Camping at Lorne, Victoria

A group of us recently went on a camping trip.  We wanted to drive off somewhere not too far from Melbourne, and were looking for a site that is located near the water, either the beach or a river.  We found that Lorne, located along Great Ocean Road, has such camping sites.  The driving distance from Melbourne was only about 2 hours away, which is good because there is enough time to enjoy the roadtrip, but not too far that you'd get tired before arriving at the site.

So we chose to stay at Lorne Foreshore Caravan Park (click for detail info), located next to Erskine River and the beach.  It's very near to the small town centre of Lorne, shops, cafes, other hotels and apartments, and Foodworks supermarket is just right opposite of the caravan park.  There is also options for powered and unpowered sites for tents and caravans, and as well as cabins.  As like other caravan parks, there is a centralised toilet facilities, and cooking/pantry room.  There's even children's playground and picnic tables in the area.

At the time that we went, the weather was not the best that it could be.  It was sunny for a while, and drizzling in the next few hours.  Nonetheless, we had the opportunity to enjoy the gorgeous surrounding of Lorne.  Walking by the river, with the ducks and birds passing by, then walking on the boardwalk and taking a stroll towards the beach are definitely worth the stay.  Personally, I felt Lorne was just gorgeous and breathtaking.  Here are some pics from our brief camping experience there:

So what can you do while you're out camping in Lorne?  Well, you can visit Erskine Falls (which we didn't have the opportunity to visit due to the rain), have a walk to the town, go to the beach, have bbq, have a stroll or run around the area.  In this Lorne trip, what I enjoyed was just sitting back near the tent (and in the tent), having a stroll by the river, and just relax and really absorb the gorgeous surrounding.  It's at these kinds of places that we can feel and experience the serenity, calmness and freshness that's probably different from our day to day lives in the suburbs and the city.  So go there and remember that it's totally okay to not be filled with too much activities... but instead, just sit back and relax with your warm companies of family and friends (and a mug of hot chocolate early morning or in the middle of the night would be a perfect addition too!).

Lorne is located on the Great Ocean Road, further ahead after Anglesea.

View Larger Map

Other places along the way that you might want to consider visiting:

• The market by the river at Anglesea (beautiful, scenic river there as well)
• Ripcurl, Quiksilver/Roxy Factory Outlet at Baines Cres, Torquay VIC 3228

Fairfield Park Boathouse & Tea Gardens

If you wanted to be around nature and you don't want to go too far out of the city, then Fairfield Park is the perfect weekend excursion for you!  Fairfield Park is located at the top part of Yarra Bend Park, while the park at the lower part is Studley Park.  Either one, you'll get lots of lush trees and grass and the Yarra river.  Imagine having a picnic there, sipping a cup of coffee and enjoying your scones and jams, then later on, you might want to paddle the boat along the Yarra.  Yes, it's all there and we loved the serenity of the atmosphere.

We visited Fairfield Park Boathouse & Tea Gardens for the first time last weekend.  We noticed that there are picnic tables and BBQ pits around the park.  When we visited Studley Park last two years, we took the chance to paddle the canoe along the river.  That was definitely exciting yet very relaxing.

You can find more info on Studley Park via their website, and more about Fairfield Park boat house at their website.

The snapshots below are from our visit to Fairfield Park Boathouse & Tea Gardens.  

View Larger Map

Another WWM Roadtrip: WALK WALK ADELAIDE!

The Roadtrip: Melbourne to Adelaide

Places to Visit: Great Ocean Road, Mount Gambier, Adelaide, The Grampians

Duration: 5 days, 4 nights

If you want to see more of the Australian landscape, the Melbourne-Adelaide road trip may be something that you can consider.  A direct drive from Melbourne to Adelaide will take you between 9 to 10 hours, but what's the point of going on a road trip if you don't experience what's along the way, right?  We always feel that road trips are not just about reaching the destination itself.  It is about the journey along the way.  And I'm sure many of you would agree (coz that's what make road trips so much fun!) So if you have 5 days to spare for a trip, let's get on board!

Day 1: Melbourne - Great Ocean Road - Mount Gambier

If you haven't been to GOR (Great Ocean Road), you should.  Its a meandering scenic drive (Malaysians should be familiar with Balik Pulau - it's kind of like that).  You can see vast seaside landscape and limestone cliffs.  If you love ocean and breathtaking views, this is definitely your cup of tea.  Famous attractions along GOR is The 12 Apostles, London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge, and along the way you may stop at Lorne, Apollo Bay, Port Campbell, Port Fairy and further up is Warrnambool.  If you don't want to go for the long scenic drive on your Adelaide road trip, you can always take the inland road, and exit at Port Campbell.  From Port Campbell, 12 Apostles, London Bridge and Loch Ard Gorge are just nearby.  If start driving in the morning, you can have a relaxing drive, and reach Mount Gambier by evening.

