Pemberton, Southern Forests, Western Australia

There is something magical about forests. I’m not sure whether it is the filtered light, the complex ecosystem, the size and grandeur of the trees (that demand your respect) or just because I loved The Magic Faraway Tree as a kid. Either way, when you arrive in the Southern Forest region of WA, you immediately […]

The Gables to 12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road Walk, Victoria

The Grand Finale! The final day was all about dramatic cliffs and raging ocean. Although a relatively calm day, you could feel the power of the Southern Ocean as it provided a constant background sound track. The walk itself, was again through dense coastal scrub. There was little wildlife seen bar three snakes!! One was […]

Milanesia Gate to The Gables – Great Ocean Road walk, Victoria

Today was dubbed ‘the roller coaster day’ and it lived up to its name. It was rare to find ourselves on flat ground. Instead we were either climbing up or heading down. I am exhausted, but proud to say I made it! Summary: Distance: 18.5km Vegetation: mixture of coastal scrub, forest and valleys of subtemperate […]

Castle Cove to Milanesia Gate – Great Ocean Road walk, Victoria

It was a fresh start in Apollo Bay on day 4, with the temperature hovering around 12 degrees at 7am. That’s when I made my decision…… my body needed a rest. It was to be a day off walking for me. But…… my definition of a day off is probably different to most. It turns […]

Parker’s Hill to Castle Cove – Great Ocean Road Walk, Victoria

Just like in an episode of Survivor, today I had to ‘tap out’. Lucky I had Suzie from Walk91 on call. No injury, just fatigue. Summary: Distance: 17km post chemo walker, 23km rest of the party. Vegetation: coastal scrub Animals: 1 koala, 2 tiger snakes! Birds: yellow tailed black cockatoo, sparrows fantails, scrub hens. Lighthouses: […]

Shelly beach to Parker’s Hill – Great Ocean Road walk, Victoria

Too tired to write much tonight! Day 2 Summary: Glorious and quite different to day one. We spent most of our time in the forest hiking along old logging tracks amongst the Mountain Ash, Brown Stringybark, and Swamp gums. Majestic trees, ferns, flowers, mushrooms, birds and …….. koalas!! After hiking the forest, we dropped down […]

Apollo Bay to Shelly Beach – Great Ocean Road Walk, Victoria

Day 1 on the Great Ocean Road track was a stunner. A little overcast, warm (but not too warm) and a light wind, perfect conditions. Designed to be an introductory day, we only had a mere 8.5km to cover. At this point, I need to make a disclaimer…… We have cheated slightly and decided to […]

It’s not a Bee line, it’s a V/line – Melbourne to Apollo Bay, Victoria

The Travel Bees are making a V/Line for Apollo Bay. With the Victorian government offering free public transport, our V/line 195km train and coach journey…… nada. In fact, the train conductor joked that instead of showing train tickets, a photo of your dog would suffice! Unbelievable…. something to consider WA. The fuel shortage has thrown […]

Adventures of B127 (the blue suitcase)

Sometimes when we return from a trip, I put together a ‘bloopers’ blog (a series of funny mishaps). This year I started to write one but quickly realised we had one blooper that overshadowed all others. It needed its own blog. Yes, we had the usual ski related bloopers – crashes, tree hugging, disintegrating ski […]

Naena waterfall hike – Mt Myoko – Japan

After hanging up my skis, and on a bright ‘bluebird’ day, Mr Travel Bee and I decided to join Myoko Ski Lodge’s waterfall hike. What a cracker day. We loved it. To start, we hiked along a partially frozen river. This section was only a mild incline and we trekked in our normal outdoor footwear […]