Blogs from Torquay, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia, Oceania

Australia – The Great Ocean Road and the Grampian Highlands – The twelve apostles, London Bridge and a random night where we shared our worst nightmare toilet scenarios!! Truly an Oz experience. Oh and not forgetting my first sightings of Koalas and Kangaroos. With all my tours booked it was time to start the first one, as the bus rocked up to my hostel at stupid o’clock in the morning I was the first on board and sadly for me feeling rough as hell. I had only been out for a couple of beers the night before but something was disagreeing with me. As we made our way to the next pick up point I was fighting my body not to throw up within the first 1km of the 260km ahead. Thankfully I held it together ... read more

So an early one for mum, up at 5am!! I however managed to stay in bed tell 7:30am. It was such a cold night it felt like we were sleeping ina icebox. I managed to get a heater out of the other camp before the rest of the crew set of to Bendigo for the next show. Left the showgrounds at about 9am with plans of going to the Great Ocean Road. Fist place to get through........ Torquay!! With a quick stop of at the supermarket for supplies we were on our way to the 12 apostles along the Great Ocean Road. The view of the coast line is beautiful. We were driving along the coast the whole way. I spotted some dolphins but mum missed them (as she is the driver!) but luckly we stopped ... read more

Früh morgens ging es mit einem kleinen Bus aus Melbourne heraus in Richtung der Great Ocean Road. Die 250 Kilometer lange Küstenstraße führt entlang an endlosen Stränden, faszinierenden Felsformationen, steilen Klippen, Eukalyptus-Regenwäldern, blauen Buchten sowie den besten Surfspots Australiens. Unser Tourguide führte uns an die spektakulärsten Aussichtspunkte der berühmtesten Straße Australiens. Zunächst bewunderten wir die wunderschönen Sandstrände mit meterhohen Wellen, die bereits vielfach als Filmkulisse dienten. Der nächste Abschnitt der Great Ocean Road führte uns in die Subtropischen Regenwälder mit über 200 Jahre alten „Mammut-Bäumen“, die bis zu 150 Meter hoch in den Himmel ragen! Durch die Nebelschwaden mit spärlich einfallenden Sonnenlicht und dicht bewachsenen Farnen wirkte der Regenwald auf uns sehr mystisch und märchenhaft. Durch die hohe ... read more

There Are Easier Ways to See the Sights Prior to November 2008, I had never ridden a bike, but one day I walked into a bike store and asked them to point me in the direction of an entry level bicycle. I was determined that 2009 would be the Year of Fitness (until a couple of weeks ago turned it into Year of Travel - how things change!). So I spent the holidays training hard, with one event being the goal. I decided that my six month goal would be to complete the Great Ocean Road Otway Classic Ride 2009, a 145km bike ride from Torquay, down to Lorne and then back up the Great Ocean Road. Please keep in mind that i had not ridden 14km let alone 145km! The Great Ocean Road Otway Classic ... read more

So having spent a week with my cousins in Sydney (I'll write about Sydney in another blog), I decided I would take a flight to Melbourne - frequently voted the 2nd best city in the world to live from a quality of life perspective and it's easy to see why when it has churned out some of life's greats such as Mrs. Mangel, Harold Bishop and Helen Daniels. Don't pretend you don't know what/who I'm talking about. I know most of you would also have been glued to the television at 5:35 each evening to find out the latest gossip from Neighbour's Ramsey Street. Wanting to save the best till last however, I decided first to pick up the rental car and head south-west via Geelong and hit the Great Ocean Road. Hailed as one of ... read more