The 12 Apostles

Day 2: Mount Gambier-Blue Lake-Umpherston Sinkhole-Centenary Tower-Tantanoola Caves

Mount Gambier is a beautiful place - a town once was an active volcanic site.  Expect to see gorgeous lake, vast vista of landscape, a secret garden and stunning cave.  The 3 places - Blue Lake, Umpherston Sinkhole and Centenary Tower - are all within the city of Mount Gambier.  Tantanoola Caves will be along your drive towards Adelaide.  Here are some sneak peeks of these beautiful places.

Blue Lake

 The water in the lake is blue or turqoise only in the summer; while in the winter, it is said to be grayish.  So do visit Blue Lake in the summer and you'll be blown away by how blue it looks!  If you're lucky, you can see it in turquoise, which only happen when the weather gets very hot.

Umpherston Sinkhole

This sinkhole feels like a secret garden! You'd be walking in a park and before you know it, you'll see a large hole with a lush garden inside it.  Imagine getting inside the sinkhole and experiencing how deep it actually is.  Well, no need to imagine as you can walk down yourself to the gardens.

Centenary Tower

Landscape should be experienced with a bit of walking, shouldn't it? Well bring good walking shoes as you're going to be walking up the slope to reach Centenary Tower.  From this tower, you'll be able to see the whole landscape of Mount Gambier.  Nice vistas - one side towards the countryside, while another towards the town and the lakes.  You'll know if the tower is open or not if you see the flag is raised.  If it's not open, you can still walk up the hill.  And if it opens, you have the opportunity to get inside the tower for a small fee of AUD2.50 per person.

Tantanoola Caves Conservation Park

Yes, a real cave with real stalactites and all!  It's amazing to see natural wonders like this up close, and being inside one made it an even richer experience.  It's also great opportunity to review those long-forgotten geography lessons!  The cave is wheel-chair friendly as it has smooth surfaces to walk on, which also makes it stroller-friendly.  Entrance fee is AUD10 for Adults and AUD8 for concession.

Details on Tantanoola Caves here.

Mount Gambier to Adelaide Coastal Drive

We accidentally took the coastal route from Mount Gambier to Adelaide, because we had initially planned to use the inland road from Tantanoola Caves.  However, the unplanned route was well worth it.  Did you know that South Australia produce salt?  Yes, they do.  Via the coastal route, you'll pass by Salt Creek and you might be able some salt flats.

Day 3: Adelaide CBD & Glenelg Beach

After driving through the landscape, a visit to the city is a nice change.  We spent a full one day in Adelaide, driving around the CBD to understand its layout, and then walking along Rundle Mall and Northern Terrace.  Along Northern Terrace, you'll find University of Adelaide, the State Library, Immigration Museum and South Australian Museum.  Here are some snapshots of Adelaide:

Rundle St / Rundle Mall

Rundle Mall is a pedestrian mall, like Bourke St.  You'll see many familiar shops here (just in case you miss Melbourne already!)  The tram is actually on King William St, which is the center spine of the CBD.  This is at the corner of King William and Rundle St.

Glenelg Beach

 I must say that the sand at Glenelg Beach is pretty soft in texture! And you can see this from the forms created by people's footsteps on the sand.  The middle entrance of the beach is also directly accessible by the street shops and plaza.  Have a swim, picnic or just walk around.  You'll enjoy it.

p/s: If you have friends in Adelaide, try asking them about crabbing activities.

Additional attractions:  If you're in for a bigger budget, you might want to visit Kangaroo Island.  We didn't go but have heard a lot of nice things about it.  We spent this third visiting some friends in Adelaide, other than experiencing the CBD and Glenelg Beach.

Day 4: Mount Lofty - Hahndorf German Village - to the Grampians

From Adelaide to The Grampians, we stopped by Mount Lofty and Hahndorf.

Mount Lofty

You can see an overall view of Adelaide from Mount Lofty.

Hahndorf, Adelaide Hills

Hanhdorf is Australia's oldest surviving German settlement.  Here you'll find some buildings/shops that was built in the 1800s.  Walk along the main street, visit shops and have coffee while you're there.

Day 5: The Grampians - Daylesford - back to Melbourne

The Grampians is another national park in Victoria.  Unfortunately, due to heavy rain the previous week, many of the major attractions were closed due to landslide.  Nonetheless, you can visit other accessible places like Halls Gap, Lake Bellfield, and Brambuk the National Park and Culture Centre.

Lake Bellfield, Grampians

Cultural Centre, Grampians

On your way back to Melbourne, you can stop at Daylesford to rest for a bit.  Daylesford is known for its mineral spring water, so take the chance to taste some of those water.

Food for Traveling:

We didn't eat out during our trip to Adelaide, as my road trip mates were very much well-prepared with some delicious home-cooked food.  Here's a tip that we can share for fellow WWM friends planning to do a road trip.  You can pre-cook the food, then freeze them.  During your trip, bring a cooler and fill it with ice to store your frozen food.  When you get to your accommodation, you can reheat them or continue to store them in the freezer, and repeat the process as you need.  All of the place that we stayed - caravan park and motels - had microwave oven, so reheating will be no problem.

