Bikes, Beaches, Breweries And Bushwalks: Why You Need To Visit Lorne and Amy's Gran Fondo
You suspect as soon as you drive into a place like Lorne that two days isn’t going to be enough. The seaside Victorian town with the Mediterranean feel – two hours southwest of Melbourne – is a holiday institution. Beaches, bush walks, waterfalls, art galleries, eateries, shopping and nearby wineries and breweries are all shouting for your time.
Yet there’s a rapidly growing annual event now screaming just as loud as all of them. Amy’s Gran Fondo has gone from a single-day ride into a weekend-long festival of cycling that brings Lorne to life.
Held each September since 2011, Amy’s Gran Fondo will this year attract more than 6000 riders and pump more than $21 million into the region. It offers entrants – who have included actors Eric Bana and Anthony LaPaglia – a once-in-a-year opportunity of riding on a fully closed, and spectacular, Great Ocean Road.
Amy’s Gran Fondo is the first and only mass-participation ride in Victoria to offer entrants fully closed bitumen for every centimetre of its 120km Gran Fondo, 45km Medio Fondo and 7km Family Fondo circuits.
Photo: Cyclists participate in Amy's Gran Fondo on the Great Ocean Road.
We’re in town for a couple of days to take a peek at the course, which will run in the opposite direction to the previous five editions.
My tour guides are Tour de France stage winner and the first non-European to wear the yellow jersey, Phil Anderson, and race director Simon Gillett, whose late wife Amy is the inspiration for the ride and the Amy Gillett Foundation.
But the beauty of this location is that this isn’t an event where the MAMIL (Middle Aged Man in Lycra), or any rider with family and friends, needs to travel solo. There’s an endless list of things for the loved ones to do while you’re in the hurt house on the bike.
We arrive in town on a Tuesday morning and head to Teddy’s Lookout at the end of George St. Like most of the coastline in these parts, it shoots up from the Great Ocean Road like a wall.
Photo: Erskine Falls is one of Lorne’s many natural attractions.
Erskine Falls is just down the road, much like the other nine waterfalls within 10 minutes of Lorne. The weather is what the locals call “Otway mist”, but we make the steep drive down into the carpark and then the steep walk down further to the lower viewing platform. It’s worth it.
The water starts falling nearly 40m above and the area is packed with lush green foliage and beautiful tree ferns.
Lunch takes us back into Lorne, where Lick and Sip has a bit of everything within its recently renovated walls. If sandwiches, juices, soups, smoothies and all-day breakfasts doesn’t float your boat, the coffee and scones will.
We get talking to Carly Enticott about Amy’s Gran Fondo. “We love it. We decorate the cafe, hang wheelsets on the wall and get our outdoor coffee machine going with the bike pumps beside it. We like to consider ourselves Lorne’s only cycle-through,” Enticott says.
We then take our focaccias to the foreshore and chase the waves. “Dad look at the view,” my son says.
Photo: Lorne foreshore. Picture: Great Ocean Road Tourism
In need of a takeaway coffee, we head for the Maple Tree restaurant and its Italian waiter, Massimo. By night they do a contemporary menu, with seafood linguine and a lamb backstrap the specialties.
We take a stroll along the shops, which is more a stop-start jolt than a walk because my wife is having her head turned every 10m by another boutique. Lorne Girl, ECO D., Deluxe. And on it goes.
The Mantra Lorne couldn’t be in a better spot. Built tastefully around the heritage-listed Erskine House – the oldest permanently operated guesthouse in Victoria – it sits on a 6ha plot of land beside the beach, shopping strip and Erskine River.
The Mantra Lorne resort is a popular getaway in the heart of one of the Surf Coast's favoured townships. Our two-bedroom apartment has plenty of space inside, a balcony outside and the boys take a liking to the spa baths.
There’s also a kitchenette for those inclined, but we can’t resist the Lorne Hotel – the local institution perched on the hill overlooking Louttit Bay.
Inside, it’s polished with all the creature comforts you expect of a “local”, with a kids zone open on weekends. Outside, there’s a pizza bar, cocktail bar, beer garden and more.
Photo: Lorne Hotel is a great pub for the family.
The alarm interrupts a superb night’s sleep, but we have some cycling to do. There wouldn’t be
many better hotel breakfast buffets than The Larder, which offers just about everything, including real honeycomb.
Phil Anderson and Simon Gillett are waiting in reception. Anderson moved to the area in 2000, first to Wongarra and then to Grey River on the Great Ocean Road where he lives with his partner, Anne.
“This is my patch now. I ride the Great Ocean Road all the time, but Amy’s Gran Fondo is the only time you get to do it fully closed to traffic,” Anderson says.
“It’s great for families, too. They’ve got the family fondo where you see kids on balance bikes and the 45km medio fondo from Apollo Bay is a great active sightseeing trip.”
Photo: Forrest Brewery. Picture: Great Ocean Road Tourism
We get pedalling on this year’s course, which snakes its way out of Lorne and up to Benwerrin, down to Deans Marsh and then back up to Forrest and the Forrest Brewing Company, where we meet co-owner Matt Bradshaw.
This inviting establishment is equal-part microbrewery, eatery and bike-friendly meeting place, which is putting the town back on the map after the demise of the logging industry.
“Forrest was a big hop-growing town, even before logging. Now it’s also the archetypal cycling village,” Bradshaw says.
However, the climb out of Forrest snaps us out of our relaxed state and soon we’re descending through Skenes Creek and back on to the Great Ocean Road towards the Wye River General Store. This place is thriving after an extensive renovation and, with wood fire crackling away, proves the ideal lunch spot.
We roll back into Lorne and swap two wheels for four for the drive home. Driving out confirms what we thought driving in – two days was nowhere near enough.
Lorne has more to offer than beaches and bikes.
Top 5 Things To Do In Lorne
1. Spend a day on the beach with the kids followed by a lazy dinner at the Surf Club, Bowls Club or the Beach Pavilion.
2. Grab the bike for a 28km spin along the Great Ocean Road to Cape Patton, followed by the “essential” coffee stop at Wye General Store.
3. Enjoy a fun night at Mark’s Restaurant, the Maple Tree or Lorne Central. We’re spoilt for choice!
4. Go running along the Lorne foreshore out to the St George River and then up and over the famed mountain to surf track.
5. Take a leisurely walk through the Otways, which is nothing short of magnificent, especially the Erskine Falls track.
Escape Route
Getting There
Lorne is just over two hours by car from Melbourne via the M1 and the Great Ocean Road.
Staying There
Mantra Lorne, Mountjoy Parade, Lorne. Ph (03) 5228 9777. mantralorne.com.au
Amy's Gran Fondo
Catering to cyclists of all abilities Amy’s Gran Fondo is held on fully closed roads on September 10-11 and raises funds for the Amy Gillett Foundation. The foundation was created in the memory of Australian cyclist Amy Gillett who was killed on a training ride in Germany in 2005. The Great Ocean Road was Amy’s favourite training locations. To enter, see amysgranfondo.org.au
Niseko, Japan
