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.

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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.  

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Melbourne Laneways

One of the hidden sights of Melbourne are definitely the laneways.  They're tucked neatly in between buildings and they are usually filled with small cafes.  We love walking through these laneways, and just enjoy being in the midst of the activeness of people walking and people sitting down on the sides sipping coffee having a chat.  The one in the photo here is Centre Place.  Centre Place is located between Swanston St and Elizabeth St, between Flinders Lane and Collins St.  If you walk from Flinders St, you can go through these laneways: Degraves St - Centre Place - Block Place - The Causeway - Royal Arcade - and exit at Bourke St.  When you visit Melbourne, make sure you don't miss visiting these laneways.



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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 :)

Bairnsdale & Lakes Entrance

Have you visited Lakes Entrance?  If you haven't, you really should!  Before we went to Lakes Entrance and having never googled Lakes Entrance to know what it might look like, I thought it was a park reserve like Wilsons Prom.  Lakes Entrance is more open.  Imagine a road with a row of hotels, shops, caravan park, etc., and in front of the road there's a water body that looks like a river, and across that river there's a ridge, and behind that ridge is the sea.  Can't imagine?  That's because you simply just have to go there to appreciate the gorgeous landscape :)  You'll understand why it's called "Lakes" Entrance.

Lakes Entrance is about 4 hours drive from Melbourne.  Along the way, after about 3.5 hours of driving, you'll reach Bairnsdale.  We were very lucky that one of our friends has a friend whose family has a farm there.  We got the opportunity to have a personal tour around Picnic Point Farm, have a close encounter with cows and calves (calves are very camera shy!), and eat fresh picked apples and plums from the trees.  If you're thinking about going, contact us and we may be able to arrange something with them for you.

 

Our friend took us for a drive around Paynesville.  There was this one place in the picture here where we were driving on a narrow strip of land, and have a river on our left and a lake on our right.

 

Lakes Entrance is only about 30 minutes drive from Bairnsdale.  There's a lot of choices for hotels and caravan park at Lakes Entrance.  Below are some snapshots around Lakes Entrance.  What can you do there: immerse yourself in nature and the wonderful views, of course!  But there are also other activities and attractions at Lakes Entrance.

We felt a love for geography after visiting Lakes Entrance!

Map from Melbourne - Bairnsdale - Lakes Entrance:

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Now remember to include Lakes Entrance in your travel plans.

Coming Soon: Walkalogue on Garden of St. Erth, Blackwood, Victoria

Daisies. Garden of St. Erth, Blackwood, Victoria

Winter & Snow in Australia!

It's winter in Australia now, and the best thing about winter is of course the snow! For those from an all-year-round tropical country like us, winter is always the season to look forward to - cold breeze, blowing 'smoke' out from our mouth when we talk, and of course, the white blanket of snow, and if we're lucky, seeing snowflakes fall down from the sky.

Over these two years that we've stayed in Melbourne, we have had the chance to visit 3 alpine resorts that have snow: Mt. Baw Baw, Mt. Buller and Falls Creek. The other two snow places in Victoria are in Lake Mountain and Mt. Hotham (we'll be visiting Mt. Hotham for very soon).

These winter & snow posts have been long due for updates. We'll post the updates for Mt. Baw Baw, Mt. Buller and Falls Creek very soon, but meanwhile, you can have a look at their websites:

Click them to be redirected to their websites:

Mt. Baw Baw, Mt. Buller, Falls Creek, Mt. Hotham, Lake Mountain


For those in Malaysia looking for some snow adventure, now you don't have to fly very far. Because now we know Victoria have lots of them! :)

Warrnambool Day Trip

If you don't know where to go, but still itching to travel somewhere, you might want to consider this little day trip. We had been wanting to go on a train ride to somewhere for a while, just to feel riding on the train and to pass through the landscapes. Last Sunday, we took a day trip from Melbourne to Warrnambool via V-Line train. We were on a tight budget and time, so this trip involved the train ride from Southern Cross Station and A LOT OF WALKING in Warrnambool. You can get a return ticket for Melbourne-Warrnambool for AUD52 per person. Packed with lunch and camera, we were on our way!

The train departed at 9 am on a Sunday morning. We almost missed the train, because apparently, there weren't a lot trams on early Sunday mornings in the city! We literally ran from the ticket counter to the platform, and the conductor even had to shout "Jump in! Jump in!" to get us in. After that, all was good and it was "Bye-bye city" and "Hello countryside!". The journey took more or less 3.5 hours. The ride was very comfortable too. If you're going, bring a book or music to listen too so that you'll stay awake to see all the scenery that you'll pass by.





