OZ-Travels 2018-2019, Stage 6 - Pambula Beach NSW to Apollo Bay VIC- Great Ocean Road

Stage 6 - Pambula Beach NSW to Apollo Bay VIC- Great Ocean Road, 780 km in 10 hours  45 minutes incl 3 stops.

Stage 6 was and will be one of the longest stretches of driving we are doing on our trip. The first part through the south of NSW is curvy and slow, then you have a nice faster highway leading into the Melbourne outskirts and past Geelong , along the Great Ocean Road, it gets slow and winding again but so spectacular. Lani and Kobi did amazing again and surprisingly no one including Sherry got Car sick. After almost 11 hours of travelling we were happy to arrive in Apollo Bay. Sherry and I were so excited to come to the Great Ocean Road, looking forward to ride and run along the coast and see the 12 (8) apostles. After unpacking the car we had an extended walk with the dogs at the beautiful beach down the street from our house and a stroll through the main street of Apollo Bay.

We choose Apollo Bay because it sits in the middle of the Great Ocean Road and gave us an easier opportunity to explore the 165 Km long Coast line. For our accommodation we opted again for an Airbnb. The renovated old cottage was only 2 blocks away form the beach promenade, and was perfectly set up with a small kitchen (no dishwasher), 3 bedrooms, full bathroom, a laundry room with washer,dryer and 2nd toilet and living room with a fire place and a reverse cycle Air.
The backyard was fully fenced and secure for the dogs, with a wooden deck and grassy area, and undercover area with a barbecue.
In the front of the house another covered area lead to a not fully fenced big yard.
The owners provided wood for the fire place, which we happily used almost every evening.
There are shops and restaurants close by, which is a big plus.
Overall great accommodation, awesome value. We would book this Airbnb (Moore House) again.

After the first night and good sleep in, we went  to Sandy Feet for breakfast. Food was good and

despite very busy on Saturday morning we didn't have to wait too long. Great also that the dogs were welcome to the outdoor sitting area. We went for a long walk to the marina, where Lani enjoyed herself in the cold water chasing fishes.
We went for a 30 km bike ride along the Barham River towards the hinterland. It was very scenic and enjoyable ride climbing through the forest, despite the cold temperatures(we Townsville people are used to warmer temperatures).
We enjoyed our front yard that late milder afternoon playing with dogs, sipping glasses of Champagne offered by our Airbnb Host (Thanks for that:-)) and waiting for the sunset.

Day 2 in Apoollo Bay was finally a warmer day (30 degrees, Yeah). We always wanted to ride ourbikes on the Great Ocean Road but we wanted to do it as safe as possible. We decided to ride from Port Campbell towards Warrnambool  and back. Just a 50 km ride for today as we still wanted to go and see the Loch Ard Gorge and the 12 Apostles, which we did after a late Lunch in Port Campbell. It was surprising how hard it was to find a place to eat lunch after 3.30 PM. In fact there was only one.
We spent the rest of the late afternoon visiting and walking to the Gorge and to the Apostles, What amazing scenery:-)  Nature is such an amazing artist, sculpting and remodeling! Absolutely stunning!!

Apollo Bay presented it self again in cooler temperatures on day 3. Some rain forecast for the

afternoon. Today's plan was to do a trail run. We drove by car to Cape Otway where we visited the Lighthouse. The Cape Otway Light-station is the oldest and most important lighthouse in Australia, it was built in 1848 to prevent shipwrecking. The light station is at the most Southern Point where the Bass Straits and Indian Ocean collide. It is well known as very treacherous waters and many many ships have sunk here.We climbed to the top of the lighthouse over 90m. The view was spectacular!

After sightseeing, we ran towards Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Walk trails. The scenery along the Trails are stunning and despite the many up and downs we truly enjoyed the 12 km out and back run.
As you can see we keep our travels quite active. (always a great way to justify our eating and drinking :-)

Day 4 -A freezing morning kept us in bed a bit longer- We kept it a fairly active day with 2 longer beach walks and a 6 km run (legs were bit sore from the trails yesterday) and relaxed the rest of the day. We started to pack up the car for an early start in the morning as we have another 750 km drive awaiting.

