Camperdown Mill accommodation pass on a “don’t go” message from operator Australian Cycle Tours. Plan B: jump in a taxi ordinarily prebooked to shift our luggage to the next destination. But first we make a dash to biodynamic farming cafe Excuse Me Katie’s and tuck into the fluffiest scrambled eggs we’ve ever eaten.
“Good news – your room is ready,” says Sow & Piglets manager Francois Smith, firing up the coffee machine on our Port Campbell arrival. The eclectic ex-backpacker turned quirky boutique guesthouse (with microbrewery) is our hipster hangout for the next two nights.
Keen to beat buses to the star lookouts on day two, we roll out at 8am in glowing sunshine with down jackets zipped to fend off a crispy 11 degrees. Pathfinder (a navigation app) guides us to the coastal heath of Port Campbell National Park, where electric blue fairy wrens bop around cushion bush and the punky hairdos of endemic rufous bristlebirds pop from prickly tea-tree. Surprisingly, we walk alone into the new Poombeeyt Koontapool (Breath of the Whale) blowhole lookout.
From there, a honey luminance ignites the 70-metre limestone cliffs all the way to the Twelve Apostles, several kilometres further on. Although some of the precarious limestone stacks have collapsed, the Apostles are still the most visited and arguably striking feature of a coast that’s constantly gnawed and gobbled by a thrashing ocean. A lookout opened in 2024 – led by the Eastern Maar community – is cleverly designed to provide plenty of viewing spots for the growing number of jostling visitors.
A little further on, we duck into the unsealed tranquillity of Old Ocean Road-skirting wetlands where black swans glide with cygnets in tow. Those who choose e-bikes will feel smug for the biggest climb of the journey; a 19-kilometre slog up to Lavers Hill. Traffic is copious, but verges are (mostly) roomy. Apart from a couple of hired cars that cosy up too close for comfort, the vast majority of vehicles follow Victoria’s “a metre matters” rule all the way to the chilly top, where our shuttle back to the Sow & Piglets is waiting.
On the way, we collect a couple at the Twelve Apostles who just completed the Great Ocean Walk. They scoff at our spacious morning experience, explaining it’s “elbow in the face” hammered in the afternoon.
The next morning, after being shuttled back to Lavers Hill, we briefly suck sea fog before picking up the Old Beechy Rail Trail in the heart of the Otway Ranges. This left-field rail trail surprisingly dives into a pretty pocket of temperate rainforest, where a fallen eucalypt – we assume it lost a spat with the earlier storm – halts us. A wrestle later, we pop out into the birdsong of Beech Forest plateau beside the late Cliff Young’s boot monument. In 1983, spud farmer “Cliffy” became a national hero when he won the inaugural 875-kilometre Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon, aged 61 – an extraordinary feat he trained for by rounding up sheep in his gumboots.
After a coffee break at the Art Reach Gallery Cafe, this shushed version of the Great Ocean Road swoops into a grove of sky-scraping Californian redwoods. Planted in 1936 as a logging experiment, these bumper trees, which initially failed to take off, now rocket to 60 metres.
Visitors who flock to the stately patch in Great Otway National Park are struck by their uniformity and an eerie silence created by a nature-muffling lack of undergrowth. In stark contrast, the bustling native excellencies of towering mountain ash (the world’s tallest flowering tree) and a glut of ferns are somewhat sidelined. We cherish their cool shady company until we meet the Great Ocean Road again and descend into Apollo Bay.
The appreciation award of the day goes to Bridie at Apollo Bay Motel and Apartments: “I’ve put the bags in your room,” she says. That means we scoot straight to the pub for the sacred ‘beer moment’ of gulping a schooner while still in grimy cycling gear, because it magically adds to the “ahhhhh”. We scrub up for seafood heaven at Graze Restaurant, where we shovel in a raft of natural oysters, buttery scallops and melty spanner crab croquettes.
The whole of day four is spent on the Great Ocean Road winding around endless coves and rocky outcrops. Regular road cyclists reliably tell us that to enjoy clear stretches of road we should start well before the buses get going around 10am. A short walk from our coffee stop at Kafe Koala is one of the best places in Australia to see koalas in the wild. From there, twisty terrain provides natural traffic-calming almost all the way to Lorne.
Lashing rain and winds return to upset the final day riding options of a short spin along the coast to Memorial Arch (we drive it instead), or a hinterland loop to Erskine Falls. But it’s not the end for us. Fomo festers to the point that we extend our trip and head back to Excuse Me Katie’s to fuel up to ride the (missed) ‘first’ day.
It kicks off with a banging view over a volcanic crater lake before joining the Camperdown‑Timboon Rail Trail (34 kilometres), where screams of black cockatoos and squawks of king parrots echo through arches of eucalypt. At Cobden, Pathfinder confusingly wants us to cross a golf course. “Yes! It’s through there,” a runner shouts. Giggling like naughty children, we follow her point, yelling “fore”. Then we pick up a thrilling single trail through dense rainforest to family run Timboon Fine Ice-Cream, where I double-scoop passionfruit meringue with lime and coconut. The cherry on top is riding the newly opened 19-kilometre Poorpa Yanyeen Meerreeng trail, meaning to “travel through Country” in Keerray Wooroong, which takes us through more native forest and rich pasturelands to Port Campbell.
Over pizza and a celebratory paddle of Sow & Piglets ales, I reflectively eat my earlier words: As it turns out, the spectacular Great Ocean Road ‘highway’ is surprisingly calm if you get the timing right. But still, I wouldn’t miss a moment of the immersive detours. Overall, there’s much to holler about on the hushed version of this rollicking coastal journey.
The details
Tour
Australian Cycle Tours’ self-guided Great Ocean Road Cycle Trip Highlights itinerary includes six nights’ accommodation (based on twin share), luggage transfers, shuttles to and from Lavers Hill, preset navigation routes and equipment (e-bike extra cost), from $2050 a person. See australiancycletours.com.au
Good to know
Weather along the coast can change quickly. Spring or autumn tends to have moderate temperatures preferred by cyclists. Trip is graded moderate (with e-bike) to challenging (regular bike). At lookouts (dismount where prompted) riders can push bikes along walking tracks. High-visibility clothing is essential on the Great Ocean Road, where the speed limit is 80 km/h.
How to get to there
Take the train from Melbourne to Camperdown (about 2½ hours). From Lorne, take the bus to Geelong and a connecting train back to Melbourne (about 3½ hours). Alternatively, drive to Camperdown and Australian Cycle Tours can arrange a transfer back from Lorne (additional cost).
The writer travelled as a guest of Australian Cycle Tours and Visit Victoria.
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