Warrnambool train station is small, but equipped with toilets and vending machines.



There's an information centre about 15 min walk from the train station, on Flagstaff Hill. Behind the info centre is a Maritime Village (it's a paid park, so we only looked from far).



We wanted to go to the cliffs and the sea side, so from the Info Centre, we walked by lake park called Lake Pertobe. It's very serene here, and you can go for a boat ride in the lake if you want too.



There are also holiday apartments about 15 min walk away from the coast for those intending to stay longer.



Finally, we reached the sea. This is Stingray Bay.





After our walk on the rocks, we continued walking towards the train station using a different route (walking forward as opposed to turning back). Along the way was this really nice art gallery & cafe next to a marsh. It was time to stop for coffee and rest for a bit. By the way, we didn't spot any whale (if you guys have a binocular, you should bring one. Maybe we'll buy one to bring on our trips next time).



So overall, we walked for about 7 km. Departing from Southern Cross Station at 9 am, arriving at Warrnambool Station at about 12.30 pm, walked around until 4 pm, and departed back to Melbourne at 5 pm.




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Bright, Victoria

It's like a 'tradition' for Malaysians in Melbourne to go to Bright in Autumn. We've seen friends' photos of the colourful hues of autumn leaves and thought that we have got to check it out ourselves. Bright is located about 3.5 hours drive from Melbourne, towards Mt. Hotham and Falls Creek, located at the North-eastern part of Victoria. We went for a day trip, while some friends stayed overnight. If you're going for a day-trip, don't forget to pack up some lunch for a picnic, and bring a jacket along in case it gets a bit windy or cold. The time to go, as according to others, is during the dates of the Bright Autumn Festival. If you like parades, then it's probably a good to go during the festival, but if you just like to enjoy the country side, then anytime is fine. You can check out more info here, on Bright Victoria.

Bright's community parade - has a small town feel to it

Autumn leaves - you'll be able to see them along the road sides while driving

Ovens River - a park within the town

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Camping in Autumn!

We went camping last weekend and the weather was perfect! We walked by the river, walked along the beach, walked in the water, walked on the squeaky sand and walked 3.4 km up to the summit of Mt. Oberon! I'll share about our trip soon. Where is it? Wilsons Promontory - about 3.5 hours drive from Melbourne.

p/s: If you're thinking about going away for a nature trip this coming weekend, then make your bookings soon. Go here for info and booking: Wilsons Prom. *If this weekend is already full, then Wilsons Prom should be in your list of places to visit in the future :)

Leisure Cycling from Port Melbourne to St. Kilda Beach

Melbourne is a cyclist-friendly city, and we should really take opportunity to enjoy its facilities. On top of that, the geography of Melbourne makes it such a beautiful place to live. Since it's a port city, we get the city and the sea both in one place!

Given such a beautiful weather -sunny and cool - the outdoor is where you would want to be. Furthermore, enjoying nature is FREE ;)

Cycling to/from Port Melbourne -St. Kilda Beach is a good and easy route, even for families with small kids. There's a dedicated bike lane so you won't get in the way of pedestrians.

Ride or bring your bikes there; or if you haven't got one, you can rent them for a day from the bike hires (google bike hires melbourne). Or, buy cheap used bikes at Melbourne Gumtree (online classified ads).

















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Summer Activities - Cherry Picking

It's currently summer, and among the activities that we've done and were also recommended by friends is fruit picking. There's a number of summer fruits farms where visitors can go and pick the fruits fresh from the trees, and last year, we went for a cherry picking day-trip at Red Hill Cherry Farm in Mornington Peninsula.

*Post to be updated soon...

Suzuki Night Market @ Queen Victoria Market

If you haven't been to Suzuki Night Market (or miss the overcrowding ambiance of Malaysian pasar malam) then you should plan an evening to visit this night market. We haven't been to this night market yet this year, but these are photos from our visit last year. It was surprising at first to see this much crowd concentrated within one market place. The crowd was the only thing that reminded us of pasar malam. Other than that, the market is still different from pasar malam, from its layout, how the stalls are arranged, how the products are displayed, and one major difference was that they provided tables and chairs for people to eat food that they purchased from the vendors. From last year's experience, you can find Halal food here, but prepare to queue the long lines! Massive crowd, and you won't believe you're in Melbourne (at least we didn't for the first few minutes upon arrival).

You can find a range of things at Suzuki Night Market, from craft, artist's products, food & drinks, general merchandise, music, activities for children and more.

The Suzuki Night Market opens every Wednesday from 25 Nov 2009 until 24 Feb 2010, from 5.30 pm to 10.00 pm at Queen Victoria Market. Entry is FREE.



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