Great Ocean Road - morning rides (and runs) from Fairhaven

I’m staying in Fairhaven for a week. I’m here with the kids and will be spending most of my time building sandcastles and avoiding sharks, but I will have the opportunity to do early morning rides and runs. I have my roadie, MTB and trail running shoes.

My list so far includes:

  • Fairhaven to Lorne and then up the Deans Marsh-Lorne road
  • Fairhaven to Lorne and then up to Erskine Falls
  • Eumeralla trails behind Anglesea on the MTB
  • some trail running searches in the bush above Fairhaven

I’d be keen on doing some back road gravel riding on the roadie if possible. Is it all sandy and rough back there? I don’t enjoy long fire trail rides on the MTB all that much because it’s duallie with 740mm bars. Google maps shows an unsealed road heading up to Big Hill about halfway between Fairhaven and Lorne?

Also will be doing some trail running if anyone runners know good routes?

That climb up to Dean’s Marsh out the back of Lorne is a good climb and/or descent. Part of the Gran Fondo they do down there.

I’ve been out on the Otways gravel twice this month. Pretty sandy, doable on 28s.

A short ride is Aireys Inlet on the MTB - head up Bambra road and at the top, head down Loves track which eventually has a turnoff for some A+ singletrack.
One of my fav rides in the area…

Also suggest riding to Lorne (Gentle Annie tk → Seaview rd → Big Hill Tk → Stony Tk if you want dirt) then up Mt Cowley (Sharps tk) to Forrest and just spending a day riding trails…

After the descent down Mt Cowley it’s a ~2km ride on the main road, then the tiger rail trail into town.

If you are short of time then the ride up Mt Cowley return this way is worth it (would suggest MTB as it is rough as fuck in places - eg Stony tk)

Turtons track. marked as C159 on map i think.
Also some good dirt just out of Deans Marsh heading up the hill you’ll see the fire road go straight up the hill off the right. follow this for many other dirt roads going S/E/W.

Map for your trail running…

http://gmbc.com.au/sites/default/files/PV%20Eumeralla%202017.pdf

If you are looking for a little adventure (a drive) with the family, a place I really enjoy is the Redwood Forest, the kids might be a kick out of seeing the HUGE trees. Nice little area for a picnic as well…

http://visit12apostles.com.au/businesses/detail/the-redwoods-2/

Thanks dudes. Rode up to Benwerrin this morning, was a nice ride, fairly easy gradient. Left at 6am so pretty quiet time along the coast.

Is it just me or are cyclists around here sorta rude? I always wave or say g’day but was getting lots of blank stares or not even stares this morning on my way back along the ocean road. Reminds me of coming across Euro trekkers in Nepal and Patagonia - more often than not you get a death stare or just blank confusion for saying hi, wtf.

#tooprotosayhello

having said that, the few cyclists i know who live permanently down that way are all awesome and super friendly… you might just be seeing tourists?