We wandered around the Saturday market at Apollo Bay and bought some local produce for our packed lunch. Our first stop was Melba Gully named after Dame Nellie Melba, this quiet spot was tourist free and not too many flies. A lovely wander around the forest and ferns. In the afternoon we visited the Twelve Apostles which are in fact only nine now. They are large sandstone pillars in the sea. The cliffs are crumbling and you can see where the next pillars will be...

This area is part of a large national park call Cape Ottoway covering a couple of hundred square miles. We drove for an hour inland to a walk way through the tree tops. This is a natural rain forest with the canopy 80 metres above the forest floor. The walkway takes you at the canopy level and then you can walk on the forest floor amongst the ferns and rotting trees in the cool around the streams. After lunch we went to the Cape Ottoway lighthouse. The light can...

The Great Ocean Road runs from Torquay to Warrnambool. It starts along the Bass Strait dividing Australia and Tasmania and ends up in the Southern Ocean whose last land mass was Cape Horn. We enjoyed wandering along the empty beaches and spectacular cliffs as we headed west along the road. We stopped at the various headlands and light houses as we wound our way along the road. The road was originally built by 1st world war veterans as a work scheme for returning ...

For a second day in a row we went to the Olympic pool, this time to do Pilates. It was a very enjoyable session with an excellent teacher. We then caught the ferry to Circular quays and went to the modern art museum. They had an excellent Chuck Close exhibition. His work is unique, he creates portraits using all types of medium including weaving, paper mâché, painting, silk screening and other approaches. It is very painstaking and can take many months to creat...

We walked up and down to the North Sydney Olympic pool today. It is hilly in North Sydney and because our apartment is by the water everything is uphill! The pool was built in 1936 and hosted the Empire Games in 1938. In those days distances were in yards. The pool reached its heyday in the fifties and early sixties with 13 world records set in 1959 at the pre Rome Olympics Australian trials. The whole pool is divided into lanes with different categories, fast,...