Bush Camping in the Great Otway National Park

Bren and I at Teddy's Lookout.
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We left Geelong around 10am, first stopping at the supermarket for supplies, then heading to Lorne to check out Teddy’s Lookout which we had missed on our first visit due to our car troubles.

Tuesday was a lovely clear day so Teddy’s Lookout provided spectacular views of a winding section of The Great Ocean Road down below. I took lots of photos! It was definitely worth the short drive and walk from the main road. Next stop was Apollo Bay Visitor Centre to find out about camping in the Great Otway National Park. We found that camping in the park is free and we chose Blanket Bay as our campsite as it had a beach suitable for swimming and it was another warm day. The drive to the campsite took about half an hour and wound inland then back to the coast, some of the road was quite rough.

View of The Great Ocean Road from Teddy's Lookout, Lorne.
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The campsite was a nice sheltered area with 20 sites of various sizes. Many were already occupied when we arrived so we had slim pickings. After walking round the area we chose a site near the pit loos, but not too near! We spent our first night real bush camping, and it was FREE! We had sausages for tea and passed the night reading, calling home, listening to music and walking to the beach.

We had a slow Wednesday morning sleeping in till about 9.30am – yes this is a sleep in for us now we go to bed around 10pm! We had a leisurely breakfast then did a short look walk into the bush around Blanket Bay, then along the rocky shore. It started to rain lightly so we headed back to camp. Soon after we got back to camp I heard a rustle in a nearby tree. I went to check it out and saw a koala climbing up the trunk of a tree. I rushed back to camp and grabbed my camera and was lucky enough to get some good close up photos. The koala did not seem too bothered by us spectating while he went about his business. I was very excited to have seen a real koala in the wild! We spent the afternoon reading guidebooks under the awning and planning future adventures. Very relaxing!

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After several hours, relaxing soon became boring. Around 4.30pm Bren asked me if I wanted to stay. It was still rainy and getting cold. We called the roadhouse in Lavers Hill, the nearest town, and they had cabins available for $50. We decided to leave the camp. It took an hour for us to pack up, and another hour to drive to the roadhouse. The room was very basic with shared bathroom and no cooking facilities, so we decided to eat at the roadhouse bistro. As we ate our dinner the mist rolled in and we were glad we weren’t sleeping outside that night.