The Dolomite Mountains

Guest Traveller: Jeff Featherston from Werribee South, Victoria, Australia.
Favourite Travel Destination: The Dolomite Mountains, Northern Italy.

..."On my first trip overseas I was lucky enough to go to the Dolomite Mountains. I was totally blown away by the spectacular scenery and the unusual rock formations. The Dolomites are completely different to anything we have in Australia and I couldn't get enough of them. I went over pass after pass and thoroughly enjoyed driving on the twisting, winding snake like roads. I almost went over one pass too many. It was at the beginning of winter and the last pass I tried to cross had iced up. The car I was driving had 'summer tyres' which refused to grip on the ice. Fortunately there was a small section of bitumen showing through and using this I carefully nursed the car up and over the pass. I had to drive down very slowly - on the wrong side of the road - until it was clear again. Quite an experience!"...


The Dolomite Mountains cover an area of approximately 11,000 square kms. Nine national nature parks in the region ensure that these precious mountains are protected and preserved for all to enjoy. Often called the Pale Mountains, the Dolomites are the perfect location for just about any outdoor activity you could mention.

The Darker Side of Travel - Part 2

My second travel 'incident' (robbery) occurred in Madrid. We were travelling with a company called 'Busabout' at the time because it was a way of experiencing a large part of Europe without having to find our own transport. 'Busabout' is a hop on, hop off bus network, largely aimed at young people and although we were a bit older than most, it was convenient.

Anyway, we were in Madrid for the second time because our travel agents in their infinite wisdom had told us that we didn't need a visa to travel to the Czech. Republic when in fact we did. (I believe these visas are no longer necessary.) To get a visa while we were travelling we had to go to the Czech. Republic Embassy in Madrid, drop some forms off, and return again over a week later. Thus the second visit.

We were staying in cheap and nasty accommodation in a dodgy part of the city (as was much of the accommodation 'Busabout' arranged) and were on our way to visit one of the large parks in the area. As always we tried to be security conscious, i.e. watch out for dubious characters, locks on our day packs etc. but once again the unexpected happened.

My friend was walking slightly behind me and was stopped by two ladies carrying flowers. One of the women was heavily pregnant. They offered her a flower and were telling her to go to some festival that afternoon. They indicated they were working for the city. My friend was trying to find out what the heck they were on about. I stopped walking and waited for them to go, but then they started asking if we had any foreign coins they could swap for one of theirs as a souvenir. It was the wrong question to ask me. I collect coins from other countries so I could empathise with the request, and I knew I had a couple of foreign coins in my purse. (Stupid, stupid, stupid....) I took off my day pack, unlocked the padlock and got out my purse. I remember a local walking past shaking his head but at the time I just wanted to get rid of them. I opened my purse looking for the coin when she swooped.... She rammed her hand into my purse, pulled out the only note there (a large note) and they disappeared like a puff of smoke. She actually left her very small denomination coin behind!

Once again we had been duped by the unexpected. We walked on to the park while I was verbally berating myself for being so stupid. I threw her coin into the bushes and stormed around for the rest of the day, angry with myself for being taken in again.

Now looking back on the two incidents I realise that we were relatively lucky after all. Both incidents were about taking money or possessions. Luckily we had not been hurt as many people who are robbed are, and the possessions could be replaced. The moral is that when you're travelling you can't be ready for everything that might happen. You can be careful but that's all. Many thieves make a living out of travellers - and dreaming up unexpected ways of divesting you of your possessions is what they spend their lives doing.

The Darker Side of Travel - Part 1

Travel can be fun, interesting, rewarding etc., and if you believe the travel shows -you will be continually having ..'the best time of your life'. I love travel, don't get me wrong, but sometimes things don't go to plan. I have been robbed while travelling on two occasions. This post is about the first of those occasions.