We rewarded ourselves with a nice Dinner at Chris's Beacon Point. The Restaurant is nestled on the
hillside of Skenes Creek, with a panoramic coastal view just 5 km from Apollo Bay. They specialize in Mediterranean food. The ambiance, food and service were amazing. If you're visiting, make sure you come for a treat.

Next Stop, Adelaide

Nature is absolute amazing, isn't it? If you like the pics leave a comment!

OZ-Travels 2018-2019, Stage 5 - Sydney/Rozelle to Pambula Beach

Stage 5 - Sydney/Rozelle to Pambula Beach = 454km, 7 1/2 hours including 1 stop

We choose our next stop on the Far South NSW coast. I had been to Huskisson in Jervais Bay a couple of times before for triathlons and thought it was beautiful and that Mic would enjoy the scenery. We choose the area of Eden as I had read about its beauty, whales and it was a bit closer to our next destination on the Great Ocean Road.
We actually chose an AirBnB in Pambula Beach which is half way between Merimbula and Eden. All of this area is primarily holiday accommodations with a handful of locals both retired and working.

Our trip from Sydney, despite not being that far in Kms, seemed to take forever. The Princes Highway is slow, hilly and windy all the way from Cronulla down the whole south coast. Once you passed Wollongong there was not many ocean vistas rather mostly rural and forest. Our amazing fur baby travellers were really calm most of the trip. I think we have been really tiring them out with all their walks and excursions. We stopped for a break and coffee at the Milk Shed off the highway. It was a cute cheese factory, restaurant and accommodation. Coffee was good, toilets were clean and lots of grassy area for the dogs to walk. Kobi and Lani even saw their first cows 🐄! We arrived into Pambula Beach after 630pm, just in time to unpack, settle in, go for a beach walk and have some dinner.

We chose another AirBnB accommodation that is an exclusive vacation rental but advertises itself as a luxury accommodation that is pet friendly. That along with the rough collie in their advertising pictures got my attention :-) We booked 5 nights at Heaven 2 which is a 3B/1B vacation home with a very large fenced and secure backyard. It was really spacious and had most of the amenities that we needed but you could definitely tell the difference between this being a strictly vacation home versus someone’s actual home. We are preferring the love we feel in people’s homes that aren’t just for vacation rentals. It was still very well appointed with a comfy bed and a great shower head with lots of powerful hot water, a must with how cold it is down here!!

The weather has not been too kind for our visit being mostly rainy with a few spurts of sunshine.

Temps are 20 at best and overnight lows around 11-12. Brrrrrrr!! Thank god for reverse cycle air. We have had the heat on every day!! It’s crazy to see locals running around in shorts and t-shirts while we are bundled up like we are in Antartica, 😂. We even have to cover the dogs up in blankets when they come in from the beach. I have yet to unpack my summer dresses.

Despite being cold, the scenery is spectacular., The beaches are pristine white and squeak when you walk on the sand. The water is the most amazing blues, turquoise and emerald greens and in many parts its crystal clear to the bottom. The water is cold but not as cold as you would expect considering the air temp. Probably around 17-18 degrees. People were actually swimming just in their swimmers!! Pambula Beach is super quiet with really no services and a very small population. So most of our days here have been made of long beach walks and runs. Never really get tired of that. We went for only 1 ride the first day and turned around early as it was so windy and my rims are kinda big and I thought I would get blown off my bike. Mic thought it best not to press my luck since we have so much of our trip left. We never got back on the bikes as it was just too cold and wet. Sad as it looks like some amazing places to ride. However people here don’t seem to be very biker friendly :-( Almost as bad as Townsville!!

We took a drive into Eden to check it out and were really happy we chose to stay in Pambula Beach,

liking the vibe much better here. We also drove into Merimbula and had an early Tapas and Wine dinner at Ritzy’s one night. The food was good and the service was fun, meeting another transplanted Italian. the restaurant is rated #3 in Trip Advisor for the area and is currently for sale for $200,000 if you are looking for a sea change? Lol 😝.

