Great Ocean Road & Twelve Apostles

One of Australia's most spectacular and well renowned road journey's is the famous - Great Ocean Road along the bottom south west of Victoria. This unique road was constructed by soldiers who had returned from the Great War. With shovels, picks and crowbars in hand they built this road and dedicated it to their fallen mates. The road officially starts in a small town of Torquay and runs along the coast until Port Fairy for the total distance of 285 km. We started our journey in Torquay on an early morning and ended the day in Port Campbell.

Isn't there something exhilarating in driving a camp van across an unknown country? Road trips are my favorites way of traveling. My most memorable ones are crossing the United States, East to West with my father; a road trip with my friend Kristal following the Highway 1 in California from LA to San Francisco; another road trip across deserts and Atlas of Morocco and another one in Nepal and just the recent one with my friends in the Southern Australia. And although I am not feeling an urge for traveling for another half a year at least, while enjoying my home in Switzerland an old dream of a road trip in Iceland is growing..

The start of a Great Ocean Road tour is the beautiful surfcoast region of Torquay , which is only 95km Melbourne.

Along the coast hugging road, there are many lovely towns, wharfs, lighthouses to visit and National Parks. 

Apollo bay where we stopped for a swim.

Great Otway National Park (covering Cape Otway) where for the first time I encountered koalas in their natural habitat.

From Apollo Bay we drove meanders through the lush farmlands and forest of Otway National Park.

Right before the sunset we arrived to the famous Twelve Apostles rock formations, Lochard Gorge and London Bridge sandstone formations.

Twelve Apostles from the distance, against the sun. These are limestone stacks formed by erosion; the harsh and extreme weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually eroded the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then became arches, which in turn collapsed; leaving rock stacks up to 45 metres high.

Gorgeous beaches surrounded by 30-40 m high limestone rocks. 

Ocean's energy and power.

We sat at the wooden table in Port Cambell, opened a bottle of red wine and finished the day in a pink light of the sunset.

Freedom - To Australia & New Caledonia & Tasmania

So here it comes, the freedom. I will not develop further this time what freedom means to me (a lot to talk about) but I am going to travel for the next six weeks in the Southern hemisphere in the land of Australia. Taking an opportunity of making a break "in between" jobs; I have always thought that Australia is so far, years will pass by when finally I find a good amount of time to go there. But here it is, a decision was made pretty quickly and I can not tell you enough how excited I am about this travel. There is a word "psyched" in English and this can describe how I feel these days.

I am blessed to have wonderful friends and family with whom I will be staying and living the adventures together. I have not seen my friends (although we stayed in close contact) since we separated in Spain in 2009 (where we all met) so it will be very special to reconnect, and as we all love the outdoors and nature I know we will reconnect very quickly. The travel is divided into three sections: 2 weeks in the south of Australia in Barossa Valley, near Adelaide to stay with my friend Susi and her partner Sam. There is a camping trip planned at the Oceanside in the Deep Creek National Park. Next I fly to New Caledonia where I stay with another dear friend Deva and her husband Dimitri. New Caledonia is a Pacific island, far off the east coast of Australia and the ocean is gorgeous there. We have planned a bit of kitesurfing and I hope for some camping, diving and nature exploring. After 2 weeks in New Caledonia I fly back to Australia to Melbourne to stay with my aunt and her partner. They have already planned some camping in the Wilson Promotory National Park , the Twelve Apostols and we might go to Tasmania for 1 week. A great adventure begins and I am off in a moment to the airport. Many of you have asked for regular posts from this travel, I am taking my laptop and in between the camping trips I will be sharing with you this experience through my photography. See you very soon.

To Dakhla

Another thing to be thankful for is 9 days of holidays that start just today. Europe is wraped in autumn clouds and as I mentioned earlier, it felt right for me to end the summer and chilly evenings feel so refreshing. But as opportunity comes to take a week off I am nothing more than happy to pack and head to the Ocean and warmer parts of the world. A little moroccan town of Dakhla in Western Sahara is 4,000 km away from Geneva, and even by plane it takes some time to get there with an overnight in Casablanca. Dakhla offers a vast, blue lagoon which is perfect for kitesurfing. A regular wind blows constantly and I am hoping to nail the waterstart. This will be "back to basics" experience, staying at the kitesurfing camp, going to the water every day, sleeping in a tent, having no electricity and limited comforts. I have been yearning for this kind of simplicity since months, having just a few clothes with me, a camera and a book. Nights in desert are so special with stars looking so bright and so close. Will come back with some stories to tell.

Sicily & Aeolian Islands

Here it is, the itinerary of our trip in Sicily and beautiful Aeolian Islands. Back in Switzerland in colder weather and daily life but in sweet contentment anyhow. There is so much to say about all these places we saw and people we met, it was all just easy flow of travels and adventures, will tell all the stories soon.

Itinerary: flight to Catania (east coast of Sicily) – > road trip around Etna volcano and access of the volcano from the North side -> Milazzo port -> boat to Stromboli island (the only active volcano in Europe) -> boat to Salina (another Aeolian island)-> back to Catania via east coast

back from Sumatra

I'm back from Sumatra and will be posting coming weeks the articles about each place I stayed in. It was a leisure travel just as I like it, with plenty of ocean, early mornings, rice fields, jungle and gentle people. Return to Switzerland was fine, still scratching those mosquito bites, I am actually enjoying the colder weather so that I can stay at home in warmth and comfort, taking care of the blog and other homely things.

Intienerary: flight from Kuala Lumpur to Medan (capital of Sumatra) and then to Banda Aceh – > long stay in coasal villages of Lho-nga and Lampu’uk  (near Banda Aceh) -> internal flight from Banda Aceh to Medan, bus to Lake Toba -> Samosir Island on Lake Toba -> Tangkahan (Leuser National Park)-> Bukit Lawang  -> back to Medan for return flight to Kuala Lumpur