The Great Ocean Road winds its way along a massive stretch of lower Australia and while we would have loved to make a road trip of the entire thing, we had just a day to get as far out on it as we could before heading back to Melbourne. It’s a stunning drive and a place that’s on our ‘must return’ list.
Archive | December, 2012
Photo Friday – The Great Ocean Road, Australia
28 DecPhoto Friday – Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, Australia
21 Dec
If you’re reading this post, then the world hasn’t ended. This is obviously great for many reasons, one of which is that you still have time to head down to Tasmania and check out Cradle Mountain! Cradle Mountain is one of the most visited spots in Tasmania, and for good reason. The landscape is dramatic, stunning, and feels very wild. The hiking is some of the most beautiful we’ve done, and felt a lot like parts of Patagonia.
Photo Friday – Angkor Wat, Cambodia
14 Dec
In case you haven’t been paying attention, we really loved hanging out in the temples in Cambodia, especially in Angkor Wat. It’s incredibly atmospheric, especially just after dawn when the crowds haven’t completely descended on it yet. This time of day is also good since the sun isn’t hot enough to make you feel like you might actually be cooked alive while walking around. Lots of people don’t really take the time to walk around the backs of the temples and poke in all the nooks and crannies. It’s a shame they are missing out on some really interesting spots, but it makes it much easier for us to get pictures that don’t include hundreds of strangers.
Photo Friday – Little Australian Crabs
7 DecI don’t know when I developed such huge fascination with tiny critters like ants and crabs, but here we are so I’m just going to go with it. We’ve spent a lot of time on beaches lately and we keep coming across these little piles of sand on the part of the beach that’s flat and wet after the tide goes out. We didn’t think much of it at first, but after a while we realized that the pile was actually a bunch of little sand balls that were set up by these crabs.
The crab is super hard to see as he’s basically the same color and texture as the sand…
As they create tunnels (or whatever it is they are creating down there) they roll out the sand in little balls and scatter it around the entrance to their domain.
It’s all very organized, and you can tell the size of the crab by how big the sand balls it produces are.
We were at Cape Tribulation, in the northeastern part of Australia, and the beaches were totally packed with these critters. They must have to do this every single time the tide goes out as I imagine all their work collapses at high tide.
All the non-smooth sand is really made up of their handiwork. You can even see the little paths they kept clear as they rolled everything out. Industrious little buggers.
In The Wild In Tasmania
4 DecIt’s a good thing I have a regular Photo Friday, or this blog might have totally fallen by the wayside. We’ve been in Australia since the end of October, and we’ve hardly posted a thing in that time.
Here’s where I offer some excuses…Last month, my mom and step-dad, and Justin’s sister came out to travel with us for a while, which means that in the evenings when I might normally be thinking about sorting photos or trying to write a post, we are spending time hanging out and catching up on the year’s happenings. Another thing is the absurd lack of wi-fi access. Honestly I don’t really get it because, hello, even in tiny Indonesian villages we were able to get free wi-fi at most guesthouses or restaurants. Those things aside, well, we’ve been really enjoying our time, and I just haven’t felt much like being in front of the computer.
Last week we said goodbye to our loved ones and made our way to Tasmania. It’s part of Australia…you’d be surprised how many people don’t know that. I’m a little ashamed to admit that when a friend of mine came here years ago, I had to look up where exactly it is on the map. In any case, we’re currently living out of a campervan (which is amazing by the way, totally do this for a while if you ever get the chance) and have been spending most of our time gallivanting around Tasmania’s national park system.
We didn’t know much about Tasmania because almost nobody we know has ever been here, so we didn’t really have any expectations other than that we’d heard it was a good place to be hiking and doing other nature-y things.
Well let me tell you, our minds have been totally blown by how STUNNINGLY beautiful it is. The landscape combines two of the things we love the most – lush mountains and perfectly blue-green ocean waters on white-sand beaches.
Our photos don’t even begin to do it justice, but we’ll leave you with this very tiny slide show for just a small taste. As always, it’s much better if you actually click-through to Flickr and check it out on the full screen setting.
*For whatever reason, I can’t make the slide show actually show up here, so just click the link and it’ll open in a new window*
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theparallellife/sets/72157632167603166/show/
The Parallel Life 