We took the kids to Merimbula Beach on our last day. We stopped first for breakfast at a cute cafe, More More’s on the Boardwalk that allowed dogs and had lots of gluten free options - yeah a bonus for me! Then we were off to the beach. The sun came out finallay which made for some spectacular colours in the ocean. All we needed were some dolphins in the waves and it would have been magic. No such luck but we had an amazing walk in very deep sand for over 5K. Then up to the point and more walking with the dogs. So many off leash areas, its so cool! We met some really nice people and had some great conversations. Something we never really have had time for in the past. Such a luxury and so enjoyable. I think we’re going to enjoy this new laidback life :-)

Speaking of laidback, 5 days is enough here in Pambula Beach. We are looking forward to our next journey tomorrow to the Great Ocean Road and Apollo Bay.

OZ-Travels 2018-2019, Stage 4 - Coffs Harbour/Raleigh to Sydney/Rozelle

Stage 4 - Coffs Harbour/Raleigh to Sydney/Rozelle = 516km,  6 1/2 hours including 1 stop

We started out today with a sad farewell to Kath and Jeff Porter and a promise to return soon on our way back home. It was easy driving into Sydney thanks to Mic’s suggestion we leave early to avoid the Friday afternoon traffic. We started out a little past 7am and made it to Sydney by 130pm. The Fur Babies were amazing travelers again! We made a short stop Off the highway at an Olivers for a bite and some coffee. It’s supposed to be a healthy food choice, but yuck the food had no flavor! We found our next AirBnB easily thanks to Miss Google Maps and happily found “The Artists’s Cottage” in Rozelle exactly as it was presented online. Check in was easy with a lock box key.

Our host left us amazing chocolates and fresh baked olive bread as a welcome gift 💝. We are starting to see the differences between AirBnb homes that are used strictly as vacation rentals and those that are truly sharing their homes with you and actually live there in between traveler visits. Chantal, The French Artist’s home was exactly that, her home. It was incredibly charming multi level vintage cottage equipped with everything we could possibly have wanted/needed including a big fenced back yard and beautiful little breakfast deck off the kitchen all perfect for Kobi and Lani.

We had never stayed in this part of Sydney before and were pleasantly surprised on how quiet, clean, and safe the neighborhood was. We had really nice neighbors and there were a million cafes, restaurants, pubs and grocery stores within easy walking distance.
There were also some great parks along the harbour that we could walk the kids too and many had off leash areas too. Lani even went swimming in the harbour preferring to swim along the side of the path we were walking on. She had a blast!! Kobi, our scary baby, is getting braver by the day and barely gets spooked anymore by the loud noises, traffic and men in high vis with hats, lol 😂.

This area of Sydney, just 4km from the city center, was pretty hilly. We choose not to ride our bikes in Sydney for obvious reasons but did run everyday. We definitely got our hill training in!!

Our main reason for stopping in Sydney was for the Scorpions/Def Leppard concert on Saturday night. We had bought tickets back in April for this concert as we love the Scorpions. We didn’t much care about Def Leppard even though they were the headliners. Just as I was telling Mic how excited I was about seeing the Scorpions again after over 20 years (Mic had never seen them and I last saw them in LA at the Greek Theatre, outdoors with Foghat and Deep Purple)
Mic reads me a post on FB from Klaus, the lead singer of Scorpions, that he is so sorry but they are cancelling their performance tonight because he has been sick and his voice is not up to the performance. I/We were devastated!! Hoping is was a hoax or maybe he would feel better, we went off to Darling Harbour to the ICC Sydney for the concert only to have confirmed the bad news :-( What to do? We asked if they were giving refunds but were told we had to contact a mirage of other ticket vendors associated with the concert and no one seemed to know for sure. We decided to go check out Def Leppard anyway. Glad we did as they put on an awesome performance!! They really rocked and brought the house down!! These guys are between 56 and 60 y/o and most still have their long rocker hair and the 60 y/o lead guitarist and the most ripped abs!! Sans hair though, lol 😝. We had amazing seats 5 rows back from the right side of the stage. You can check out Mic’s FB posts with lots of live recording of some of the concert. Still sad no Scorps but happy we still went.

