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Australia 2024
  • Janine Westlund
  • Mark E
  • Janine Westlund
  • Mark E

Australia 2024

An extraordinarily beautiful country that exceeded all expectations. Made all the more special for having the opportunity to reconnect w/ our friends Sue, Gael & Scott; as well as spend some time w/ new friends Janet and Simon. Read more
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  • Australia 2024
    My favorite flower -- these are huge and apparently grow wild over many parts of Australia!

    Umpherston Sinkhole

    September 22, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

    The sinkhole was once a typical limestone cave that formed by the corrosion of limestone rocks by seawater waves and the sinkhole was naturally created when the chamber's roof collapsed. The sinkhole was made into a garden by James Umpherston in 1886.Read more

  • Australia 2024
    Quills & a diet of ants/termites, Echidnas (& platypus) are the only mammals that lay eggs!
    1The CragsThe Bay of IslandsThe Bay of Islands2The Bay of MartyrsHalladale PointHalladale PointHalladale PointStill Halladale Pointguess where...? ;)Last pic of Halladale PointThe GrottoThe Grotto1'London Bridge' refers to the structures on the leftSunset from London Bridge lookoutSunset from London Bridge lookout

    The Great Ocean Road

    September 22, 2024 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 61 °F

    Aside from our first (southern coast) amazing view , we saw our first Echidna!
    There are tons of beautiful lookouts along The Road, and the beauty of each stop is in serious competition with all others. Some interesting learning about a few of the stops:
    >> The Bay of Martyrs: According to long-standing oral history, Europeans killed a large group of Karrae-Wurrong Aboriginal men here. They did so by running them off the cliffs, while the women and children were supposedly killed in a swamp that is close by.
    >> The Crags: The Gunditjmara, a nearby Aboriginal tribe, believe that the souls of the dead are carried to the island and then up into the skies. The Crags has served as a special place for the Aboriginal community for thousands of years.    Read more

  • Australia 2024
    It's a cute sign, until you realize it's there for a reason that we find out later in the walk.
    Having a little fun at a viewing platform early on in our walk.View from the trail looking back (west) towards the Twelve Apostles.Roo #1 spotted in our first few minutes of walking.Roo #2 about 10 meters farther!These land snails were all over the path.The walking path had a lot of different terrain......the walkway was always nicely navigable.The scenery along the path was just breathtaking!This was our turnaround point before heading back.Another example of the pathway.See those sticks in the upper right? That's the site of our earlier pic from the viewing platform.Sheep on a farm inland to the trailRemember that warning sign? This Tiger Snake was 2ft off the path!Uncurling and moving away from the path (thankfully!)There are so many plants that we haven't seen before that are really unique (to us).It's kinda fun to see statistics on your efforts!As you can see from the histogram, there wasn't too many steeps on our walk. Perfect. 😊

    Hike Great Ocean trail

    September 24, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    Today we picked an 8 mile section of the Great Ocean (walking) Trail that went from Clifton Beach to Princetown Beach.

  • Australia 2024
    1Entrance to Melba Gully
    The tree-ferns are enormous -- and they are a dominant citizen in this beautiful forest of green."Anne's Cascade" was a lovely little waterfall."Hey Mark, what is that?"The Myrtle Beech tree can live up to 200 yrs and grow 30m high! They're huge!Leaving the trail heading downhill.Mark is in front of a very large uprooted tree.Beautiful flowers in front of the restaurant.Lunch at a restaurant called "The Perch" at Lavers HillThere were dozens of beautiful King Parrots that you could watch during your meal.Otway Fly Treetop Adventures trail.1We climbed the 106 steps to view the parkView from the walkway.The 'cantilevered' viewing deck.It's really difficult to capture the height of these trees with a picture.And the tree-ferns are also just huge.Our remaining drive to Apollo Bay was just as beautiful as the parks visited.

    Continuing Eastward on Great Ocean Road

    September 25, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F

    Traveling east along the Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay. On the way we stopped at Melba Gully, had lunch at a restaurant that catered to visits from beautifully-colored feathered friends, and then visited the Otway Fly Treetop adventure.

