25 October 2017 - Geelong and Lara

Woke this morning to an overcast day but fairly mild and no rain. We decided to take a drive down part of the Great Ocean Road and headed towards Torquay and then Lorne. By the time we got there the sky was blue and the views along the Great Ocean Road were magnificent. We had lunch at the Grand Pacific Hotel and beautiful old hotel erected around 1870.

Had a very pleasant lunch overlooking the ocean before heading back to our caravan to get ready for our next engagement. Had a great afternoon and evening catching up with Rob and Cecilia first at their place in Lara and then we all drove into Geelong and had a great dinner on the Geelong foreshore which was absolutely magnificent.

It was terrific catching up on nearly a year's worth of news and family updates. We've just arrived back at the caravan and then tomorrow we catch up with the Watts's and the Houstons for lunch which will be another wonderful catchup as we haven't seen each other in quite a while. Then Friday it's time to end another great holiday and come home.

24 October 2017 - Geelong

After a very peaceful night in Horsham we woke to another pleasant day for the next leg of our trip. As the caravan was still hooked up we only had to disconnect the power and the water and we were on the road by 9:15. We enjoyed a nice easy run down the Western Highway and by 1:30 pm we were checking into our caravan park on the Barwon River in Geelong. The weather forecast for the next three days looks a bit miserable but we are hoping to take a drive down to Torquay. In the afternoon we will be catching up with Cecilia and Rob and then on Thursday we meet with Jim and Irene and Don and Annette for lunch at the Houstons in Lara. Then on Friday it's the last day of our holiday and we should be home by mid afternoon.

23 October - Horsham

We left Adelaide this morning at 9:15 and started our trip home. Had a very uneventful drive with lunch at our usual spot the Henry and Rosa cafe in Keith SA. We've stopped there many times before and it is always great. On our way we passed through Coonalpyn the site of one of the now famous Silo Murals. There are a number of wheat silos around the country which have had murals painted on them. This one is really well done.

We arrived in Horsham around 4pm and decided to call it a day. We had a very large site and didn't need to unhook the caravan so after plugging in the power and water we walked into town for dinner. Found a great restaurant with a Tex/Mex theme. The food was great and we'll certainly look out for it next time we pass through.

Amazingly it was fully booked on a Monday night, and after tasting the food we were not surprised.

Tomorrow we will reach Geelong and stay there for three nights. Friday we are having lunch with Don, Annette, Jim and Irene. Then on Friday we drive back to Traralgon.

22 October 2017 - Adelaide Shores

Yesterday we spent some time having coffee and scones, and generally looking around Glenelg.
Today is our last day here at the Adelaide Shores Big 4, tomorrow we head back to Victoria.
Today we visited the Adelaide Botanical Gardens and really enjoyed it.

A really beautiful spot to spend a peaceful and relaxing afternoon.

It was really wonderful seeing all the families having picnics and generally enjoying the beautiful surroundings. Saw a lot of plants and flowers I've never seen before and took quite a few photos.

The Bird of Paradise plant were in full bloom. What an amazing flower and here they were everywhere.

The park also features a couple of amazing buildings. The first is a huge glass and steel building which encloses a complete rainforest you can walk through, and the second was this beautiful glass house which houses palms and is called, not surprisingly, the Palm House.

Won't leave real early tomorrow as I don't want to contend with all the work traffic to cross the city. Our plan at this stage is reach either Horsham or Hamilton.

19 October 2017 - Adelaide Shores

After the strong winds last night we woke to an overcast but dry day. Still some wind gusts but nothing like last night. We redeployed our awning and set up all our outdoor stuff which was packed away in a hell of a hurry last night. Found out this morning that the strong wind had brought down trees all over Adelaide. Rosa spent the morning at the nearby Harbour Town factory outlet shopping extravaganza while I spent a quiet time catching up around the caravan. When we were here a few years ago we found a terrific Indian restaurant but was unable to remember the name or where it was located. Couldn't find it on Google either but I eventually came across it in our blog of that holiday. The restaurant is called Delhi Spice and it is located in the suburb of Marion.