Our last day we finally made it to the Zoo! Mic and I have been talking about going to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney since his first visit to Australia to see me after we met at Hawaii Ironman in 2008. Mic arrived on NYE 2008 :-) Ok, I’ve digressed down memory lane for a moment......
Anyway we walked from our cottage to the Darling St Wharf to take the ferry to Circular Quay and then onto the Zoo. We did the famous gondola ride up the hillside to the Zoo entry. We have always heard amazing things about the Zoo here but were a bit disappointed. There was a lot under construction/renovation which is apparently always the case. Overall it did not seem well kept. The routes for viewing the animals was very disjointed and did not have a flow to it, making for a lot of back tracking to see the animals you wanted. Our visit did get better as we winded our way back down the hillside to the ferry. We saw the giraffes, Pygmy hippos, tigers, sun bears, elephants and more. We definitely need to start planning that African Safari on our bucket list :-) We made it to the ferry just in time to run on for the 430pm departure.

We stopped in Balmain on the way walking home from the ferry at this cute little sidewalk cafe and had an early dinner before returning home to our Fur Babies. It’s just a really cute area with really nice people.

We packed up the next morning, went for a short run and doggy walk and waited for the morning traffic to subside before starting our journey to our next destination, Palmula Beach, NSW on the Far South Coast of NSW.

OZ-Travels 2018-2019 Stage 3 - Raleigh NSW (near Coffs Harbour)

Stage 3: Peregian Beach QLD - Raleigh NSW (near Coffs Harbour), 539 km 8hrs+-

The choice of this destination was actually quite an easy one. Sherry used to live and work in Coffs Harbour before we met. We got lucky enough to stay with our good friends Kath and Jeff at  their beautiful property in Raleigh, just 20 min south of Coffs.

The packing on travel-morning was done quickly and easily, and as usual we did a last run, walked the puppies and had a short breakfast before leaving.
Traffic was pretty easy till Byron Bay, where we had a break for some food a coffee fix and walk for our furry babies. The stretch of highway in between Byron and Coffs is in the process of being upgraded all the way as a 2 lane highway. As such that part of the travel was painfully slow with all the work in progress.

Never-less we made it to the outskirts of Coffs and turned in to Korora Bay. Korora is a beautiful suburb north of Coffs where most homes (including Sherry's Ex Home/Practice) sit up high and have a fantastic panoramic view over the Korora Bay. We drove past the house (not much has changed in 10 years) and down to Korora Beach, where Sherry used to walk her two old Collies Simba and Koa.
Sadly an incoming Thunderstorm with heavy winds stopped our visit to the beach abruptly.

It was so amazing to see our good friends Kath and Jeff after so many years. Their Staffy Buddy and

our dogs got along very quickly. We enjoyed a fantastic Dinner with (too much) wine and beer and shared 10 years of great, good and bad experiences. We shared also our travel plans with Kath and Jeff and they asked us if we had already planed how to get across the Nullarbor Park (1675 km  of deserted and boring stretch of road, which includes the longest straight road of the world- 146km! Also good to know, Nullarbor translates to "without trees" in Latin). Despite we knew there was a LOT of NOTHING in between Port Augusta SA and Esperance WA, the talk scared us quite a bit and we wondered if travelling through the Nullarbor with our dogs would be doable. Food for thought.

The next morning the weather presented itself as very typically Coffs Harbour = rainy, cold and

windy. Best weather to read up about the Nullarbar and starting to organize dog friendly stay solutions. Stay tuned for our go for in our future posts.

Kath and  Jeff took us out for breakfast to a nice little coffee place in Uranga called Pomegranate. Very cute, good coffee and great food including GF options. Urunga sits where the Bellinger River and Kalang River join into the Urunga Lagoon and short after flow into the Pacific.
While poor Kath had to work Sherry and I went for a run along Bellinger River and continued to plan our Nullabor project.

