Tag: camping

Ormiston Gorge

July 22, 2014 — No Comments ↓

The final stop on our trip along the West MacDonnell Ranges was Ormiston Gorge. The Gorge is another beautiful gap in the ranges with a permanent water hole big enough for swimming and a nice camp site next to it. It feels a little bit like Ellery Creek but there are fewer people and it has the Ormiston Pound walking track is a round trip that takes you in about 3 hours around the Western elevation along the Ghost Gum Lookout and back through the gorge. The track provides many good viewpoints of the gorge and the Ghost Gum Lookout…

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Ellery Creek Big Hole

July 16, 2014 — No Comments ↓

After the stop at Simpsons Gap, we drove on to Ellery Creek looking forward to a cooling swim in the summer heat. The water was surprisingly cold but very refreshing. It was very nice to swim all the way through the Chasm. In the late afternoon, we started the Dolomite Loop Walk, a 3 km round trip around the hilltops with beautiful views of the landscape. After the hike, we started to set up camp and turned on the BBQ. The camp site was again almost empty, only one guy who was moving from West Australia to Melbourne stayed overnight.…

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Trephina Gorge

June 25, 2014 — No Comments ↓

Trephina Gorge is located in the East MacDonnell Ranges. There is a campsite close to the gorge and a walking trail that takes you around the gorge in roughly 90 minutes. The red cliffs on either side of the gorge are very impressive as well as the views into the country. The camp site was completely empty, the only sign of action was the posted weather forecast (next days all in the forties..). We had a good time though – we arrived in the afternoon and went on the trail just before sunset. Another good thing along the way is…

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Platypus scouting at Lake Elizabeth

January 24, 2014 — No Comments ↓

The last stop on our road trip from the Grampians (Gariwerd) to the Great Ocean Road was a very special one. Since the failed platypus scouting in Gippsland, we still had some unfinished business and several travelers along the way told us, that the chances to spot a platypus (or two) would be at least realistic at Lake Elizabeth. The lake itself is fairly new – after heavy rain in 1952, a landslide blocked the East Barwon River and when the surprised folks living nearby went to discover why the water stopped flowing, they found a brand new lake. For…

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Camping at Blanket Bay

January 15, 2014 — No Comments ↓

Going east on the Great Ocean Road, we spent a great night at the Blanket Bay campsite in the Great Otway NP. I tried staying there twice before, but there are only about 20 campsites and they were already full both times. This time we had more luck and it proved to be one of the best camping experiences on the trip. We arrived in the late afternoon, after spending a good time with koala watching along the Lighthouse Road. While we pitched the tent, a young koala was walking around the campsite and spent a couple of minutes on a…

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Twelve Apostles viewing platform

January 6, 2014 — No Comments ↓

Here are some photos taken from the viewing platform next to the visitor center. We happened to pass this place twice about two weeks apart. Luckily, we had a sunny day and a cloudy one. Since it was summer, it was more enjoyable to hang out on the cloudy day. Especially the beautiful orange colors of the cliffs are more intense in the cloudy daylight. This spot must be the second most crowded place in Victoria after Melbourne downtown. Picture gallery

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Twelve Apostles at sunset

January 3, 2014 — No Comments ↓

We pitched our tent in Port Campbell for the night and then headed out to the Twelve Apostles for the sunset. It’s a nice experience to go down to the beach at Gibson Steps since it makes you grasp the Apostles’ size much better than by looking at them from above. Also, there are far fewer people around than in the daytime, which makes the visit much more quiet. Here are some pictures from the stroll on the beach between the Gibson Steps and the viewing platform for the Apostles. Picture gallery

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Budj Bim (Mount Eccles) NP

September 25, 2013 — No Comments ↓

Back to Australia, after exploring the Badyuk caves and the tumulis we had one more volcanic adventure on the list before driving down to the south coast in Victoria. The Budj Bim NP was highlighted in our guide book as being a hot spot for koalas. Also, the history of the landscape and its importance to the original owners, the Gunditjmara people, is very interesting. As with the last spots we visited on the road trip, the volcanic eruptions of Mt Eccles had a large impact on the area. Rivers and streams were blocked and turned the area into a swamp…

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Wilsons Prom revisited: Home of the wombats!

April 27, 2013 — No Comments ↓

In mid January, we planned a week-long overnight hike to the beaches of Wilsons Promontory. It turned out quite different since Bettina became a bit sick just when we were about to leave. Eventually, we stayed the first couple of days in Tidal River to relax and recover, doing some of the shorter day hikes, and spotting animals. It was a great place to hang out, especially in the hours of dusk when lots of wombats came out to eat. Several of these cute animals are used to the campground and even try to get hold of the food stored…

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Wilsons Promontory – Overnight hike to Waterloo Bay

December 11, 2012 — No Comments ↓

Spontaneously, a colleague and me decided to go to Wilsons Promontory NP for a (long) weekend. The park is on a peninsula about 3 hours drive from Melbourne. We started Friday in the early afternoon and arrived in time to pitch our tent and go to an aviation field halfway through the park to meet some animals of the park. On a walk for about 2 hours, we saw heaps of kangaroos, wallaby, emus, and wombats. On our way back to Tidal River, we stopped at a lookout to enjoy the sunset. We booked the next night at the campground…

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Great Ocean Walk – Apollo Bay to Castle Cove

November 10, 2012 — 2 Comments ↓

On the first weekend in Melbourne, I took the train and bus to Apollo Bay (3.5h) to do the first half of the Great Ocean Walk to Castle Cove. Since finding a room was so much easier than expected and work had not really started yet, I spontaneously decided to do this trip. I even got a registration for the first night to camp at Elliot Ridge just one day in advance, despite the long Melbourne’s Cup weekend (Tuesday off) and the advice to book those hike-in campsites at least two weeks earlier. Day 1 I arrived in Apollo Bay…

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Biking from Berlin to Paderborn

July 22, 2012 — No Comments ↓

The plan to bike to Paderborn hatched shortly after getting the notification of acceptance for a paper at the Workshop on Wireless Network Measurements (WiNMee) 2012. A little research revealed that the R1 European bike route is going almost all the way from Berlin to Paderborn. However, the R1 follows not exactly the line of sight between the two places, it rather zigzags you around beautiful sights and landscapes along the way. Thus it is an awesome route, but adds a bunch of extra kilometers to your agenda. For this reason, i created a modified version with gpsies resulting in a…

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