To our great delight it was still open so we drove there for dinner tonight. It still looked the same and I remember a few of the staff as well. Tonight I had the best Beef Vindaloo I have ever experienced. At $12 for a main course and $6:50 for imported beers it is definitely worth a visit. We had a great meal, and another memorable evening.

18 October 2017 - Adelaide Shores

Another great day with beautiful weather. Took the bus into the city this morning - free for seniors - and spent a few hours in Rundle Mall. At the bus stop we met a couple of Dutchies who had just arrived yesterday after travelling from Darwin on the Indian Pacific Train. Now they've hired a motor home and are going to drive to Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road and then continuing up the coast road to city. They both spoke excellent English but I did get a chance to practice my Dutch.

 Got home mid afternoon for a relaxing afternoon reading and drinking gin and tonics. The forecast for tomorrow is rain and when we went for a walk this evening we could see a storm front moving in.

Sure enough just after dark we experienced strong winds and for the sake of peace of mind we stowed away the awning and all the outside stuff. Bit of a nuisance having to put it all back tomorrow but it's hard to sleep with the caravan being buffeted by strong winds. Of course once we packed up the wind stopped and right now all is calm again. If the rain eventuates tomorrow we'll see what's on at the local cinema.

17 August - Adelaide Shores

Our first full day in Adelaide and brilliant weather again. After a very leisurely morning we decided to take a trip to Victor Harbour, one of our favourite spots in this part of the world. First stop, the Bavarian Cafe and to our relief it was still there. After a great coffee and a cherry Danish we were set to have a look around the town. It's probably 4 or 5 years since our last visit and the the place seems to be booming - it looks like it is attracting a lot of retirees. Victor Harbour has a great fountain which features a stainless steel whale tail.

This evening we decided on fish and chips for dinner and after that we visited Port Adelaide hoping to photograph some of the old beautiful buildings in the late afternoon light. Found this old relic which was the Hart Flour Mill - it looks like it is going to be redeveloped into an art precinct.

On the way back to the caravan park I noticed that as the sun was setting there were some interesting cloud formations developing so this evening I took a camera and tripod back to the beach. Glad I did because I captured a lot of great shots - here are a couple.

About an hour or so we were plunged into darkness -it seems the power has gone off in this whole part of Adelaide. Fortunately we have battery backup for all our lighting and I changed the fridge over to gas. Power is expected to be back around 11pm. Not sure of our plans for tomorrow yet - perhaps the city - free bus travel makes it attractive as there is no need for parking the car.

16 August 2017 - Adelaide

We had four great days in Hahndorf.  Spent yesterday driving to the Barossa Valley and then to Adelaide to check out our next site. After checking a few we decided to book in to one of our favourites the Adelaide Shores Big 4. On our way we visited another favourite, the Melba Chocolate Factory.

Talk about kids in a candy store! We left there with $35 worth of treats which should last for the rest of the trip. This morning we made the short trip to the Adelaide Shores Caravan Park which we've been to before and enjoyed a lot. There's a bus stop right outside the gate ands for Seniors bus travel is free between 9 and 3 o'clock so we'll probably go into the city.

This evening we sat on the beach at the back of the park to watch the sun go down. It was warm and perfectly calm and a wonderful end to a great day.

Also took a time lapse photo of the sun going down which I've included below.          

                                       

13 October - Hahndorf SA

Our first day in Hahndorf. We're set up in the now much improved Hahndorf Resort and one of the first things we did on arrival was to pick up some apple strudel from the German bakery. Today we experienced another ritual here in Hahndorf, the Wurst Platter and some German draft beer for lunch.

Always a great way to start the German experience here. From here we'll move somewhere a bit closer to Adelaide.

12 October - Hahndorf, SA

Left Mildura at 9:15 this morning, and set the GPS for Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills. I’ve lost count of the number of visits we’ve had to this town, but it is always a pleasure to come back. We’ve watched with interest as the only caravan park in town has developed into a first class facility under new ownership. The Hahndorf Resort had gradually deteriorated into a run down dump to the point of becoming dangerous. The park was dotted with huge eucalypts which would shed branches without warning. We had stopped coming here for a while until we noticed the upgrade. On arrival our first two priorities were apple strudel from the German bakery, and fresh fruit and veggies at the fruit barn next to our park. We’re booked in for four nights and then we’ll probably move on to Adelaide.

