On our first full day in Seminyak we wandered around the town, getting our bearings and getting a feel for the town’s character. The Lonely Planet describes Seminyak as “flash, brash, phoney and filled with bony models”. Perhaps I should have read that part of the book before setting aside four days there. It’s certainly worth a look, the beach is great, there are lots of boutiques and designer shops, and there is an abundance of restaurants and massage spas. Every man and his dog will offer you a taxi ride, a massage or some trinkets as you pass by. It’s great for the outer pleasures, but not really conducive to delving deeper. Most tourists tend to stay in Seminyak and, now that we realise how small Bali actually is, it makes sense that many people ... read more

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 45 weeks, 23000 km, 109 blog entries and a bit of tan later, we made it back to good old Melbourne! Wow, where did the time go?! It was only a 90 minute drive fro... read more

Neither of us had expected all that much of Portland but it’s a really nice town! It used to be a whaling and sealing base from the early nineteenth century, a fact that the old whale boiling pot in one of the parks is testimony to… It was also one of Victoria’s earliest European settlements, and rows of plaques adorning stone walls bear the details of settlers’ arrivals along with messages from their descendents. Today, Portland’s main industry is aluminium export. The industrial wharf isn’t exactly pretty but there are still lots of beautiful colonial-era buildings dotted around town. One of these is Bay View House, constructed in 1850 in an alternative Georgian style. Mary MacKillop – Australia’s first saint who lived in Portland from 1862 to 1866 and founded the country’s first religious order – ... read more

Wow, only a month to go until Christmas! As much as I like it, I don’t think I’ll ever fully get used to Christmas during summer. It just doesn’t feel quite right. This year, we will probably be camping with friends for a few days. Well, we’ve been camping for the last 10 months, so we might as well do it over Christmas too :) I had previously only been to Adelaide for work (I was delighted that the board meeting was held at the avant-garde, barrel-shaped National Wine Centre). I made sure that I had a couple of days to myself afterwards, but I hardly recognised Adelaide this time round. Upon our arrival, we made a beeline for the beachside suburb of Glenelg, Adelaide’s answer to Melbourne’s St Kilda, and had fun perusing the shops ... read more

When we crossed the border into South Australia, it seemed like we hadn’t spent much time in the Northern Territory at all! But then much of the NT will be covered during part 2 of our trip :-) With a new state came our second time change; not that we’re all that concerned with what time it is though… The oddly named town of Coober Pedy is known as the opal capital of the world. Australia has 95% of the world’s supply of commercial opal and the largest percentage still comes from the 70 opal fields around Coober Pedy. Some fellow travellers had told us that it was an awful place to be bypassed at all costs and others had hailed it as fascinating. As it turns out, it’s actually fascinating and not nearly as bad ... read more