The Great Ocean Road in a Jaguar: Cliffs, Koalas, and the Longest Memorial Drive

The Great Ocean Road was built by men who had just come home from a war, and they built it as a memorial — a road for the fallen, carved into a coastline that seems designed to remind you how small you are. Driving it in a Jaguar F-Type, top down, with the Southern Ocean roaring on your right, is one of the great experiences in world motoring. But it's also a lesson in restraint, because this is a road that punishes the impatient.

The F-Type is a car that wants to be driven hard. It sounds like a thunderstorm, it accelerates like it's been insulted, and it has more grip than any public road in Australia deserves. But the Great Ocean Road is not a racetrack. It's a two-lane ribbon that twists through rainforest, past surf beaches, over cliffs, and through towns where the speed limit drops to fifty and the locals are watching. The trick is to let the car do less and the road do more. Cruise. Listen. Stop often.

The Stops That Make the Drive

The Twelve Apostles get the postcards, and they deserve them, but they're also the most crowded part of the trip. Go early — before seven — and you'll have the viewing platforms mostly to yourself. The light at that hour is soft and the sea is loud and the limestone stacks stand out like teeth against the water. By nine the buses arrive and the magic evaporates.

The real pleasures, though, are the smaller stops. Cape Otway, where the road turns inland through a forest so dense it feels like another country, and where you can pull over and walk a few minutes to find koalas sitting in the forks of eucalyptus trees, asleep, indifferent to you. The town of Apollo Bay, where you can eat fish and chips on the beach and watch surfers who are better than you'll ever be. The stretch between Lorne and Anglesea, where the road hugs the cliff and the ocean is right there, close enough to feel like a passenger.

Driving It Properly

The drive is about 240 kilometers from Torquay to Allansford, and you should give it at least two days, ideally three. This is not a road to rush. The towns are small but excellent — Lorne for coffee, Apollo Bay for seafood, Port Campbell for a bed and a view. Book ahead in summer, because everyone else has the same idea.

Drive it east to west, from Melbourne toward Warrnambool, so the ocean is on your left and the pull-offs are easier to reach. Take the inland route back through the Otways if you have time — the forest roads are quiet and green and full of birds. And in the Jaguar, do yourself a favor: put the roof down, turn off the radio, and let the engine be the soundtrack. The men who built this road would have approved.