{"id":37911,"date":"2026-03-06T17:30:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=37911"},"modified":"2026-03-06T17:30:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:30:58","slug":"lorne-victoria-%f0%9f%87%a6%f0%9f%87%ba-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=37911","title":{"rendered":"Lorne, Victoria \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: 6th March 2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelled: 80 kms from Ocean Grove to Lorne  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visited: Torquay and Lorne  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stayed: Lorne Foreshore CP, $70pn , N38.53597, E143.97541  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our 3 days at Collendina (Ocean Grove) passed easily enough. Pam manages to find a 50m heated pool at North Bellarine about 10 minutes away, so we manage a swim 2 out of the 3 mornings. Apart from that there\u2019s the odd forced march and driving to the shops. Afternoons are taken up with several sets of table tennis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weather has a chill and we get a couple of showers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not the best beach day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pam giving me the hurry up look<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Finally on our last day at Collendina it\u2019s a beautiful morning so we take the Suzuki for a drive to Torquay and Bells Beach, as far as we can tell the starting point of the Great Ocean Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving into Torquay there are the two largest Rip Curl and Billabong warehouses you\u2019re ever going to see. Then we pass the Museum of Surfing, WOW !<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding a parking spot easily enough we take a walk along the foreshore path to Danger Point a small headland that divides Torquay\u2019s two beaches. On our way back we walk the shops (one of Pam\u2019s favourite pastimes) thankfully nothing catches her eye and we\u2019re soon on our way to Bells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The main beach at Torquay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The shops<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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From Danger Point, another beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Some 5kms further along the GOR we turn for Bells Beach. There\u2019s just a few travellers like us so there\u2019s plenty of parking. We take a walk to the viewing platform and take a photo, we\u2019ve done Bells (pictured below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With the Suzuki hooked up we make for Lorne, stopping at Anglesea for morning tea (picture above). The drive on to Lorne is picturesque but busy if your driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the memorial arch, note the architectural masterpieces waiting for the next fire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We arrive in Lorne<\/a> and find our spot in the CP, which to be frank is very ordinary considering it\u2019s the most expensive on this trip to date. This was the CP that was washed away in a flash flood back in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having settled in we go exploring finding a Country Road and Tommy Bahama shops which just makes Pam\u2019s day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The swing bridge across the Erskine River, our shortcut to the supermarket<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A view across Main Street <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lorne Beach looking to the south<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Next morning another forced march, this time to Lorne Pier. It\u2019s a scenic walk along the poetically named shipwreck trail. Only about 5kms return so I get off easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The view from the pier back at the rich end of town<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Hotel Pacific is particularly grand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lorne Beach looking to the north<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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On our way back from the pier we drop into the tourist office to get some advice on a drive up to Erskine Falls and the road through the Great Otway National Park to the village of Forrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second coffee done, we take the Suzuki for a drive. Our first stop is Erskine Falls, it\u2019s a short walk with about 60 steps down to the viewing platform. From the falls the road is gravel (about 30kms) on to the village of Forrest then back to the GOR on a sealed road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yes, Erskine Falls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The forest drive to Forrest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Suzuki being all wheel drive handles the gravel with ease. Anyway another enjoyable day on the road slides through to the keeper. We walk up to the bowling club for dinner only to find it\u2019s not your normal bowling club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A round of drinks is $28 ! In reality the bowling club is a very up market restaurant, the food was excellent but expensive by our normally frugal standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final photo Lorne\u2019s famous bin tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael + Pam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: 6th March 2026  Travelled: 80 kms from Ocean Grove to Lorne   Visited: Torquay and Lorne   Stayed: Lorne Foreshore CP, $70pn , N38.53597, E143.97541   Our 3 days at Collendina (Ocean Grove) passed easily enough. Pam manages to find a 50m heated pool at North Bellarine about 10 minutes away, so we manage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":37942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,131],"tags":[132],"class_list":{"0":"post-37911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"category-victoria","9":"tag-country-towns-victoria","10":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37911"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37945,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37911\/revisions\/37945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}