If you want to eat out, you can get a list of Halal-eateries in Adelaide from here. 

So there we go, a Melbourne-Adelaide Road Trip: crossing landscapes, towns, lakes, sinkholes, hills, caves, city, beach, summit, and nature - in 5 days.  Do share with us your road trips as we would love to hear from our fellow walkers out there :)

Summer = Beach!

So it's summer... and images of the beach, that gentle wave and warm breeze might be in your mind.  Thinking about going for a picnic with families or close friends, and having a swim while you're at it sound like a lot of fun.  But if you're not into heavy crowds, then it might be a bit difficult to find a more private spot during this time of the year.  You can bet places like St. Kilda Beach, Williamstown and Frankston is going to be full of visitors.

But there's hope!  Last Sunday we decided to drive towards Frankston, as we haven't visited that part of Victoria for quite a while.  On the way, we passed by Chelsea and Edithvale.  From the road, we can see glimpses of the beach behind the rows of houses.  We decided to take a turn and drove in, and found a very nice beach. We loved it!  The beach is not crowded at all, and a lot quieter than Frankston.  And for those who don't like a lot of crowds, it's just perfect.  (There's even life guard points not far from that part of the beach)

How to get there? Well, since it's like a 'secret' beach, we thought you should try discovering it on your own too. All we can tell you is that it's somewhere before Frankston, in suburbs of Chelsea and Edithvale.  To find an entrance into the beach, you'd have to drive into the roads of houses there. Good Luck :)

And there's also a wetland in Edithvale!

 

 

You might stumble upon this little guy when visiting the beach. 

Fret not, this is not a jellyfish.

It's actually a harmless secretion from sea snails 

as told by a local there when noticing us looking a bit confused) 

 

 

These are some pics from Edithvale Wetlands. 

This wetland is included in the Ramsar Convention, which means that it is high in bio-diversity. 

It's really nice to see a landscape different from what we usually see around Victoria.

A Summer Evening Walk in Fitzroy Gardens

Keep your eyes open...
for Fitzroy Gardens!

Fitzroy Garden is just a stone-throw away from the CBD, and on a good sunny cool day, you must find time to visit and walk through the gardens.  It's one of Melbourne's heritage, with layout similar to that of Carlton Gardens.  It's funny that you don't get the sense of how big the garden actually is until you walk through it.  The thought of the garden being right next to the city centre will fade quickly once you're inside, surrounded by huge matured trees, rows of elms, spacious lawns and lush landscape.  Urban parks like these are just breath-taking.  They truly are sanctuaries for the city!

 You can get to Fitzroy Gardens via the City Circle tram, get off at St. Vincent Plaza and walk for a bit.  Or, if you're take a tram at Collins St and stop at the corner of Spring St, you can walk through Treasury Garden to get to Fitzroy Gardens.

Walk alone, or bring a company, take a mat with you or a good book, have a picnic or a light run, or just simply anything.  You'll definitely find some serenity there :)

Camping at Ocean Grove, Victoria

Planning a camping trip for the weekends, but don't want to drive too far?  Well we think Ocean Grove may just be the answer!  We visited Ocean Grove in late Spring for a 2-night camping trip over the weekend.  Ocean Grove is only about 1.5 hours drive from Melbourne, and the best part of the camp site which we stayed at was that it was by the river, and that beach was not far away.

Ocean Grove is more like a seaside suburb, but it does have several caravan parks and camp sites.  We stayed at Riverview Family Caravan Park, located right next to Barwon River.  If you want a place to relax, a change of air from city life, then get going to Ocean Grove.  You can choose camp grounds with power outlets, and the site has shower/toilet/laundry facilities.

While camping at Ocean Grove, you can visit the small towns of Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove.  Have a nice stroll by the shops or stop for some coffee.  You can find Coles Supermarket at Ocean Grove in case you need to buy some things.



View Larger Map

For more trip varieties, try going for a roundtrip drive.  We drove from Melbourne to Ocean Grove via Geelong, then came back via Queenscliff on the ferry to Sorento, and drive back to Melbourne.

The Garden of St. Erth, Blackwood, Victoria

If you happen to be on the way to Trentham, Daylesford or on a detour from Ballarat, and you happen to love pretty little gardens, then The Garden of St. Erth in Blackwood is a nice place to visit.

Although the garden is not big, it is very cozy and pretty romantic with lush flowers, trees and green lawn surrounding you.

The garden is opened daily, with an entrance fee of AUD10.00 per person.  There's a cafe, and it only opens on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  If you wish to have more privacy, go on weekdays, as there's hardly anyone around and you can have the garden to yourself.  Do call and ask them if they allow you to have picnics inside the gardens, because if you can, we think it will surely be a lovely picnic.

Open 9-5pm everyday (closed December 24-26).
Simmons Reef Road, Blackwood, VIC.
Melways ref: map 609(or 909) E11
Phone: (03) 5368 6514
Garden entry: $10

Full info here at their website.

View Larger Map