    >> Melba Gully --- known as the 'Jewel of the Otways' and is one of the wettest places in the state. It has prolific plant growth and is a dense rainforest of Myrtle Beech, Blackwood and Tree-ferns, with an understory of low ferns and mosses. Perhaps the most unusual inhabitants of the area are the glow worms, which can be seen at night along the walking tracks. We didn't experience the glow worms....maybe next time.

    >> The Otway Treetop Walk is the longest (600m) and highest (30m) elevated walk of its kind in the world.    Read more

  • Australia 2024
    Talked with local surfers that were on a couple day surfing camping trip

    Stops on Great Ocean Road

    September 27, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 55 °F

    The views were so amazing that we've drafted multiple footprints today as we drove down the coastline.

    The surfers we met were from Melbourne, working their way surfing down the coast for a couple of days.Read more

  • Australia 2024
    I simply love the volcanic formations.Check out the volcanic 'stones'.

    North Lorne

    September 28, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    So what's the plan today? Here were our options:
    1. Go for a waterfall 4 mile hike trail (possibly sections of the trail are closed);
    2. stop at each lookout along the Great Ocean Road; or
    3. Go straight to Melborne for the AFL Grand Finals game (similar to the Super Bowl in the US) ?
    We chose Option 2. First stop Lorne Beach.    Read more

  • Australia 2024

    BIG HILL

    September 28, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 66 °F

    Quick visit to Big Hill: one of the more prominent stops along the road. We considered climbing down a very steep trail and then decided against it. With age, there is (sometimes) a bit of wisdom. 😉 Therefore, we only have 2 pictures, neither of which has an ambulance in the picture. 🤣Read more

  • Australia 2024
    Left view
    A pretty interesting historic summary...Right viewMiddle view

    DEVILS ELBOW'S

    September 28, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    Then we stopped at Devil's Elbow. After pulling into this parking lot, we learned it's the sharpest turn on the whole 172 km tour.

  • Australia 2024
    This is a beach entrance at this locationYep, it's just a beach. A very windy beach...... both ways.

    Great Ocean Trail Entrance

    September 28, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    Since we approached the drive from West to East, we ended our trip at the traditional 'start' to the Great Ocean Trail, but what the heck. It was a great trip. We're asking ourselves, was there another sign we missed 172 km ago? Should we go back? Nope, we have so many more places to visit. :)Read more

  • Australia 2024
    Our 1st day w/ in a while that we're only wearing ONE layer!! (ie. warmer temps!😃)
    Walking up to the lighthouse, J9 loved the Australian version of a minonBeautiful houses along the waterfrontIt's amazing how many beaches are in AustraliaView south of the lighthouse. We're enjoying the sun today :)View North of the lighthouseExcellent description of the shells J9 has been collectingDescription of the coast we have enjoyed all week.

    Split Point Lighthouse

    September 28, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    Having seen the Split Point Lighthouse from previous locations, we decided to stop and take a check it out.

    Constructed in 1891, the lantern still operates having had more than three different light sources over its history.

    Additional fun facts can be found the it's wiki page    Read more

  • Australia 2024
    Enterance to the Victoria Market
    Lots of choices...how about some Kangaroo?Goat Meat?Goat Head ?Each stall had its own unique product.Oysters, AU$22.99/dozen; that's ~US$1.40/eaClothes, hats, wool products. J9 purchased a beautiful wool sweater.The longest line at the market was for donuts. Really??? but it's the truthFruits and vegetablesFlowers. Australian flowers are so rugged they feel like plastic, but they're real..The market place is walking distance from the city center. Really interesting architecture.The wiki page indicated Melbourne is the Australian Paris.There are a lot of interesting smaller side-streets that have a variety of dining options.The Presbyterian church has Korean services on Sunday and a Koreatown was just officially createdFollowing the Australian book walking tour led us to this area where graffiti is allowed.Check out the caption in this picture.Yes, the street name is AC/DC LaneThis is Mark's favoriteIn the Museum of Screen Culture was a demo of an earlier form of animation. It starts like this.......and as the object spins the animation begins. Kinda old school, but still kinda cool.