We had a late Lunch at Cedar Bar and Kitchen in Bellingenwith Jeff. Cute Restaurant with a nice garden and great food and service. I'm sure Jeff and Kath will go there again. Bellingen is surely worth a stop if you're in the neighborhood.

We had another great dinner with Kath and Jeff and their friend Celia (came with her partner Michael), a Coffs Chiropractor. Celia and Sherry, being a Chiropractor herself, had common base for lots of talking. Sadly the time was already up again for the next destination, Sydney.

Big shout out to #taffyporter and Jeff for having us. We will be back in February:-)

OZ-Travels 2018-2019 Stage 2 - Peregian Beach QLD

Stage 2: Zilzie QLD to Peregian Beach QLD, 570 km, 7h20

After our beautiful stay in Zilzie we packed up the car up again. It seems already to get quicker and easier to store all the luggage and bikes. Mic was even able to create more room for the dogs. After a last walk along the beach the doggies were happy to jump int the car and settled very quickly.
After 4 hours we made a short stop in Childers QLD. Childers has a  some little coffee places and a few small parks. We had our coffee fix and the dogs went for a little walk. Although they were happy to escape the heat (36 degrees) back into the acclimatized car.

After an other 3 hours we arrived to our accommodation called Pet friendly holiday house Noosa (Peregian Beach) to stay for 3 nights.
A beautifully presented, two-story home close to Peregian Beach and its super-chilled village square. The house has a partial ocean view from the upstairs kitchen & dining area, a BBQ in the courtyard and a small pool. The Beach is 1 km away but walking the dogs is not allowed every where. Look for the signs or, as the locals told us, walk the dogs on the forbidden beaches only by high tide as the patrol vehicles cannot drive on the beach.

The house had everything you needed. Being it was only two of us we didn't use the downstairs, only the large open upstairs. It was a beautiful open living room, dining, kitchen area with a guest toilet and huge master suite with ensuite, double shower, soaking tub and walk in closet. The fur babies had a secure outside area next to the pool. There wasn't any grass for them but a nature area up the hillside. They just waited to go walking to do their business :-) The house was located right off David Low Parkway which after coming from super quiet Zilzie was a bit loud with road noise during the day and night. But not so load that you couldn't still hear the ocean :-)

We went to Peregian Village for dinner the night we arrived. Just happened to be the day of Noosa Triathlon (funny as you get away from racing you don't even pay attention to such an iconic event, lol). Town was still swarming with the leftover triathletes with their tatooed race numbers and categories still on their bodies. We had an awesome pizza dinner at Pizza Mi Gourmet. Service was awesome and the gluten free pizza was even better!! Mic thought my gluten free pizza was even better than his normal one. Go figure! That never happens :-) We walked to Peregian Village the next morning with the kids to have breakfast. We choose Raw which was OK. Cool thing about the whole village was all the doggy water bowls and the acceptance of dogs everywhere!!  One afternoon we stopped for a beer after grocery shopping at The Peregian Beach Hotel. They even had gluten free beer!!! Wicked a pale ale which wasn't too bad. Have tried this in Emu Beach too. BUT the big revelation here was the bartender telling us he had recently seen a documentary about Corona Beer being gluten free. Of course I have done lots of googling since to find out that it is theoretically gluten free as it contains less than 20ppm of gluten which is the Gold Standard for gluten free. However for celiacs it can still be an issue as technically Corona is made with wheat with the gluten removed/broken down. Celiac sites will say this is a NO GO. But for us non-celiac auto immune disease peeps, I can't see a reason why we shouldn't be able to toss back a Corona or two once in a while. Happy Days! I could have kissed the bartender :-) 

Our last go-out was at a cute little Sardinian (Italian) restaurant, Cinque Terra in Sunshine Beach. We had a long beach walk with the kids and walked up through the village for an Apertif. We had a couple of glasses of Sardinian Vermentino along with some marinated olives and Bresaola. Everything was very yummy. Cute place run by a Sardinian couple expecting their 2nd baby. We had some great conversation too talking about Italy and differences compared to living in Australia. I think they are here to stay :-)