11 October, Mildura

Got up at 6.45 to take a photo of the beautiful Rio Vista house in the early morning light.

This grand home positively glows in the morning light and this morning was no exception - definitely worth getting up for. The forecast rain eventually arrived mid morning. We decided to follow up a couple more sites on the self guided tour list and so before the rain got too heavy we visited Lock 11 one of the many locks on the Murray River. Our luck was in - when we arrived one of the paddle steamers the PS Melbourne was in the process of being lowered to navigate the next section of the river.

From there we drove out of town to the famous Woody's Gemstone Shop which we first visited when we were here with the kids in the early '80's. It's been a Mildura institution forever and it still appears to be going strong. By the time we left here the rain had set in and we headed back to camp for lunch.

After lunch we decided to check out the local cinema and found that Blade Runner 2049 was running. The original Blade Runner (1982) is probably my favourite film of all time and I'd heard great reports on the sequel. A very long and complicated movie and like the original I'll probably have to watch it 3 or 4 times for it all to sink in, but I certainly felt that this version honoured the original and wove the new story seamlessly into the original. I enjoyed it a lot and expect to watch it many more times.

Tomorrow we set off for out next destination, the Barossa Valley and from there on to Hahndorf and Adelaide.

10 October 2017 - Mildura

Woke this morning to clear skies and warm weather. After a leisurely breakfast we drove to the Information Centre to get some ideas of things to do and places to visit here in Mildura.

Mildura has a fabulous history. Located in the middle of a desert it exists basically because of the ingenuity of the Chaffey brothers who were able to imagine a productive fruit growing empire if the land could be cleared and the water from the Murray used for irrigation. And they proceeded to do just that despite numerous setbacks and near disasters. These early years have left a wealth of interesting historical sites to visit, including homesteads, stately houses and steam driven pumping stations. We decided to take the self guided historical tour which started with the Mildura homestead. This was the first settlement in Mildura which was originally a sheep growing station.

The whole site has been beautifully restored complete with wool and machinery sheds.

We were amazed how complete the photographic record is of this early period, and we found the homestead has been used to house a remarkable set of photos and documents which trace the history of the early settlement.

The second item on the tour was the grand home of one of the Chaffey brothers - Rio Vista.

This beautiful homestead on the banks of the Murray has been beautifully preserved and today is part of the Mildura Arts precinct which includes theatres, galleries and a cafe.

While we were there we visited a special exhibition of Kylie Minogue's stage costumes. While not a fan of her music it was interesting to view the fabulous clothes which have been at the centre of so many of Kylie's stage shows. Everything we saw today was free (or a gold coin donation).

After all that it was time for a bit of shopping and then relaxing at our campsite in the beautiful weather. This evening we headed into town for dinner at an Indian restaurant, and so ended day 2 in Mildura. Tomorrow the forecast is for rain. The locals don't believe it and as I write this there is not a cloud in the sky. We'll see.

9 October 2017 - Mildura

Left Castlemaine this morning at 08:30 after a night of thunderstorms. Castlemaine to Mildura is a 420 km trip and the road is pretty well a straight line all the way. After a couple of stops, one for fuel and the other for lunch, we arrived in Mildura around 3pm. After cool windy weather all the way we were amazed to find that in Mildura it was absolutely beautiful - real shorts and tee shirt weather. Our caravan park is situated next door to a huge shopping mall so the first thing we did after setting up camp was to shop for some fillet steak and salad. Our van is also parked right next to the BBQ's so we had steak and salad for dinner and a fine bottle of First Block shiraz. Tomorrow we'll visit the Visitor Info centre and work on a plan for our stay here. Currently we're booked in for 3 nights but if this weather persists we'll probably stay a bit longer.