A female friend, my ten year old son and I were travelling to Rome. We had been warned by other travellers of the tricks or ruses that were used there to divest travellers of their money and possessions. We heard of babies being thrown at you so you would drop your things to catch them; groups of children using cardboard to distract you etc. And when you're travelling with a backpack, you can't just blend in, so we may as well have had 'tourist' tattooed on our foreheads.
Tourist = target.

With all this in mind - and with some trepidation - we arrived at the Rome Train station in the late afternoon and made our way out to the Youth Hostel where we hoped to stay. At the time they had a rule that males and females were to be accommodated on different floors. There was no way that I would allow my ten year old son to sleep in a room full of men on a different floor to me. It was just not going to happen. My friend pleaded with the management and in the end they grudgingly allowed us to stay in the same room as long as we left the next morning.

The next day we went back into the city and contacted an accommodation establishment which one of the main travel guides recommended. It was called something like 'Papa Germano's' and sounded friendly enough. With an eye out for suspicious characters, we walked the short distance to the accommodation from the train station and were in the foyer of the building when it happened.....

A lady followed us in and was gesturing at my friend's pack. There on the pack was some liquid which looked like 'sick'. We put our packs down and looked at the mess in disgust. The woman had some tissues which she gave us to try and clean it up. Another person came down the stairs and he began to help too. My friend gave her day pack to my son to hold and told him not to let it go. The woman encouraged my son to help.. "Come.. you help... you help..." As soon as he let the day pack go ... voom.. they vanished - with the day pack. It was like being in a movie. I ran to the door but there was no one to be seen.

We could not believe what had happened. So much for being mentally prepared for all the tricks that might be tried on us. No one had mentioned this trick! And it had all happened inside the place where we had come to stay.

Feeling sick we continued upstairs to the reception desk. On hearing of our misfortune the owner shook his head and muttered something about gypsies. He quickly whipped out a map, drew a line from the accommodation to the Police Station and told us to report it. "Don't worry" he said. "You have insurance? Insurance will pay."

It was all a bit too well rehearsed for our liking. That and the fact that there was a bottle of what looked like the substance sprayed on the pack in the stairwell, led us to believe that maybe we had been setup and it was an inside job.

We went to the Police Station to report the incident but couldn't shake the feeling that the accommodation owner was somehow involved. Another problem was that my friend's Youth Hostel card and her Eurail Pass were in the stolen bag. Both documents were essential to our trip. We decided not to stay at 'Papa Germano's' after all and went back there to collect our bags. The owner was unimpressed to say the least and was sweeping the room out - as if we had soiled it - as we left.

Back to the Youth Hostel we went, thinking that maybe we could beg for mercy and talk them into letting us stay again until we could do something about the Eurail Pass and Hostel Card.

When we got there we found that someone had handed in my friend's Youth Hostel card, her Eurail Pass and a shopping list!!! Unbelievable! The hostel was on the outskirts of Rome and a fair distance from the incident, so how they got there we have no idea. A thief with a conscience or a good Samaritan? Who knows... all we knew was that we were leaving Rome as quickly as possible.

Great Ocean Road

Recently my husband and I went down the Great Ocean Road for our anniversary. We don't live too far from this area so have tended to overlook it as a weekend destination. We must be crazy... It is one of the most beautiful locations around.

We went there at the end of May which is really off season. The weather was quite cool and surfers were few and far between. I always think off season is the best time to see a place because there are far fewer people to share the trip with.

The official Great Ocean Road arch is just past Anglesea and a new sculpture of the 'diggers' who built the road adorn the side area.

Three thousand returned soldiers and sailors from World War One built the road as a memorial to their fallen comrades. It was also a way of giving them a meaningful occupation during the post war period when jobs were hard to find.

We bought fish and chips for lunch and drove on past Anglesea to a stop at one of the many stopping areas along the coast. I've been around the world three times and no one does fish and chips better than a real Australian Fish and Chip shop. Flake is the only fish I like - Flake being shark. The seagulls love the chips too.... mmmm... But I digress.. There are places along the Great Ocean Road where you can stop and there will be absolutely no one around - just you, the beach and the ocean... Hard to believe when it's such a popular destination.

