Beach Time

Bluff Lookout

With the city behind us and summer almost midway, we joined the Victorian exodus to the coast. We were invited by some friends to Ocean Grove where they have a permanent on site caravan. The Wynndean Holiday Resorts has permanent caravans with annexes. You buy the caravans and pay the management annual fees. Its probably a more affordable way to own a holiday house by the beach. 

Permanent caravan with annex

Me and thousands of people

Unlike Sydney or Queensland,the water is too cold for me. Temperature is usually in low twenties. TJ managed to get into the water the first two days but only after running in the morning. You work up a sweat and jump right in. For me, the day finally came when the mercury hit 42c. I joined thousands of people trying to cool down on this hot day. It was like being in an oven with the hot wind blowing. Fortunately the hot weather doesn't usually last. The cool change came around 5pm.

Over-rated??

Postcard Shot

Since Ocean Grove is near to the Great Ocean Road, we decided to do this famous drive. The drive to the 12 Appostle took more than 2 hours, passing a few coastal towns. 

Loch Ard Gorge

Beach at the bottom of Loch Ard Gorge

Our first stop was before the Great Ocean Road at Bells Beach. This is supposedly a famous surfing beach hosting an international event and also featured in the movie Point Break. 

We finally reached our destination and as expected, it was busy. We took the longer trail to the beach which had 2 of the appostles. After our lunch at the beach, we headed to the popular lookout to view the rest of the appostles featured in posters and postcard. 

About 4km further from the 12 Appostle, we found Loch Ard Gorge. We prefer this spot to the main attraction. We could walk down to the beach for a pleasant swim.

Finally the question, is the 12 Appostle over-rated?

Found this unmarked place

City Slickers

We spent the last month of 2017 in the 2nd biggest city in Australia otherwise claimed to be the most liveable place in the country. Courtesy of TJ's sister, we house sat and minded a gentle spoodle for 3 weeks. It turned out to be a good time as TJ managed to do some fix-it jobs on the Podd and car. It was the first time in many months that we were in traffic jam crossing the West Gate Bridge.

Home of the Grand Prix, Albert Park

City Slicker

Melbourne is a great city for bikers with its many bike lanes and flat terrain. You can even ride into the city's busy Flinders Station and Crown Casino, dodging pedestrians. Our first experience riding in the city was the perfect storm, last working day before Christmas from lunch time!

A visit to the famous MCG to watch the Aussies train before the Boxing Day match

Waiting in line at Hawker Chan

The time here gave us the opportunity to catch up with many friends living here. After all it is "most liveable city". And soaking up what Melbourne has to offer. I have to admit that it is a place where I could live. We even queued up an hour and half for a Michelin star chicken rice!

One sad event that possibly marred our stay was the Flinders St attack. While this was not the first, it was one where I realised we could have been there. We were at the exact place just a few days ago.

The sight of my original home country still excites me

10 out of 10 Storm Warning in Victoria

A break from the rain 

A week after the Alpine Challenge, came a weather warning for the entire state of Victoria. The warning came from BOM for residents to be prepared for massive deluge of rain i.e expect a summer's rain total in just 3 days. The North east of Victoria is expected to be hit with >250mm of rain. Of course, Falls Creek is in this region. Our camp site is about 20 mins from Falls Creek called Raspberry Hill. It is a nice site. 

On Thursday, we could see most campers packing up. We folded all the walls and awnings and prepped inside our van. We were prepared to stay inside for 3 days. We could access our food and fridge internally. We have camping cooking utensils and gas burner. All we had to make sure is plenty of water. Yes, we also have a potty for emergency. There is no point in heading elsewhere as the entire state will get the rain. At least we know we won't be flooded up here.

The rain started on Friday afternoon and continued through the weekend. It finally subsided on Sunday but was intermittent. After 2 days indoor, we finally jumped in the car and had a good shower at Falls Creek. It is great that FC has public showers. Great move by the management. During this break, we also took the opportunity to dry a few damp stuff.

After looking at the weather, we decided to head to Lakes Entrance on Monday and hopefully to Melbourne by Thursday. Fingers-crossed....

Volunteering

from the Hotham Village Square 

After spending 10 days at Kosciusko NP, we arrived at Victoria Falls campground. It  wasn't a great camp site but good enough for 2 days before we head to Mount Hotham to volunteer for a run event by Running Wild. It was the Dinner Plain Mile High Trail Run and True Spirit of Alpine Australia Run at Mount Hotham over the weekend. As volunteers, we get to stay at the staff lodge which was at the top of the mountain.

Walking up to our accommodation

A selfie on top of Orchard chair lift on check point duty

After Mount Hotham, we went to Falls Creek, which hosts another run the week after. The race organiser, PA arranged accommodation for us from Monday instead of closer to the run date provided we helped him with the preparations. There were lots more activities from Falls Creek. We were able to do bike rides and walk/run the trails. It is the most activities we have done since we started.

View from Heathy Spur 

My 26km solo ride

Short sunset ride to test our bikes

Albury Stopover

After the drama of losing our car tow hitch resulting in an extended stay at Kosciuszko NP, we finally headed to Albury. It is by far the biggest town we have been since we left. Bigger than Dubbo.

The plan is to stay for 4 day with friends and get a few things for the caravan plus stocking up. Todd managed to book his car in for an overdue service as well.

Over the weekend, we went for a short bike ride along the old railway track in Victory. It was a scenic ride to Sandy Creek Bridge. The bridge is an old rail bridge which has been turned into a pedestrian/walking bridge. I think 1.35mil was spent on this.

Blue Water Hole

We checked out Blue Water Hole campground one fine day. As per namesake, there are blue pools of water along the creek.

There are a few trails that you can do and we chose the Clarke Gorge walk which is 2.2km one way. It was a good walk following the creek in the gorge. There are a few creek crossings. This means getting our feet wet. At the end of the gorge, you end up at a waterfall.

Cool amine  homestead

Yarrangobilly Caves

We took a day trip to visit the Caves around Kosciusko NP. There are 3 Caves open and we chose two; Jersey Cave and Jellabenan Cave. Both are guided tours.

Jersey Cave has black and grey flowstones with display of stunning and diverse cave decorations i.e stalactites, stalactites. The tour took an hour and half.

Jellabenan Cave is possibly the oldest at Yarrangobilly. It has displays of delicate straws and shawls, cave coral, stalactites and helictites. The tour took an hour as its smaller and I believed the only cave with wheelchair access. This is fantastic as I am sure someone who is wheelchair-bound all their lives would never have seen a cave. I am definitely going to mention this to my nephew.

After lunch, we planned to take a dip in the thermal pool which is constantly at 27C fed from natural spring. However, two bus loads of school kids turned up to put us off. Maybe another day.

Kosciusko National Park

Camping by the Fire

From Lake Blowering, we drove towards high country. We are now in Kosciusko National Park. Not the northern side where the ski fields are but the southern end. The scenery and landscape is similar except there are free camping and no park fees. The Long Plain Hut campground is on a high ground with views. Given the high altitude, it is pretty cold. Getting to single digit at night. This morning, we had a bit of ice on top of the awning. Must have gotten to zero at some point. Luckily we were quite snuggly in our Podd under the quilt.

Long Plain Hut

Brumbies grazing

Overnight ice

Biking Day

Today, we decided to go biking. There are numerous trails to ride. We decided on the Mosquito trail. It was rocky and undulating up and down. Don't think I was fit enough to do the 50km loop as planned. We turned around after 10km and lunch. It was a wise decision as I cramped up on both my legs 100m from our camp. Total 26km done.