Tag: beach

Great Ocean Road Trip

While waiting for insurance to approve our repairs in Port Macquarie, we took another Australian adventure. Choosing from beautiful Australia’s many amazing places to explore is hard, but this time we flew to Melbourne and drove to Adelaide. Of course, we chose the scenic route and took a Great Ocean road trip. It was a great choice and one of our favorite road trips ever.

The Great Ocean Road

Built by veterans of The Great War (WWI, 1914-1918), Australia’s iconic coastal drive covers 243 kilometers, all in the state of Victoria. Thanks to its stunning scenery along the Southern Ocean, the Great Ocean Road trip is one of the world’s most popular drives, loved by Aussies and visitors both.

The Grotto archway
Archway at The Grotto, an iconic landmark along The Great Ocean Road

The winding road climbs up cliffs and down to beaches, following the Victoria coastline from Torquay in the east to Allansford in the west. We spent a wonderful day and a half enjoying one of the world’s best road trips. Fortunately, we had perfect weather, sunny and mild temperatures, and the road itself is in great condition, making it easy to drive.

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Port Macquarie

After years of sailing on our schedule, it’s challenging to be stuck for weeks with no progress on fixing Go. Yes, we have been stuck in worse places so we’re trying to make the best of our down time. Here’s how we’ve been having fun and staying busy in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, known in Aussie lingo as “Port”.

About Port Macquarie

A town in the Mid-North Coast region of New South Wales, Port is located almost 400km north of Sydney. Located at the mouth of the Port Hastings River, its known for beaches, koalas, and convicts, not necessarily in that order.

Port Macquarie on a map east coast Australia
Port Macquarie on a map on the east coast of Australia

The town has a population of around 50,000, many of whom are retirees. We also see a lot of young families mingling with the retirees at cafes and on the waterfront paths. This town is busy on weekends and holidays, when families and vacationers fill the caravan parks and hotels. What are they coming for?

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Best of Sydney

We loved Sydney. After sailing there for the holidays, it was hard to leave. What started as a month long visit became a wonderful two month stay. I miss the city’s clean streets, happy residents, busy bars and restaurants, excellent museums, and fun festivals. The best of Sydney ranges from cool music venues to funky neighborhoods to free art galleries and beautiful hikes.

Best Anchorage: Glebe Bay

My list of the best of Sydney wouldn’t be complete without talking about where we spent most of our time on the boat. Sydney has a lot of great anchorages, and it’s easy to move around as long as you avoid the ferries. You can anchor somewhere for great beaches and elsewhere for the fireworks. For us, the most convenient bay for shops and sightseeing was Glebe, which has three anchorages.

Glebe, Blackwattle and Rozelle were great anchorages for the selection of safe and convenient dinghy docks. We had dinghy parking at the fish market, the ferry dock, or Rozelle Bay park, giving us access to multiple shops, restaurants, and transit lines.

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