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

Today I ventured into Melbourne city for the first time. It was freezing, I know I have been used to temperatures of 25+but 17degrees was really cold!!!! Arrived at Flinders St Station architecturally quite a nice building so far so good. Across the road to the information centre for a map, then found out that they had an exhibition on of film costumes in the ACMI, thought I would have a peep at this as the weather wasn't too good, cold and a few showers. Well the costumes were on loan from the V&A in London. Audrey Hepburns dress from Breakfast at Tiffanys, Marilynn Monroe dress, the famous one where it billows up, costumes that were made for some of the Elizabeth the first films from various ages, Spider-Man, cat woman, one of john Wayne's cowboy ... read more

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

Decided to hire a car for a couple of days to get to see some of the area. My fantastic hosts gave me a map and marked all the places to visit. These were mcDonald Lake, Eumundi, Yandani, maple ton,Nambour. The following day took a tour along the coast road, visiting Mooloolaba Maroochydore, Mjinda, Coolum, Peregian Beach,Sunshine Beach. Two very full days. On Saturday had a quiet day on the beach watching a wedding party having photos taken against the backdrop of the headland and surfers followed in the evening by dinner at sunset by the river. All week the sun never stopped shining how lucky am I.... read more

Arrived in Noosa from Brisbane on Sunday, the journey took about two hours by bus and I managed to see a little of the resorts along the coast as we dropped people off. The first day here my host Roswitha who is originally from Germany but has lived in Australia with her husband Klaus for around thirty years dropped me off at the National Park. I started my walk through the park armed with a map and set off along the Tanglewood Trail. About half way round the trail my path came to an abrupt end in a small pond. There had been a lot of rainfall previously and obviously enough to fill a small dip in the path. I was a bit reluctant to wade in not because it looked deep but would probably have ... read more