Australia’s Great Ocean Road Self-Guided Driving Audio Tour

It’s a compact but full-service town and very popular as a place to make an overnight stay if trying to complete the Great Ocean Road in 2 days. Hopefully we’ve allowed ourselves more time than that, but if not, I’m sure we are getting to see all the best parts.

The tour is over 150+ miles long, with more than 120+ audio stories, and takes about 6-7 hours to complete.

The most famous surf break in all of Australia – Bells Beach. Now, what the conditions and the ocean swell is like today will likely effect what our impression of Bells is. If the swell is only small, it might barely be breaking at all, and there may be no surfers out in the water

This is one of the must-do places on our Great Ocean Road drive, and remember how I was saying it was the most important lighthouse in Australia. After we turn it will take us about 15 minutes to reach Lighthouse arrival centre but we should even take a little more time, go slowly and try spotting koalas as we drive along.

The surprisingly impressive Bay of Islands is coming up. The short trail from the carpark forks into 2 that go to viewing areas that look fully south and fully north – you really get a great 2 for 1 deal from this one location, with different perspectives from either side.

The first lookout's just about 80 meters along and has a lovely view to get to the bottom of the falls. The sign says 220 meters more, but just so you know, it's a steep run of stairs to get down and then back up.

It's fine for most people, but if anyone has mobility challenges, it might be best to stick to the upper lookout Anyway, have fun.

 If you're a visitor to Australia and you're hoping to see some koalas on your travels, especially in the wild, then we might have some luck up ahead in Kennet River, and it might surprise you to hear that most Australians, unless they live in a bush property, in a suitably lucky area, it's actually quite rare for Aussies to see koalas too.

 As Lorne gets busier every year with visitors exploring the Great Ocean Road or with holiday makers coming here just to enjoy the beach and activities, the local cafe and restaurant scene keeps getting better.

We are about to drive under the Memorial Arch, and we will see a parking area immediately on our right as we pass through. The arch was created after the completion of the entire Great Ocean Road route.

I’ll divide our sightseeing on this part of the coast into 2 – things to see on the eastern side of Port Campbell and things to see on the western side of Port Campbell. On the eastern side, there are 2 definite must-do stops we should make. Those are the 12 Apostles viewing platforms and the Loch Ard Gorge. That’s only the absolute must-do stops that we should make.

Even if you don’t think you’re that big a fan of lighthouses, the views are awesome and you’ll get to see the “split” in Split Point.

I like this one because we can get quite close to the formation and it’s an easy one to include ourselves into the photo. There are stairs that take us down to the best vantage point and then back up again.

We are now moving into another phase of the Great Ocean Road drive that has a different significance and story. The road between Apollo Bay, Lorne and towards Torquay was the most challenging section to construct and as we make our way through, I’m going to keep coming back to that story from time to time.