Dec 28, 2012 - Apollo Bay

Vandaag hebben we een deel van de Great Ocean Road gedaan. Deze weg wordt door velen als de mooiste weg in Australie aanzien en volgt het grillige kustlandschap. Voor deze weg is het betere bochtenwerk vereist : 100-en bochten na elkaar te nemen in verschillende snelheden. De eerste stopplaats was het Lorne State National Park : een gemengde vegetatie van metershoge varens een een gematigd regenwoud. Apollo Bay is onze slaapplaats voor vandaag. We zijn nog even doorgereden naar Cape Otway met een in 1848 gebouwde vuurtoren. Onderweg waren...

May 26, 2012 - Apollo Bay

This morning the wind has died down. It is now what I would call a "stiff Safety Bay sou wester" But then we got the rain today. Still, you can't have it all your own way, can you? We managed to dodge most of it. Only really got drowned the once. Yes, yesterday we did only travel 73kms. Today we did 106kms. Slow progress, but gee the scenery and views are well worth it. It didn't take all that long to travel down to the 12 Apostles, where I did venture up in a helicopter. The views from up there are stupendous. Unbelievable. Magnificent....

Mar 25, 2012 - Great Ocean Walk Australia

I spent 5 days hiking along the Coast of Victoria Australia. Over 110km from start to finish with everything I needed for the week on my back. It was one of the most magical experiences, the solitude, and the serenity made for one of the most memorable events of my life. I highly recommend the trek to all.

Feb 5, 2012 - 61st Birthday weekend at Apollo Bay with Katie, Andy Irene and Foong

We have just had a lovely weekend in Apollo Bay which is about 2 hours west of Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road. We stopped in a large self-catering apartment for the six of us which had a fabulous large first floor balcony with a large table and chairs from which we could see the sea and hills/bush behind. We had a few hiccups getting there as first Terry thought our hire car had broken down and would not start and then later when Katie was picking up Andy after work in Melbourne their car would not start! However after a lot of...

Apr 13, 2011 - The Great Ocean Road

April 13,14 Wed/Thurs : Great Ocean Rd Bright and early Wed morning, Hertz let us get behind the wheel. Mindy drove first, although when you are not used to having the controls on the right, the person in the passenger seat drives as well for sure! The key is to remember: driver is always nearest to the center of the road. It doesn’t stop us from using the windshield wipers to signal a turn! We were both exhausted by the time we made it to the airport (30 min from city center) to pick up Hannah and her new boyfriend, Alex, who is from Lyon...

Mar 10, 2011 - Days 31 - 32

Hi All, Now that’s been a fun week. Lots of non-stop action covering a lot of ground. We have never really spent a lot of time in the Melbourne region so this time we were here for 8 days with stops at Frankston (south east of the bay) for 2 nights, Melbourne for 4 and Geelong (south west of the bay) for 2. We also visited friends we have in both Melbourne and Geelong and the graveside of our long term gardener at Palm Crest buried in Rye. We have now seen up close and personal with both heads of the entrance to the bay. We visited...

Feb 7, 2011 - Great Ocean Road - Tag 1

Der heutige Tag sah eine gemütliche Fahrt von Port Fairy nach Apollo Bay (ca 190 km) vor, bei welcher wir der Great Ocean Road entlang fahren würden und beim Highlight, den „Twelve Apostels“ sicher einen Halt machen werden. Es kam aber ganz anders: einerseits uns nicht eine Autobahnfahrt sondern eine kurvenreiche Küstenfahrt und andererseits gab es viel mehr Höhepunkte als „nur“ die oben erwähnten 12 Apostels. Dies haben wir schon kurz, nachdem wir in die Great Ocean Road eingebogen sind, bemerkt, denn alle 2 – 3 km sahen wir einen...

Nov 27, 2010 - Apollo Bay

25th November Today we are heading for Apollo Bay, Sue and Alan have had to go into Warnabool first, so we maybe a bit late leaving. We left Port Campbell at about 10.30am and headed out along the Great Ocean Road, the weather was misty and as we drove along the narrow winding roads the mist thickened and vision became so bad that we couldn’t see more than twenty feet in front of us. The scenery, what we could see was spectacular. We arrived in Apollo Bay at midday, we booked into the Apollo Bay Tourist Park, which is seventies vintage but...

Nov 26, 2010 - Apollo Bay

We left MT Gambier on Saturday and stopped at Portland for morning tea and then onto Port Fairy where we stayed for 2 nights, in the afternoon we went into town and drove out to Pea Soup Beach (very rough and rocky). We also walked around Griffiths Island which is a breeding area for Mutton Birds. Sunday we drove down to Warrnambool as it is the closest town to a city with an old town charm and buildings, very big but easy to get around within 5 minutes of the country area‘s. On the way back we stopped at Tower Hill Reserve, an old volcano...

Mar 12, 2010 - Apollo Bay

Drove along the Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay. Made stops in Queenscliff (where we enjoyed coffee/tea at a beautiful cafe that was a converted church), walked out to Airey's inlet lighthouse, drove up to Teddy's lookout for a beautiful view of the coastline, and drove along a gravel road near Kennet River where we spotted our first koalas and a kookaburra. The koalas were very easy to spot in the eucalyptus trees once we knew what to look for (furry lumps in the crooks of trees). There were several that were really close to the road so we...

Jan 14, 2010 - Great Ocean Road

We travelled across from the Mornington Peninsula, to join the Great Ocean Road and have been taking in this most mindblowing coastal route, passing through Lorne, for a couple of days now. This coastline completely justifies its reputation at one of the top Australian tourist attractions, its beauty defies description - although I will do my best - WOW - WOW - and WOW again! - It is times like this that I wish I was a poet or at least had a more descriptive vocabulary on which to draw! The whole coastline is staggeringly beautiful, but...

Oct 2, 2009 - Melbourne, Sovereign Hill (Ballarat) and Great Ocean Rd!

On Sept. 29th we travelled down to Sovereign Hill (Ballarat) which is a recreated gold mining town/ museum. When we got in, we walked around the town taking all the sights in, went to 'school' to do some writting with a quill and fed some animals. (Sheep, and a Calf). That night, we went to 'Blood on the Southern Cross' which was a lightshow/sort of play decribing a battle between some Miners in 1854 and the government, mostly about mining licenses and so forth. It was pretty cool to see, they burnt down a building and had a circus...