Coast Walk - Royal National Park, Australia

The Hike

View from the headlands north of Garie Beach, looking south. The Coast Track is approximately 26km and can be walked in either direction - Northbound or Southbound.

Heading southbound from Bundeena you have approximately 6km of cliff top walking before reaching the Big Marley and Little Marley beaches. Another 4.5km or so and you will reach the Wattamolla Lagoon where there is sealed road access and family picnic areas. Wattamolla has a camp ground at Providential Point, which is the recommended camping site for northbound walkers - a paid permit is required to camp here.

Garie is approximately 6.5km south of Wattamolla, where there is once again sealed road access to the patrolled surf beach. Just past the headlands south of Garie is North Era, which is the recommended camp grounds for Southbound walkers - a paid permit is also required to camp here.

There is only 9km from Garie to Otford, and the end of the hike. If using public transport, simply follow the road for a couple of hundred meters and turn right down the very steep Beaumont Road (Google Map.) which will take you straight to Otford train station.

Bundeena to Marley = 6km
Marley to Wattamolla = 4.5km
Wattamolla to Garie = 6.5km
Garie to Otford = 9km

Kangaroo Island, South Australia: April 2009

Make a Smilebox postcard

New Zealand journey: Tripti & Mandi

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Concerts in Australia

Mandi at Jason Mraz concert....so in love with Jason!So, as many of my Chicago friends are aware...I have never been to a concert before :-)

So I am trying to get in as many as possible while I am still young! Hee Hee!! There are a few people that will definitely find this very humurous! Honestly, there have just been a lot of my favs that have recently made visits to Australia - Kings of Leon, The Fray, Jason Mraz...

Getting ready for Kings of Leon....

Jason Mraz on stage...

Lead singer of The Fray -- excellent concert! Scored these tickets as a gift...had a wonderful time.

Adventures on Kangaroo Island

Beautiful shots of wildlife & scenery on Kangaroo Island....

I made a visit to Kangaroo Island over Easter weekend. The island is just South of Adelaide in South Australia. It was beautiful....full of wildlife and extremely relaxing. The best part was that my phone no longer had a signal once we boarded the ferry to head over to the island.

Photo below: Mandi enjoying her honey ice cream & chocolate at the bee & honey farm...had a very sore tummy after this!

Photos below: Learning to master the art of sandboarding...after quite a few attempts

Cabin that a few stayed in the first night out -- only about 6 brave ones slept outside in the swags you see just on the ground. It was amazing to wake up to wallabies & kangaroos hopping right in front of you and the most unreal sunrise...will show a few photos further down on the page

One of the many beautiful views on the island
Late one afternoon, we hiked about an hour in on this very windy, rocky path...to discover this hidden beach & amazing view
Day One: This was the first beach we stopped at when we arrived to the island

1st Opera....& at the Sydney Opera House

I went to my first Opera on 4 March - Madama Butterfly at the Sydney Opera House. It was unbelievable. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very pleased with the performance

Tasmania Wish List

We made it to the following places during our Tassie adventure!!

Tahune Forest Walk

Lavender Gardens

Eco Cruise (Port Arthur)

Hollybank Tree Adventures (Launceston)

Cradle Mountain

Cataract Gorge (Launceston)

Bay of Fires (St Helens)

St Columbia Falls (St Helens)

Penguin Tour (Bicheno)

Wineglass Bay

Famous Quotes....

• 'It makes my heart happy'



• 'I would have to sleep with both of you if I told you' ~ response to our request at Yannies for the ingredients to his secret hot sauce served with our breakfast



• 'Mine....mine..mine.....mine'



• 'We're in'



• 'I think he is going straight' ~ reaction at each roundabout


• 'You can't miss it' ~ response we received at the end of receiving directions...each & every time & guess what, we continued to miss things!

Molly & Mandi in Tazzy

My very good friend Molly came over for a visit back in October 2008. We had an amazing time exploring Sydney & then continuing our journey on to Tasmania. Tazzy is about a 2-hour flight South of Australia...for those of you that weren't sure & it is a state of Australia. The only thing separating mainland Australia from Tazzy is the *Bass Strait - which is reputedly one of the roughest bodies of water in the world, mainly due to its shallow depth of about 60m.


*So we thought it would be a good idea take an overnight boat trip across the Bass Strait to end of our time in Tazzy...we will come back to this*





As we were planning our travels around Tazzy; we discussed whether we should book hotels/backpacker locations along the way or if we should get a campervan and have our home with us...we could then stay in any location we wanted each night. We decided that we liked the idea of having the freedom to go as far as we wanted each day & to stop in any location our heart's desired at the end of the day. So we arrived to the airport & we were excited to go & pick up our new friend and home for the next 7-days! By the way, we didn't have any idea which direction we were planning to go when we left the airport. So we picked up our little campervan; pretty quickly decided whether we should head East or West to begin our journey; and we were off to the bottle shop & grocery store in no time. We had decided to stay in Port Arthur our first night; so we were



Day of Arrival:

We stopped in to the Pembroke Hotel for lunch (was very 'fancy') had some wedges; went to Woolworths for some food & bottle shop to stock up on booz!

Stayed at Garden Point our 1st night - really nice, secluded campervan site. We had wild animals running around & Molly was scared :-)



Day One:

Port Arthur - stop at Eaglehawk views; Tasman Arch & went on the Port Arthur ghost tour that evening at 9pm. We were assigned by the guide to be the torch bearers & we had a bit of a scare towards the end of the tour when we were in the jail checking out the old prisoner cells.



Day Two:

Eco cruise outside of Port Arthur - saw dophins; albatross birds; seals & amazing scenery

Lunch at Tyler's & we then began our journey to Bicheno (through Swansea) where I had the worst chai latte of my life.

Bicheno - stayed at the Sea View camper park; where we met a very sweet old couple that were travelling around Tazzy in their campervan...which looked about 20-years older than they were. We had dinner at the sea side bar & grill; and then went to find some penguins. We were a bit sad when we arrived because the penguin tour was sold out for the evening. So we had to make our own tour. We couldn't have been any luckier...as we walked on to the beach we started to hear some very strange noises. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by penguins...it was amazing; we were able to see heaps of them in their natural environment!



Day Three:

Up at 8am - lounged around outside & we had an issue with a seagull & a banana!

Visitor's centre visit with old man; latte & hot chocolate at cafe. Lunch at Wineglass bay in campervan where we had a wallaby try to hop in our van with us...we had a chance to pet our sweet wallaby friend & have a little dance in the car park to James Brown. We went on a hike in Wineglass Bay & it was tough! We decided to hike all the way down in to the bay; just next to the water & it was really special as we were the only ones on the beach...so we had a little photo shoot - here are a few of the shots!



Day Four:

Up early so we could get an early start on the road - we stopped and had breakfast at Yannie's. Then on our way to the Bay of Fires....made a pit stop at Angazzi's restaurant to try some wine. Darren helped us out!! We bought a bottle of the Pinot Noir -- it was delicious!




Hobart is Tasmania's capital city. It has a population of 200,000 & it surrounds the Derwent Estuary, the 2nd deepest natural port in the world.