Blanket Bay; coastal camping off the Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road has some pretty spectacular National Park camping available, and if you aren’t making use of it you’ll be paying through the roof for caravan parks in the area. After exploring a huge number of places along the way, we booked a night at Blanket Bay Campground down on Cape Otway, and I was really pleasantly surprised when we arrived.
Where is Blanket Bay Campground?
Blanket Bay is 15km off the Great Ocean Road, down on Cape Otway. It’s at the end of a gravel road, with the first 9km or so being bitumen.
Do you need a 4WD?
We saw a heap of 2WD vehicles at Blanket Bay Campground, but I will say this was the first reasonably corrugated track that we’ve done to a camp site in Victoria, and you get the feel that this is a bit more remote than a lot of the other camping on the Great Ocean Road.
We towed our Reconn R2 Hybrid in with no issues, but you do need to take it slow around the corners and the bridge, as its slippery and there can be vehicles coming the other way. In short, no, you can get in without a 4WD, but take it easy!
Book in advance
Like Johanna Beach, Aire River West and East, Blanket Bay is online booking through Parks Victoria, and the spots fill up fast. Make sure the site you book matches your setup, or you might find you don’t fit!
What’s at the campground?
Blanket Bay Campground is split into tent sites that you park your vehicle outside of the site, and then larger ones suitable for camper trailers and vehicle camping. There’s a big toilet block, a number of fire pits, beach access in a few different places and a short walk away is the walk in hiking camping area, which those doing the Great Ocean Walk make use of on their way through.
See more from our vlog
What does it cost to stay?
Camping here is $15.70 per night per site, which is more than reasonable.
What’s Blanket Bay like?
We thoroughly enjoyed Blanket Bay. The scenery here is fantastic, there’s plenty of bird life around, the amenities are adequate and it feels like you are a bit more remote than a lot of the Great Ocean Road Camping.
The beach itself is quite stunning, with a heap of different rock formations and pools around, a little creek that flows out to the ocean and when its low tide and calm, its a really beautiful place.
We’d say this is significantly better than Johanna Beach, which we weren’t unhappy with either.
Is it caravan friendly?
No. It states on the Parks Victoria website that this campground is only suitable for camper trailers, tents and in vehicle camping, and whilst you could probably squeeze smaller vans in, you’d be taking a risk and could easily damage it with overhanging branches.
Our Reconn R2 (roughly 2.1 metres tall, and 1.8 metres wide, and 6 metres long) fit in perfectly fine, and we even managed to fit our car in with a big space on the other side of campsite number 10, but anything bigger would be pushing the friendship.
March flies
Now, I have to mention this, as these flies are a pain in the backside. We visited in late February, and these were as bad as we’ve had them. I find it interesting that they aren’t inland at all, in the Great Otways National Park, but you’ll find them in hordes along the coast.
We did use some sandfly and mosquito repellent which helped, or normal RID spray, but I also squashed a significant number of them that decided I’d be worth biting. This was our only complaint about Blanket Bay Campground, and its no fault of the campground itself.
Would we stay again?
Yep, in a heartbeat. This has been our most favourite coastal camp along the Great Ocean Road, and we were sad to only have a single night here (as there was nothing else available). The march flies were annoying, but pretty insignificant in the scheme of things.
If you fit into this campground, and the weather is going to be good, book a site and enjoy it. The area is magic, and its a nice change to the rest of the Great Ocean Road.