8 October, 2017 - Bendigo and Maldon

Woke a couple of times during the night to the sound of pouring rain. It was nice to finally wake up and find that the skies were mainly blue and the temperature was mild. Yesterday we discovered a German Kaffee House in a converted factory and were keen to try it for breakfast this morning. A short walk later we were sitting in a fantastic venue featuring the most mouth watering German and Austrian delicacies and the smell of fantastic coffee. What a find!
After breakfast we decided to make the short drive to Bendigo only 30 minutes away.
As we usually do we visited the Visitor Information Centre first and bought tickets for the Bendigo "Talking Tram" which runs the length of Bendigo every half hour. Our first stop was the interesting tram depot and workshop.

This workshop is a collection of old trams undergoing various renovations, mostly by volunteers.

Pretty soon it was time to go on and take the rest of the ride which was fascinating. After a couple of hours in Bendigo we moved on to Maldon. This is one of the best preserved historic town we have ever visited. It's almost like being on a movie set. On the way there we passed a historic dragline which was used in the 70's to process the old gold tailings which were found to still contain significant amounts of gold.

Did a bit of research on this machine and found that it originally came from the Yallourn mine. After a couple of hours walk around Maldon and a beautiful iced coffee it was time to return to Castlemaine. This is a very historic area with old buildings and heritage sites everywhere. On the way back we passed a beautiful little dilapidated stone cottage.

So now we're back in the van and after a very pleasant day we are experiencing a noisy thunderstorm. Hopefully it will be fine again tomorrow.

7 October, 2017 - First Stop - Castlemaine

We left just before 9 am this morning and all went well. Our route took us up the Calder Highway past Woodend and Mt Macedon. We arrived in Castlemaine at 1pm and quickly set up camp in the Big 4 Caravan Park here which is located right next to the Castlemaine Botanical Garden.
Castlemaine is a beautiful city full of grand buildings and beautiful houses, a legacy of the gold mining era. There are many disused factories and some are being redeveloped into restaurant and cafe precincts.

We're here for two nights and will probably visit Bendigo tomorrow. Then, on Monday we continue on to Mildura with our eventual destination Adelaide via the Barossa Valley. 

21 June - Seminyak, Kuta, Bali

Our last full day here in Bali, tomorrow evening we fly home. Once again, though the sky was cloudy we had another balmy day. After experiencing the second of our complementary massages at the hotel spa we decided to return to Kuta to visit the Beachwalk Shopping Plaza which is considered to be the best shopping centre in Bali. This is certainly true if you're looking for all the classic brand names such as H&M. We were delighted to find a Johnny Rockets restaurant. I have fond memories of JR from the brief time in the early '90's when Melbourne featured a couple of restaurants but they disappeared many years ago. So we had a mid afternoon lunch/dinner at the Bali version of Johnny Rockets.

Found this young boy feeding the gold fish in one of the many ornamental ponds at Beachwalk. He could literally put his hand in the water and lift a fish out. There is even a Lego shop and saw this sight outside.

Walking around shops is pretty tiring and after an ice coffee in one of the cafes we were ready to go back to the hotel. Seminyak is a bit too far for a horse and buggy so we hailed a cab and battled our

way back through the evening traffic. After our Johnny Rockets experience we were too full to have dinner so we cleaned up the last of our gin and tonics and Baileys before settling in for our last night. Tomorrow we check out by noon, but won't leave to go to the airport till about 7pm for an 11:15 flight home.

20 June - Kuta and Seminyak, Bali

We woke to rain this morning but our experience has taught us that after a couple of hours the sun breaks through and the weather is fine for the rest of the day. We decided to return to Kuta for some more shopping today and after a 40 minute taxi ride we were in the middle of what must be one of the busiest places on earth. Left the girls to explore the shops for themselves  and John and I took to some of the back streets to deal with the more entrepreneurial types who would like to flog you anything from full body massages ($8) to new release DVD's (7 for $5). After an hour of this we retired to a shady bar for Bintangs and to watch and photograph the passers by.

After a while the girls joined us for a light lunch and as usual I opted for chicken satays which are superb here.

It was very pleasant sitting in a shady bar, enjoying food and drink and watching the world go by. A bit more shopping after lunch and then a taxi back to Seminyak. 

