Woodlands of Narbethong Marysville

... and 19th centuries. Anyway, there is only so much city that I can take, and I needed to get back out to rural areas again. So, I left via train to the Great Ocean Road.

The Great Ocean Road

This was a must stop for me. A few years ago I was blown away by the photos my friend Catherine had shown me from her time down here. I had to explore this region. I ended up in a town called Apollo Bay at a nice, quiet, rural hostel across from the beach ...

... so I went and had a shower. It was so good to see everyone again, they hadn't changed much, biggest difference was that Tim, and particularly Nick, were so tall! I'm still not even taller than Mum or Dad. I managed to stay awake until about 7 then I went to bed. It took a long time to get back into proper sleeping patterns. Two days later all my friends had organised for a welcoming home party at ...

... also spent Christmas with the Solomons - they are truly a festive family! It was a little unusual having a warm weather Christmas, especially when Australians still sing they typical Christmas carols like Jingle Bells. But I will have to say they do know how to cook some tasty food, and just like in America, we ate the leftovers for the next week. There are many little things that we'll remember ...

... food was nothing to shout about. The scaffolding and railing that was partially blocked the view didn't spoil the evening for us. And I even manage to take a great picture of Stokehouse with the rays of the sun on its buildings. The evening had to end with some silly Malaysians shivering in the cold because we took seats outside and when the sun went down, no amount of coffee was going to keep us warm. Still St Kilda's and Stokehouse with the sunset made a great combination.

And so it begins... de wekker om 3u45, hele kleine oogjes, deur toe om 4u15. OP weg naar de luchthvane... en de eersten om in te checken op onze vlucht. Eerst richting Londen, waar we nog 4,5 uur moeten wachten na een uurtje vliegen. En de security check is hier niet om mee te lache, nog eens een uurtje... Eens daar voorbij, viel het wel mee. Alleen was het ongelooflijk saai om zo lang te wachten. Beetje wandelen, beetje TV kijken ...

Hallo zusammen Hier also wiedereinmal ein Eintrag. Sorry...hatte nicht soviel Zeit und vorallem kein Bock am PC zu sitzen. Ich habe also Neuseeland verlassen und bin nun fuer ca. 5 Wochen in Australien. Melbourne heisst meine erste Station. Sehr geile Stadt. Modern, lebendig, viele junge Menschen. War heute in so einem Aquarium. Auf einer Etage gibt es eine art Glastunnel, welcher queer durch das Aquarium ...

I've arrived in Melbourne safely and have just been spending the day wandering around the city centre, seeing the sights and being overwhelmed by the size and busyness of the city. Not sure whether I could hack living here - there is far too much going on! In one of the parks I walked through I was intrigued by a large stainless steel square on a stand which seemed to ...

Wow! Its been so long since I've updated this. Basically I've had nothing really of interest to write. Heres what has happened since I last had an entry. We arrived in Melbourne on the 22nd. We're staying with a good friend of mine that I met in Germany a few years ago, germano. He lives in Collingwood, a suburb of Melbourne around 30 mins walk from the city centre. Fintan headed to Brisbane the day after to see his brother and niece and nephew and at the time of writing is in Sydney. We ...

((2nd Draft as I just deleted my first entry. Yes great start!) Hi all and welcome to my travellog/blog, I am hoping to keep you all up to date with my Middle Eastern Adventure over the next 8+months using this website. With all my other travels around the UK, Europe and Canada I have tried to keep in contact with group emails, so thought this might be something different. It also means you guys can log on whenever you like not just every so often when I email ...

We slept well, a bonus as Nikki is still not sleeping well generally as her dreams continue to be haunted by slippery reptiles.Still buzzing from the concert, our conversation continued to be dominated by an in depth review of the best bits whilst we tucked into our complimentary cornflakes and toast. Pleased not to have spent a fortune on car parking we loaded up the boot with our over night bags and decided to drive up to the internet, so we could leave as soon as we had ...