Great Ocean Road from Melbourne to Adelaide - Britz

Five nights and 844 kilometres from Adelaide to Melbourne in a campervan, inland through the Grampians and then along the Great Ocean Road.

The Adelaide Hills and Mount Barker come first, then Bordertown on the Victorian border, and the Grampians, where sandstone ridges rise out of farmland with rock art shelters, waterfalls, and kangaroos on the recreation reserve at Halls Gap.

The route then drops to the coast at Apollo Bay, and the Great Ocean Road runs east from there: Princetown and the Twelve Apostles, limestone stacks left standing as the cliffs behind them retreated, Port Campbell National Park and the Shipwreck Coast, then Lorne, Torquay and Bells Beach, where the Easter surfing contest has run for decades, with Geelong before Melbourne.

Britz supply the camper and the day-by-day plan, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. Driving the Great Ocean Road west to east means the sea is on the passenger side, which makes the pull-offs easier in a long vehicle. Six days for 844 kilometres is comfortable. The Apostles car park fills by mid-morning, and this is a one-way hire, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking. Taking the Grampians on the way rather than driving the coast in both directions is the better arrangement, and it means nothing is seen twice. Six nights also makes this one of the better value one-way runs in the range, with two states, a mountain range and the best known coast road in Australia inside it.