One of the sights that amazes me here in Bali is the sheer number of scooters on the road. There are literally thousands of them transporting anything from individuals, to couples. to whole families (Mum and Dad and three kids) in what seems like total chaos, but what is actually a very orderly traffic system which seems to only have on rule, don't run into anyone else!

We arrived back at Alila at around 4 for a bit of a snooze before meeting for pre-dinner drinks and then dinner at what is quickly becoming our favourite restaurant in Seminyak which is Tiigo.

Our holiday is quickly coming to a close. Tomorrow we plan to do a bit of sight seeing and shopping in Legian, and then on Thursday we fly home.

19 June - Taman Ayun and Tanah Lot, Balid

Woke this morning to the sound of pouring rain, which continued till well after breakfast. We had booked a car and driver for this afternoon and we were just considering postponing our outing when the sun broke through and a brilliant day emerged. At two o'clock our car and driver arrived to takes us to two sites which interested us. The first was Taman Ayun which is the family temple of the last royal family of Bali. This historic site set in beautiful gardens is an absolutely magnificent example of Hindu religious architecture and we really enjoyed our 45 minute visit here.

After that is was back in the car and a drive through the Bali countryside and rice paddies to the Temple of Tanah Lot. Located on Bali's west coast this is probably one of the island's most spectacular sites. Once again it consists of a number of Hindu temples and shrines which date back to antiquity and are located on rocky outcrops off shore. At low tide they are accessible by foot but the most spectacular view is actually from on-shore.

This site draws an incredible number of visitors late in the afternoon because if you're lucky enough to witness the sun setting behind the temples it is an awesome sight.

We arrived at about 5 pm, just in time to have a good look around before choosing a good photo location for the sunset. I managed to find a good spot and waited for 30 minutes to take lots of photos of the setting sun. 

What a great afternoon driving through Bali's countryside and ending in a magnificent sunset over the temple of Tanah Lot. From here it was another hour's drive back to our hotel. At this stage we were too tired to think about going out for dinner and we had gin and tonics and room service club sandwiches to finish the day.

18 June - Another perfect day in Bali

Short entry today basically we did almost nothing. Spent most of the day laying around snoozing and reading and a little bit of swimming in the pool. I'm always looking forward to see what the sunsets will bring but there was a lot of cloud around tonight so I had to be satisfied with this.

It was still a wonderful evening though because the pool/beach bar had live entertainment going on which was very good.

What a setting - a beautiful balmy evening, the sun going down and live chill music - the perfect holiday atmosphere and there were plenty of guests to enjoy it. After our evening drinks in our room we wandered into town and had dinner at a restaurant called Tiigo which we had visited once before. Great meals and the end to a nice evening. Tomorrow we are going out on a tour.

17 June - Seminyak, Bali

Woke to another great morning here in Seminyak. First thing in the morning we usually have huge waves breaking on the beach. As we open the front door of our hotel we look out on one of many pools here at All and beyond that the beach. After our usual breakfast we spent some time deciding on day trips we may want to do and ended up booking a car for Monday afternoon to take us to a couple of places we want to visit. Most trips in Bali take a lot of time because of the the traffic congestion and we really didn't want to spend more than a half day sitting in traffic jams. This afternoon we had the hotel shuttle drive us to Seminyak Village Shopping Centre for a bit of window shopping.

On of the shops here is a Fish Foot Spa. The idea here is that you place your feet in a tank full of tiny fish which then nibble away at your feet and remove all the dead skin.

Didn't fancy it myself but lots of other people seem to enjoy it. We also decided to walk to a local flea market selling the usual tourist stuff, and unlike the markets in Kuta the people here are quite content to let you have a quiet look without the hard sell experienced elsewhere.

This evening we had another brilliant sunset and it seems to bring everyone out on to the beach and the beach bars to watch the sun go down and enjoy a quiet drink and tonight was no exception.

Then at 7pm we were booked in for a 6 course complementary dinner which was really special. We had an outside table, it was nice and warm with a gentle breeze, and the food was terrific. All this was accompanied by the sound of surf pounding away just a short distance from our table. A wonderful evening.