    Melbourne Day 1

    September 29, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 57 °F

    Each day brings a requirement to be flexible. We like starting
    a city visit with a Hop on Hop off bus, but Melbourne no longer has one :)
    Option 2 is to go for a city walk using an Australian tour book, but it's going to rain till 4 pm. Option 3 is to visit the local marketplace called Victorian Market Place. It a safe bet since it will keep us dry.
    This marketplace is advertised as the largest marketplace in Australia, and most likely, it's true. After the marketplace, it stopped raining, so we walked a good portion of the self guided walking tour of Melbourne, ending our day back in the Executive Happy Hour at the Hilton.    Read more

  • Australia 2024
    Favorite picture of the day
    That's our riverboatCheck out the little cafe under the bridgeLocal high school group performing.A little local art. This is the location of the annual Birdman Rally competition.Local rowing club. In its hey day, thousands of folks would watch the yearly race from here.That's the AAMI sports stadium in the background that hosts rugby games.Heading towards the harbor, the dock area is being converted into (very) high-end housing.The Bolte Bridge: officially 490m long but is part of a 5km roadway & spans 8 lanes of traffic.The Port of Melbourne is the largest in Australia for cargo/containers.Fantastic view entering the cityAnother view after passing the Bolte Bridge.Housing on the river goes from AU$8-10 million (~US$5.5-7mil).Just a fun-looking boat. 😊Then there is the yachting class of boats...The architects in this city seem to be simply having fun.This is the place if you're going to meet someone. "Let's meet under the clock"St Paul's Cathedral MelbourneSimply beautiful

    Melbourne Day 2

    September 30, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 66 °F

    Today, Melbourne is culturally diverse and, among world cities, has the 4th largest foreign born population (thanks wiki)

    Using Trip Advisor, we chose 2 options for the day:
    First, a local free tram with audio that circles the inner city, followed by a 2 hour river cruise. The local free tram was a bust. The first tram we experienced did not have audio, crowded, and old windows and therefore had horrible viewing, so we got off. We then had lunch on the riverfront and boarded the 2 hour river tour. The boat first went inland, then towards the coast into the harbor. It wasn't crowded. We had nice window seats, and the audio was excellent. Afterwards, we walked along the river and enjoyed some dinner at a riverfront restaurant, then visited the famous Melbourne train entrance, followed by the Catholic cathedral.Read more

  • Australia 2024
    As we parked the car for the first hike, we were greeted by this laughing kookaburra
    Once again the trails are well maintainedWe started at that lake belowNicely marked trailThe former home sight of a man who lived in a 2bd cabin at this location for over 40 yearsCan you find the Kangaroo ?Let me help you with a 10x zoomThis is our first hikeSaw this Echidna crossing the street. It's one of the few mammals to lay an egg.View from the top of the hill on our second hike.Enjoyable hike down the hillWe're the first to hike this on AllTrails so we get to pick the name (above).This is the signal stationLocation of signal stationGreat views for us tourists :)Everything you ever wanted to know about this signal station, but were afraid to ask.1This w/h/b the same view as the signal master in the early 1800s.

    Local Hikes

    October 2, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 57 °F

    Useful travel philosophy: Start with a plan until the weather changes your plan.
    Today, the weather was sunny all day, but 50F degrees in the morning, with a high of 60F degrees. With the cooler temperature, we were not inclined to start early, so we decided to check out some local hiking trails and local sights.
    Our hike selections were OK, but found hiking at 58F degrees with no wind and medium difficulty barely required a long sleeve shirt. After completing the first hike, we couldn't get to the next location due to the road closure, so we just parked the car on a randomly selected trail. Afterward, we checked out an older neighborhood called Battery Point, followed by a little time walking around a local yacht club. Even though it was 60F degrees, they were preparing the juniors for sailing lessons. (The kids here are just built tougher than in the US.) Our last stop of the day was Mount Nelson Signal Point, where a signal station was built around 1800. They would keep watch for enemy war ships, but also local shipping updates. It is interesting that before using flags for communication, in 1807, they used fires.    Read more

