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

Melbourne Memories

We're delighted to hear that our blog brings back nostalgic memories to some Malaysians who have lived in Melbourne back in the 70s and 80s. If there's any specific place in the city that you'd love to see captured in photographs, we'd be happy to do some photo hunting to those places. Who knows, maybe we'll even discover places which we might have never visited before too. List your favourite places here, drop a comment, or e-mail us :)

Saturday Sights of Swanston St

We never seem to get bored of walking in the city.  We go to the city everyday, and sometimes when we have to go to the city on weekends, there's still something to see and experience.  Most of the sights are pretty much the same, but there's always a different 'feel' to them each day.

If you walk along Swanston St on weekends, like a Saturday, you're bound to experience a more active street life.  Most of the times, there'll be the 'regulars', but somehow, they still manage to get crowds to stop and have a look.

You might have stumbled upon the guys who spray paints their painting:

The riders, the horses and the coaches:

And the guy with the mohawk who plays chess!

My personal favourite has got to be the couple who sing and play guitar at the corner of Bourke St.  Maybe next time I'll get a snapshot of them, or maybe record some bits of their singing.

wondergram!

Make way for wondergram!

Fancy buying some prints of Melbourne for yourself, or to send as a gift through the mail to someone?  I have some snapshots of Melbourne and other photos taken in instagram and hipstamatic formats, on a 4x4 glossy photo paper.  Prints will be mailed from Melbourne to anywhere in the world :)  I will update more details soon.  Meanwhile, anyone interested can email me at blogwalkwalk[at]gmail[dot]com


Now wouldn't it be nice to receive cool stuff in the mailbox?

Watching the Water @ Port Melbourne

There are just those times where you yearn to be somewhere where it's peaceful and serene.  A place where you can just stand, watch and appreciate all that is beyond your own self.  To us, that place is often a place of nature.  One of the perks of living in Melbourne is that you get the city, the suburb and nature all in one place (as what I've told a lot of people why we truly enjoy being here).  So if you're ever feeling in the need of going to that place, we are delighted to recommend any beach along Port Phillip Bay.  Unlike many of the locals here, we prefer to go to the beach when it's not hot nor sunny (which means, bring a jacket just in case the wind and chill gets too harsh on you).  And the best thing about going to the beach when it's not the typical weather that one would go out to the beach is that there won't be a lot of people.  That's what you need if you're looking for some tranquil moments, right?

Bring coins to pay for parking and a picnic chair is good if you just want to sit and watch the sunset and the sea (maybe we should try sitting next time instead of standing).  And may I add, the clouds are always breathtaking to watch, especially when it gets heavy and seems to be as intense as the water.

a brief visit to the beach

Port Melbourne

Check out the Waterwall at Collins St!

This is a wall that we always keep our eyes on - waiting for the next feature.  The current wall feature is pretty awesome.  From far, we thought it is a digital screen of moving water.  We went close to touch it. It is water!

Luxurious Scenery @ Mordialloc

It was raining this morning and from the weather forecast, it seemed like it was going to rain the whole day.  Fortunately for us and you, the rain decided to make way for the sun.  Wet Saturday turned out to be a beautiful sunny (but still pretty cold) Saturday evening!  We were driving out from the city, bound south towards home, earlier this evening.  It was about 4pm, the day was still bright and the sun was shining, and it was too good to be spent indoors.  We couldn't think of where to go to spend what's left of the day, so we decided to keep on driving south on Nepean Hwy.  We knew that had we kept on driving, we'd at least reach Frankston, and that's still pretty good considering that we haven't visited there for some times.  So we just drove, enjoyed the highway and the sun, and decided to take a turn at Mordialloc via Beach Rd to catch a view of the beach in exchange for the roads.

Lucky enough, we were at the estuary of Mordialloc and the river was filled with boats.  It's not a big place, but we felt it was such a lovely scenery - of boats, river, timber platforms, some nice breeze and the sun.  Somewhat 'luxurious' scenery I would say, and a nice change from looking at city buildings all week long.  We were reassured that the scenery was a great one because we even spotted people taking their wedding photos there!

Mordialloc is about 45 min away from Melbourne CBD.  Free parking for 2 hours is on the other side of the river near the boat clubs and houses (where we took these photos), but otherwise, paid parking spaces are plenty.  You can come for a picnic on the lawns by the beach - they are pretty similar to those along St. Kilda Beach.

p/s: You can even hire the boats.

View Larger Map

Sunday Coffee in the City

We went to the city today.  Then drove round and round and round looking for a free parking.  As it turned out, all were full!  The unsuccessful search for parking had cost us more than a half-hour of time (and fuel), and at last, we gave up and decided we needed to have a coffee break.  Lucky enough, we found a 1-hour parking spot right in front of a cafe.  The books by the window were what attracted us to go inside.  Can anyone guess where this might be? :)

Rainy Melbourne

Salam & A Good Week to Our Dear WWM Friends,

As you might have already noticed, we haven't uploaded anything new recently.  Well, that's because we haven't done a lot of walking lately.  I have been very much occupied with research work that most of our leisure "walk-walk" plans have to be put on hold for a while.  But of course, brief daily ones can't be missed :)  I'll upload some snapshots of the everyday Melbourne sometimes later.  We've been busy that we even had to miss out on Festival Malaysia and Harmony Market Festival.  So, if any of you would like to share your photos and experiences going to those two events, even other ones that we might have not know about, we would absolutely love that! Just email your contribution to blogwalkwalk[at]gmail[dot]com.  (Which reminds me, there's some line up of nice emails on suggestions of places and feedbacks which I am yet to post and share with the rest of WWM friends).

 Here are some future posts to look forward to:


1. A new Halal eatery that I visited just now for lunch at Lygon St - IndoLicious (thanks to friends that recommended it!)
2. The overdue Winter Trips (perhaps to give ideas for your next winter)
3. Spring events (heard that there will be a lot of Spring Garden events in the parks)
4. Summer is coming soon!  (Another overdue post of our Autumn Camping Trip to Wilsons Prom, and planning for a brief one sometimes in November).  And, a fishing trip which we have missed out twice (Sorry kawans, we will definitely make plans to go one day).  I'll ask my friends of the details in case any of you want to go.
5. Walk Walk Sydney! I'll share some places that I found interesting during our trip there a couple of months ago.
6. Not to forget, Walk Walk Melbourne CBD Map.
7. And lastly, we'll be doing a "walk walk abroad" soon in November.  Where?  That will have to wait ;)

So do stay tuned... and to those who helped to share about WWM to others, or even mentioning to restaurants that you knew about that place from WWM, you have really made our day :)


Meanwhile, umbrellas up people, coz it sure is raining this week!  Enjoy the rain and cool weather, before the summer heat comes.

Till then, happy weekends to all!
kayla