Sign In
Travel Blog Posts
May 19th 2013
Today decided to visit the Ballarine Peninsula as I had one day left of the car hire before I left for Adelaide. The drive took about an hour and twenty minutes. Visited both Queenscliff and Portarlington, both very nice little sleepy seaside towns. I had thought about going on the ferry to Mornington Peninsula but by the time I got there it didn't leave enough time as the ferry only goes once an hour and takes about forty minutes and I didn't really have time for that so visited Portarlington instead. The weather was warm and sunny, bliss. Nice way to spend a lazy Sunday.... read more
May 17th 2013
After leaving Warrambool, set my GPS for Halls Gap, decided to take the fastest route as it was going to be a two hour drive. Well it was an incredibly straight road, so I couldn't grumble about that and it obviously ran parallel to the main road but the surface!!!! Was awful in places and at times it went down to one lane of bumpy, rough tarmac. The good thing was I think I was the only person on this road!!! Eventually got to the Grampians and Halls Gap the weather was awful just torrential rain so I decided to head for the Motel in the end and try again tomorrow. Tomorrow came and hurray it was dry, still cloudy and grey but dry. Took the Horsham road up into the mountains to look for Mackenzie ... read more
Non stop rain, freezing and high winds
Published: May 15th 2013Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Otway Ranges
May 15th 2013
The title says it all, I must have picked the absolute worst time to drive the Ocean Road, it has been almost non stop torrential rain, freezing cold a top temp of about 10degrees with a wind chill factor bringing that down to just above freezing. Add to this high winds and heavy seas, do you get the picture, sounds like home doesn't it. The plus side was that I endured it all, the roads to my surprise weren't flooded and I arrived safely in Worranbool unscathed. After leaving Pollo Bay I went to Otway Point, it was raining but not too heavily at this point. The road to the lighthouse was about five or six miles and this area is renowned for koala bears. I saw some people had stopped and were looking up into ... read more
May 12th 2013
Second day of the Gt Ocean Road, ate a hearty breakfast and set off to Bells Beach where they hold the Ripcurl Pro surf championships apparently!! Must be true there were some pretty amazing waves there, you could see them forming quite a way out to sea. It was quite warm and the sun was shining. I watched some surfing some of them were really good going over the top of the waves and then back in front, very clever and what's more they all looked very fit, well have to have some excuse for ogling them I suppose. Next stop was Anglesea did not look much like the Anglesey in Wales but the weather was about right. By the time I got to Aireys Inlet it had just started to rain. I walked up to ... read more
May 11th 2013
Today I commenced the first leg of my journey on the Gt Ocean Road. At around 10.30am I picked up my car a little Suzuki bit like a BMW mini to look at and set off from Melbourne and headed for Geelong. Spent the afternoon here nothing amazing except some funny statues that look almost like large peg dolls. They were erected at intervals along the esplanade. I saw Jolly Pirates, life guards, bathing belles, and what looked like either an aboriginal family or it could have been African!! Not quite sure what its all about but a bit different I guess. Will have to do some research on that one. The journey to Geelong took about an hour then travelled onwards to my accommodation in Torquay!!! Haven't full explored it yet but went for a ... read more
May 10th 2013
For the last week I have been staying in Williamstown in order to plan the next leg of the journey. Had a few days on the beach as the weather warmed up, spent some time exploring Williamstown and Newport and having lunch with Rosemary and John, at the their daughter Janes Vietnamese restaurant. Hope the food in Vietnam is as good as the food was there, yummy. The next stage is the Great Ocean road, I have hired a car and plan to take a week travelling along the coast. It's not a huge distance but I think it's worth taking a little time and discovering all the small towns along the coast. Also intend to drop in to a couple of National Parks whilst visitIng the area.... read more
Botanical Gardens Melbourne
Published: May 3rd 2013Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne » St Kilda
May 3rd 2013
Spent a gorgeous day in Melbourne Botanic Gardens, sun was out and it was quite warm, not 30+ degrees but like a warm summer day at home. Had lunch in a restaurant in the gardens whilst being seranaded by a man playing a harp, very tranquil. Walked back to the place I am staying at it was longer than I though but ok. Yesterday went to see some Aboriginal art in one of the galleries in Melbourne, one of them was done by a group of Putyani women and the colours were just amazing. Vibrant oranges,peaches,reds,yellow and the palest lilac colour. I kept going back to look at it, it felt almost alive. They use a series of dots and small strokes that looks almost like weaving and the colours are all made from natural rocks ... read more
St Kildas Beach Melbourne
Published: April 30th 2013Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne » St Kilda
April 30th 2013
Arrived in Melbourne yesterday after a flight from Brisbane, brrrrrrrrr what a difference in temperature only about 17degrees here, had to get out my long trousers and cardigan, still I guess it is their winter almost. Decided to walk to the beach which isn't too far away, the walk to the beach took about twenty minutes then walked along the seafront to various points of interest. You could see in the distance the city, oil refineries and large vessels out at sea. Amazingly the water was very clear and there were quite a few men fishing on the pier, I did actually see one man catch a fish which wasn't a bad size. Also bobbing up and down in the sea a few black swans. There was a Luna Park on the seafront which is a ... read more
April 30th 2013
Whilst in Byron Bay decided to do some Kayaking, I have done some before and did actually have my own Korean kayak at one time so thought I would give it a whirl. Thankfully the sea was calm and the surf not too high, perfect conditions the guys said who took us out. There were about forty of us I guess and I was paired up with a lady from Brisbane who was on a few days holiday with two friends. We got through what little surf there was and out into the open sea without capsizing. We were out on the water for about three hours in total but unfortunately we did not see one dolphin or one sea turtle, so somewhat disappointing. Shelagh who was staying at the same place as me had seen ... read more
April 24th 2013
First day at Byron Bay decided to walk the headland, started by getting a map for the information centre as thought this might help, didn't want to get lost in the bush!!! Started on the first part of the path to be greeted by a large green and yellow lizard about eighteen inches long, for once I didn't have my camera around my neck and consequently lost the is hot as by the time I had my camera the lizard had gone on his way so well camouflaged that I couldn't see him. A little further along I reached the headland and the lighthouse. A bit perturbed by the sign I saw with a big snake on it oh dear!!!! I don't like snakes!!! Still un deterred I carried on walking to the most easterly point ... read more
Tot: 0.172s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 15; qc: 74; dbt: 0.0779s; 1; s:apollo w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 6.5mb
© 2013 TravelBlog.org & Bloggers