  • Australia 2024
    British colonies who sent convicts to Australia
    The size of a cellCell doorSolitary confinement cells; located right under the chapel seating!Example of a cellScale model of the church & the cells below, later turned into two court roomsListening to our guide in one of the courtrooms.Judge Mark behind the bench. (Historic judges are rolling in their graves 🤣)Stairs from the court room to the cells32 people were hanged at this siteUnder the gallowsIf j9 is judge, I would be in troubleTools of the tradeFor lunch we went to Cascade Brewery restaurantAcross the street is the BreweryThen we visited the Female Factory. This is an historica photo of the facility.The facility today; the actual grounds of 1 of 4 sections.Jail size was crazy tinyEnd the day walking to a dinner down the street from our hotel

    Hobert - Convict Day

    October 3, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F

    Since half of Tasmania's current residents have ancestry from convicts, we decided to check out the men's and women's prisons.

    It's well understood that England sent its convicts to Australia. What's interesting is that they also sent their convicts from the majority of their colonies outside of England to Australia. Most of the offenses were minor -- most would consider them acts of survival -- but the minimum detention was 7 years.

    Hobart, Tasmania had two prisons: Hobart Convict Penitentiary for the men and the Female Factory for the women. So we visited both.    Read more

  • Australia 2024
    When a hike has a world heritage designation you know it's going to be a good hike.
    We selected the longest hike in this area of the national parkThe initial area of the hike had very promising scenery.And the first stop (Russell waterfall) was just as beautiful.Beautiful trailsSome of the trails are close to the stream.Horseshoe WaterfallAmazing trees -- even the fallen ones.J9 looking up at a really really tall tree...2...and this is what she is looking at!Some trees are hollowed outThe Fern trees are beautiful.Lady Barron WaterfallOne more view of this trail.Marriots Falls trailSmaller trail off the beaten path.A lot different from the other trail.The only restaurant in town, 1862 Bar and Bisto: convict built!Very interesting place.All around us were the giants!1Look at the height of this tree!!

    Giant Trees and Falls

    October 4, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

    Leaving Hobart, our next stop is hiking the Three Falls Circuit in Mount Field National Forest. Absolutely a beautiful trail with ginormous trees and three waterfalls.

    After we finished the first hike, we were a wee short on time , so our second hike was Marriots Falls trail. This ALMOST feels like a work day because we need to be off the road by 5 pm. Kangaroo, Wallaby (smaller kangaroo), and Pademelon (smaller kangaroo) are attracted to light, so driving at dusk can be dangerous.

    After the hike we found our hotel and then a fun local restaurant.    Read more

  • Australia 2024
    Our nice ship with 2 motored and 2 electric motors
    This is Macquarie Bay/Harbor -- the boat covered a sizeable portion of it.Leaving the dockTwo lighthouses at Macquarie Heads with a very narrow openingBack in the day, it took weeks for sailing ships to clear the entranceMultiple fish farms are in the bay -- primarily trout & salmon.Traveling upriverThe first walking tour had this variety of things for us to look for.One example of numerous tree descriptions during our walking tourA narrative describing the initial use of Sarah Island.An 'artist's rendering' of the island. There are no actual photos of the prison grounds.Some remnants of the original buildings.A few specs on our touring vessel.Our room near Cradle Mtn is only somewhat 'rustic'.The view from our deck is certainly peaceful enough.

    Strahan - Cruise Wilderness World

    October 6, 2024 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 50 °F

    Took a Spirit of the Wild boat tour boat to explore Macquarie Harbor: the 2nd largest natural harbor in Australia & 6x the size of Sydney Harbor. The tour started the morning checking out the entrance of the bay to the ocean: Macquarie Heads. A lot of time, money & effort was spent improving the narrow opening to the ocean with light houses and man made reefs. Then, we headed down to the Gordon River: a UNESCO Heritage area. It was made a UNESCO site to stop the logging of 300+ year old trees and stop the building of dams on the river. We made a stop to walk a short wooded area, which included a variety of trees with information describing their features. Afterward, we visited Sarah Island, which was the oldest and most remote penitentiary in Australia from 1822 to 1836. Extraordinarily interesting. After the cruise/tour (c.2:30p), we drove to Cradle Mountain where we'll stay for the next two nightsRead more