Of course we did some cycling and running along the sunshine coast and spent some time at the Beaches of Noosa and Peregian Beach. Sunshine Beach and the village is still our favorite place in the Sunny Coast

Next stop for us is Coffs Harbour, NSW

OZ-Travels 2018-2019 Prologue and Stage 1 - Zilzie QLD (Capricorn Coast)

Prologue:
Finally Mic and I, along with our 2 fur babies (Kobi and Lani), are starting a long wanted bucket list travel. Exploring Australia Part 1(Not sure yet when part 2 will happen) will get us from Townsville QLD on the Northern part of the East Coast over to Perth WA on the West Coast. We will follow the coast line as much as possible.
We choose to head South because starting at the end of October the North would be too hot and too prone to dangerous cyclonic weather.

We did put lots of thoughts into what the easiest way would be to travel with the dogs. Camper Trailer? Camper Van?  Our own Car and Airbnb? We opted for the Car and Airbnb option as we felt it was the best value for money and most importantly the best choice for the dogs and for our piece of mind, that they would have a secure place to stay. That would also give us the opportunity to explore the regions without the fur babies when required.

Stage 1, Townsville QLD- Zilzie QLD (Capricorn Coast), 743 km:

After packing the car including a POD (470 lt) and our 2 bikes on the roof, we started our journey towards the Capricorn Coast. The dogs did really great and way better than expected. They were very chilled out most of the time. We had to stop only once at a truck stop south of Mackay. Just shy 9 hours including our stop and we arrived to Zilzie at the Capricorn Coast.
We used to race Triathlons in Yeppoon a while back and we never really explored the region, that was one of the main reasons we choose this first stop.

We choose our very first AirBnB accommodation ever for our first stop. We have heard mixed reviews about AirBnB accommodations so was not totally confident in what to expect. We had

narrowed our search to an entire house, dogs allowed and close to the beach. Wow, were we ever surprised and impressed with our first stop, The Zilzie More Inn for 4 nights!

The keys were waiting for us in a lock box so super easy check in. Our hosts left us wonderful goodies in a bottle of Villa Maria Sav Blanc, cheese, crackers, chips and everything else we needed stocked as standard in the house. The house was a groovy beach shack with a great veranda with an ocean peek equipped with a comfy day bed, outdoor  dining and BBQ. Inside was a great open kitchen dining and living area. Upstairs were the 2 bedrooms. 1 for our clothes and 1 for us :-) You could hear the ocean all day and night. Music to our ears! The dogs had a fully fenced back yard to run around in but were mostly too tired after our very long beach walks so they slept a lot on the deck. Kobi loved to lie on the veranda with the wind blowing through his fur. Both Lani and Kobi were in heaven! We were only a short 2 minute walk to our very own beach. Almost no one  ever there so had it for ourselves most of the time.

We explored lots of other beaches in the area too. All were amazing! Miles and Miles of virtually

deserted beach with beautiful water. Mic and I had some great bike riding too. Took a little trip down memory lane and rode to Yeppoon and rode the old 1/2 Ironman course. Last time I raced there is when I tore my hamstring off my pelvis. The memories were bitter sweet but despite that, the ride was epic and so happy to be riding some different roads outside of Townsville. There were even hills!!

Very sad to see that the Capricorn Resort was closed a few years back, but great to hear as well that it has been purchased by some investors who want to to revive the complex. Yeppoon and the coast up toward Emu park has developed nicely without becoming too Gold Coast like. The new Lagoon in Yeppoon is absolutely gorgeous and coastal towns like Townsville should use it as an example how to attract more tourists and keep the locals happy.
If you want a great coffee and snack in Yeppoon stop at Lure Living Cafe. The Mexican/vegetarian Sweet potato fries were really amazing:-)

We definitely liked our stay at the More Inn and at the Capricorn Coast and we might come back for more on the way back in February.

Our next stop: Peregian Beach, Sunshine Coast