Mum and I had read about beautiful rock formations of Castle Cove in Written In Stone. This brilliant and inspiring book about the geological history of the Great Ocean Road contains many pictures of the different landscapes.
Mum fell in love with the pictures from Castle Cove and we decided to visit. The main problem was that we struggled to find any information to get to the main beach. We asked at the Information Centre and the lady mentioned the lookout and that it was part of the Great Ocean Walk. I did find some scattered information about the beach online but not much.
You can access the beach from the lookout. However, it isn’t well signposted and it is quite steep.
You will see a sign that has distance limits along for close sections of the Great Ocean Walk. Turn left, towards Aire River.
You will see an intersection and a sign pointing towards the track for the Great Ocean Walk. Take the path to the right, the path that looks like it is heading towards the ocean. This is the Castle Cove Access Track.
After a short walk, you will see the ocean. The walk down to the beach is steep and it is even more difficult getting up. I wouldn’t recommend it for people who have mobility issues or are visually impaired as it is pretty tricky.
Once you get to the beach there are some pretty amazing cliff structures. The ones you immediately see don’t look like the ones in the book. These cliffs are about 500 metres to your right. The nearby cliffs are interesting and could be fascinating in the right light.
If you look closely, you can even see shells in the dried sediment. I’m not sure if these are recent or fossils.