  • Australia 2024
    The Park provided excellent trail information.
    And they had an excellent Visitor Center.Right out of the gate, we're thinking, " is this worth it?"Many areas of the trail are protected by trees and mountain side.Nicely built trailsThe clouds started to clearSometimes we had to walk through/around streams that overflowed onto the path.Lots of nice places to enjoy the lake views.The path headed up to one of the lookouts.This is the point where we turned around...a bit of a watery hike. 🤣This is how the path ended for us today. Who doesn't love a little snow...🙄Summary of the hikeWaking for the bus in the snow. Yes, SNOW.To get to our hotel from the main road requires a ~30 minute along down a gravel road.An excerpt (at 2x speed) of the last ~2min of our drive to the lodge. All blind turns & potholes!Arriving back at our hotelOur studio is the left half of this building

    Cradle Mountain - Hike Dove Lake Trail

    October 7, 2024 ⋅ 🌬 39 °F

    After a nice, full breakfast at our hotel lodge, we were ready for a full day of hiking. The weather indicated it would stop raining around 9 a.m., so we were hopeful. The plan was to go to the information area at the welcome center of Cradle Mountain to make a final call on the hiking options for the day. Cradle Mountain is one of the premier hiking areas in Tasmania, and there are over 5 different trails, along with being the starting point of a multi day hike called the Overland Track. Cradle mountain visitation area is a central spot where you leave your car and pay for a bus to transport you to the hiking spots. Talking with the ranger, we found out it's going to rain most of the day with a good chance of snow (!!). Also, if there is snow, the ranger told us the buses would stop operating "when the snow starts to stick".
    So we selected the lowest altitude hike and possibly the most popular hike around Dove Lake. Talking with the driver, he mentioned that the buses only stopped running if there were 2 inches of snow, and he was confident that the buses would not stop running today. After a 7km ride on the bus, we arrived at the Dove Lake stop that had a nice little building that looked like the earlier visitor center with an enclosed rest area as well as a log book requesting that you to register your hike plan if you're planning any of the >2km hikes. So register we did and after starting our walk, we found the pathways trees buffered us from most of the wind and blowing rain. The longer we walked, we were confident we could complete this short 6km/3.5-mile hike around the lake. As we walked, the hike lived up to its hype as being incredibly beautiful. The trail was partial wood blanks covered with chicken wire, which was very helpful when it started to hail on us. Walking around the lake, we saw multiple waterfalls, a variety of trees and plants, and walked over numerous covered steams and through many that weren't. The weather changed multiple times during our walk from serious snow, torrents of hail and beautiful sunshine. Despite the wet stuff, we were glad we didn't let the weather alter our plans because it was well worth it.    Read more

  • Australia 2024
    That's the Nut
    View of a beach we stopped at en route to Stanley.View from an overlook called Fossil BluffView from the other side of Fossil BluffThis section below the Bluff has the fossilsSide of Fossil BluffOur walk on Fossil BluffTable Cape Lighthouse behind the Tulip Festival.I liked the tulips called Down Jones. LolA few of J9's favorite tulips.A stop on the road to StanleyAnother stop on the road to StanleyArriving at our bed and breakfast built in 1902.Misc Nut informationView from the top of the NutView from the other side of the NutCool trees on the NutView of Stanley from the NutOur Nut hike statsJ9 checking out the penguins area in preparation to our night visit1Fun video of the penguins from the viewing area

    Driving to Stanley to hike the Nut

    October 8, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F

    We're off to Stanley to hike the Nut: the remains of an ancient volcanic neck. En route we stopped at the Wynard Tulip Festival -- our timing was perfect as the fields were loaded with brilliant colors.
    The Nut is a short 2 mile hike with 550 feet of vertical. The climb was very steep, but we weren't going to take gondola (available to those who didn't want to do the tackle the vertical by foot). Once up, we enjoyed clusters of different plants and trees along with a kangaroo hiding under a tree. After dinner and nightfall, we walked to Godfrey's Beach in the hope of watching the world's smallest penguins walk up the beach from the water to return to their burrows. We were pleasantly surprised to watch over 70 penguins walk up and under the walkway built for viewing the penguins at night. The viewing area had installed red lights so viewers could see the penguins without scaring them off as bright/white lights would do.    Read more

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