From Sydney I hopped on the train for a short ride to the airport and then jumped on a plane headed for Australia’s southernmost state, Tasmania. I’ll be starting this part of my adventure in Tasmania’s capital, Hobart. Hobart seems like a fairly quiet seaside town. If you like to eat seafood (yes I most certainly do) then this is the place. Yummmm! After getting a new rental car and checking in at the hostel I had just enough time…
My drive from Wollongong was smooth right up until I turned on the road that heads up into the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. It turns out I’m driving on Anzac Day, a pretty major holiday here in Australia, so the traffic was just ridiculous! I still made it to Faulconbridge, the hike I had planned to do along the way, just later than expected. Faulconbridge was about a nine mile round trip hike. It was pretty flat and uninteresting…
My next stop on this Australian adventure is Wollongong, which is really just the convenient town I decided to stay in. It has a convenient hostel and lots of nearby restaurants. On the way in from Canberra I made a stop to check out a couple of waterfalls, Fitzroy and Twin Falls. There’s a short trail between the two. Unfortunately, it had been pouring rain all day and the visibility due to fog was really low, but I put on…
Well, as I mentioned in the last post, I had a very long drive from Bendigo, about seven hours. I zipped across northern Victoria, crossed over into New South Wales, and drove the twisty turny roads up into Australia’s Snowy Mountains, specifically, the little ski resort town of Thredbo. I checked in, got dinner, and prepared for the next days activity. I came here for one thing and one thing only, to hike Australia’s highest peak, Mt Kosciuszko. The hike…
I now find myself out in western Victoria in Grampians National Park. Grampians got hit really hard by bush fires this past year and as a result a huge swath of the park is closed. Several of the trails I wanted to do are off limits due to the fire damage. Luckily, enough of the park is still open to make it worthwhile. Driving here from the coast I saw a lot of these signs. I have a good feeling…
Leaving from Apollo Bay, I made my way west along Australia’s unbelievable southern coast, specifically, a section known as Port Campbell National Park. It’s basically a long strip of the coast with lots of little hikes and viewpoints to enjoy nature’s handiwork. First up, was the Gibson Steps Beach. Down the cliff via some steps of doom and onto the beach. It was a pretty overwhelming location, in a good way, but it was just the beginning of my long…
I made it out of Melbourne and made my way southwest to my next official stop, Great Otway National Park. I took the long way here by making a huge loop around to the northwest so I could go visit Trentham Falls, but it turned out to just be a trickle, about a one on the gusher scale, and not really worth the effort. Oh well! From there it was due south for the rest of the day. My route…
South from Khao Sok National Park is Phang Nga Province. Phang Nga is a really quick stop for me, but it was jam packed with some really awesome sites. Lucky for me there were a ton of waterfalls to stop at along my route on highway 4, so I had a waterfallapalooza on my way to the next hotel. First up was Sai Rung. The main tourist season is obviously kicking in and this southern part of Thailand is the…
I had a pretty long drive south from Hua Hin, about seven hours. It was pouring rain again when I left and it rained pretty much all day. Getting a break from the heat is nice, but exploring in the rain is much more difficult. A little over half way on my drive I made a quick stop at Ngao Waterfall, near Ranong. It was still raining quite a bit, but it wasn’t a very long walk so I grabbed…
Welcome to the Thong Pha Phum district in Kanchanaburi province. I had researched this region when I was planning this trip, but didn’t include it on my original itinerary because I didn’t have time. I had to cut something. But with the extra days I acquired thanks to all the flooding at the beginning of this trip, I decided to put Kanchanaburi back on the menu and spend a few days exploring this remote part of Thailand. Off we go!…