Page 2 of Michaelandlesley Travel Blog Posts


Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Dandenong March 22nd 2010

Around Victoria We have now returned to the mainland Australia and settled at the naturist club Helios in the Dandenongs. On being urged not to leave Victoria without visiting their most popular national park we succumbed and drove for three hours to Wilson's Promentary, a projection into the Bass Straight which used to be connected to Tasmania before the last ice age. And it looks a bit like Tassie with huge granite exposed rocks all over the place. It is a little remote as it takes another thirty kilometres to get to the campsite from the edge of the park. Once there we found it easy to follow a number of walks with tremendous views of the sea and hills with beaches almost deserted as usual. We managed two nights before we returned to Helios. And ... read more
A Possum in the ladies loo
One burnt tree at Kiinglake
One of the inscriptions

Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Hobart February 26th 2010

Camping and Servas Travelling We've made it to Hobart, capital of Tasmania in one piece with most of what came with us. It's a lovely country with a much smaller sense of scale to it than the mainland. It reminds us much more of Europe or England than the rest of the Australia we have seen. We have stayed with a few Servas hosts who have welcomed us with open arms even though they have been busy with other things. Michael was taken out on Monday evening to join an outing with the Hash Harriers involving a special boat trip across the river Derwent, a bus trip to a nearby settlement (hardly a town or a village with just one shop) and then a six kilometre run or walk; we walked. It was great fun ... read more

Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Hobart February 20th 2010

Slowly touring the Tasmanian island We have pitched up at the only naturist facility on the island which consists of Michael and Yvonne's garden with the use of their pool and a lovely view over the water to Kingston near Hobart. And we switched the computer on to watch The Wire and tried the wifi on the off chance only to find they had it even though Michael did not know what we were talking about. His daughter did so we are connected. We've coped with some warm weather for a while up to 28C but mostly it is like an English summer here. The terrain is smaller scale than the mainland with lots of sea views. The east coast was very empty compared to this part near Hobart and we found some lovely spots ... read more
Our stop at Scotsdale
One of our stops

Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne » Bentleigh February 6th 2010

At Lesley's brother's house and Helios Nudist Club (This one is by Lesley.) You may be surprised that we are still in the Melbourne area in spite of plans to head to Tasmania after a week. So are we. Instead we are in the Dandenongs east of Melbourne at an almost deserted naturist site. We have several hectares of Native Bush to explore in the company of amazing birdlife and animals. At night the wombat rocks the van as it scratches itself and stands at a distance during our 'call of nature'. He was still grazing next to the van at sunrise one morning so even Michael saw him. The following morning, setting off for my early walk, I disturbed a small red kangaroo which bounded off into the trees. We are woken by the ... read more

Asia » Singapore January 24th 2010

A New City We stopped for four days here to break the long journey through to Melbourne buying a package of hotel, transfers and tours. It's a city of interest but built as a trading post and now additionally a commercial centre. It's got loads and loads of shops, offices and places to eat. We toured to Changi and the museum looking at the wartime experience of the Japanese invasion and occupation. We also saw orchids growing naturally with a coolhouse to show them in mountainous conditions and we took ourselves off to the Bird Park which was fun for our last day. However, we would not be urging ourselves to return. As a small island with little history except that of foreign labour making their mark including the Brits in the financial sector and all ... read more

Asia » Singapore January 19th 2010

Preparation We are planning and packing for the winter tour for 2010. This is a bit late for us as we have met snow this time. But better late than never. We are going to be taking a couple of tours round Singapore while we stay for a few nights. We are not taking the tandem this time which is a bit of a disappointment. It does not fit the few plans we have made. We have been very busy during the last month and didn't manage to plan a proper cycle tour. We hope to hire bikes when we need them. We are taking the laptop and so will be able to update blogs on a more regular basis even if we don't have wifi to publish them. So it might be different this year. ... read more

Europe » Netherlands » Limburg » Maasgouw September 10th 2009

Maasgouw This is our last day on the continent before we catch the ferry tomorrow, Friday 11 September, and see Grenville and Janet with Emma in Folkestone on our way back to Southampton. We are in a naturist site but it is overcast, cool and with a little drizzle at times. It's better in England. We spent the morning cycling around the Maas looking at Thorn. We caught a ceremony marking the anniversary of the day they were liberated in 1944 eight months before the end of the war. It was a bit like the 11 November ones in England. But then we crossed the river at the locks and circled the area. The rain forced us home soon after lunch. Appelsha, Netherlands We forgot to mention last time that we had a very sunny ... read more

Europe » Germany » Saxony » Dresden August 30th 2009

Through north Germany and south to Berlin and Dresden As I thought, it has been difficult to catch wifi whilst touring in Germany but we have it now at our campsite just north of Dresden. So we are fine and still finding this very interesting. Especially as, since Lubeck a couple of weeks ago, we are in former East Germany. Some of the roads are terrible for cycling with large cobblestones the whole way. Most of the roads proper are now treated with tarmac but the backroads and tracks are sometimes in their original state. If they are not cobblestones they are sometimes Honnecker humps with short pieces of concrete linked together with a jarring jolt at every join. But the weather is great and we have done some cycling particularly at the Baltic coast ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Hampshire » Southampton July 22nd 2009

This year we are off to the Netherlands and Germany Again, if you don't want to receive these email reminders then let me know and I can knock you off the list. I am not sure about the access we are going to have to the wifi network on our travels so this may be the only entry till we return in September. However, I hope we can let you know of our success in finding interesting things to see and do while we attend the International Tandem Rally in Applesha, Netherlands followed by a tour of northern Germany. We are thinking this is what we shall do but as the weather is so awful we might head straight down the the south of France to find some settled weather and sunshine. Anyway, we are now ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Hampshire » Southampton April 29th 2009

And Through Portugal We had a lovely time driving slowly up through Portugal with some lovely and some not so lovely weather. We managed to pop into Lisbon when it was wet and it doesn't matter then. It is still a great place for a short break. We discovered history in Mafre, Tomar and Obidos. And some religiosity in Fatima where we got wet. After that we moved further north to a small campsite near Oliveira dos Hopital past Coimbra where we cycled and stayed for a few days before finding Braganca which was beguiling, a real find. This was our last stop in Portugal and we took to the hills to find Spain. Asturias and Cantabria, north Spain But we were a bit heavy perhaps as we overheated our breaks coming down into Spain. We ... read more




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