Camping at Lorne, Victoria

A group of us recently went on a camping trip.  We wanted to drive off somewhere not too far from Melbourne, and were looking for a site that is located near the water, either the beach or a river.  We found that Lorne, located along Great Ocean Road, has such camping sites.  The driving distance from Melbourne was only about 2 hours away, which is good because there is enough time to enjoy the roadtrip, but not too far that you'd get tired before arriving at the site.

So we chose to stay at Lorne Foreshore Caravan Park (click for detail info), located next to Erskine River and the beach.  It's very near to the small town centre of Lorne, shops, cafes, other hotels and apartments, and Foodworks supermarket is just right opposite of the caravan park.  There is also options for powered and unpowered sites for tents and caravans, and as well as cabins.  As like other caravan parks, there is a centralised toilet facilities, and cooking/pantry room.  There's even children's playground and picnic tables in the area.

At the time that we went, the weather was not the best that it could be.  It was sunny for a while, and drizzling in the next few hours.  Nonetheless, we had the opportunity to enjoy the gorgeous surrounding of Lorne.  Walking by the river, with the ducks and birds passing by, then walking on the boardwalk and taking a stroll towards the beach are definitely worth the stay.  Personally, I felt Lorne was just gorgeous and breathtaking.  Here are some pics from our brief camping experience there:

So what can you do while you're out camping in Lorne?  Well, you can visit Erskine Falls (which we didn't have the opportunity to visit due to the rain), have a walk to the town, go to the beach, have bbq, have a stroll or run around the area.  In this Lorne trip, what I enjoyed was just sitting back near the tent (and in the tent), having a stroll by the river, and just relax and really absorb the gorgeous surrounding.  It's at these kinds of places that we can feel and experience the serenity, calmness and freshness that's probably different from our day to day lives in the suburbs and the city.  So go there and remember that it's totally okay to not be filled with too much activities... but instead, just sit back and relax with your warm companies of family and friends (and a mug of hot chocolate early morning or in the middle of the night would be a perfect addition too!).

Lorne is located on the Great Ocean Road, further ahead after Anglesea.

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Other places along the way that you might want to consider visiting:

• The market by the river at Anglesea (beautiful, scenic river there as well)
• Ripcurl, Quiksilver/Roxy Factory Outlet at Baines Cres, Torquay VIC 3228

Sport Brands Factory Outlet @ Smith St

If shopping for well-known global sports brands is your forte, then you should go to the factory outlet at Smith St, before visiting any other DFOs. Smith St is not the typical all-in-one complex of factory outlet. It's a street filled with factory outlet of sporting good such as Nike, Adidas, Timberland, Converse, Kathmandu and few more others. There's not a lot of shops, but we're pretty sure that you're still going to take a bit of times to browse through items on sales even inside one or two shops like Nike and Adidas.

If you're from the city, you can take Tram route 86 from Bourke St towards Bundoora, to stop at Smith St, stop no 16-22.



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