Past Anglesea the next main town is Lorne. Lorne used to be a sleepy little seaside town when I was growing up but not any more. Like most coastal towns in this area Lorne has become the place to be and the place to have a holiday house for cashed up 'city slickers'. The road from Melbourne (the nearest capital city) to these towns is chock-a-block going to them on Friday night and the same going back to Melbourne on Sunday night.

Regardless of this it is still a very pretty town with an magnificent location. Lorne is situated on a natural arc with a safe sandy beach - popular with families - and a pier at the far end of town (towards Apollo Bay) which is very popular with serious and holiday fishermen. There are a number of older hotels and pubs which add character to the town.

Just past the Lorne pier around a couple of corners is a stopping place where you can leave the car and go for a walk into the Angahook-Lorne State Park. Look for a sign to Swallow Cave. This is a really unusual rock structure where the rocks appear to be cascading down like a waterfall. An actual waterfall flows over the rocks on occasion and is spectacular.

Back in the car we wound our way down the coast past a number of smaller towns to our accommodation at a place 13 kilometers before the town of Apollo Bay. Apollo Bay is at the end of the Great Ocean Road.

Our accommodation was at a place called 'Whitecrest' at Wongarra (middle left of the picture above). We used a web site called 'wotif' (wotif.com.au) to book our accommodation. I often use this site for travel within Australia and have used it overseas as well. The range of available accommodation is extensive and you can book up to four weeks before your trip. The site format is simple and easy to use and you can roll your mouse over the prices to see what deal is on offer. As with many 'last minute' accommodation sites, the price is often a fraction of the regular advertised price.

The view from our one bedroom studio apartment was just beautiful. Everything you could possible want was available to us. e.g. books, DVDs, CDs, a personal BBQ (one at each unit) and the list goes on. As the place was out of town we took our own BBQ provisions, wine, chocolates etc. and had a lovely evening.

Waking up to a breakfast on our private balcony. Can't get much better than this!

Apollo Bay, like Lorne, was originally a fishing village. The tourists have moved in to some extent but it is still the home of many professional fishing and cray boats. A large man made harbour protects these boats from the ocean and behind Apollo Bay the hills from the Otway Range provide a stunning backdrop.

On our return journey we decided to travel inland for a change. It was also a much quicker route. From Geelong to Apollo Bay is only 114 kilometers but because of the winding nature of the road and the number of attractions to be seen, it does take some time to navigate.

We left the coast and travelled inland for about 12 kilometers through the Otway National Park and took a turnoff to the Cape Otway Lighthouse. You have to pay to enter the lighthouse compound/area and at approximately $30.00 for the both of us we decided against it. You can actually go up in the lighthouse so if that interests you then you may have found it worthwhile. Instead we took a walk along part of the 'Great Ocean Walk'. A trail which takes you along quite a length of coastline. Great for walkers but as that's not our usual mode of transport, we went for an hour long 'stroll'. Although I enjoyed the walk (my legs didn't) my main concern was that for an 'ocean' walk, you didn't actually see much of the ocean at all. the walk was mainly between bushes and small coastal trees.

Back in the car we drove down a couple of tracks in the area and to my delight spotted 31 koalas! Now if you don't come from Australia you may not realise that koalas tend to keep to themselves. You wont find a tree full of koalas. Generally they like to have a tree all to themselves, or a whole group of trees to themselves. So to see so many was a great treat. We even saw one koala chasing another one up a Gum tree - a rare sight indeed! I love koalas and usually never tire of trying to spot them.. but on this day at first it was 'look! A koala!!' and we'd stop and ogle it. Towards the end it was '28... 29... ' as we drove past without even slowing.

Before heading for home we made one last stop at a place called Melba Gully (near Lavers Hill). It was raining lightly and the daylight was starting to go but we figured while we were in the area we may as well go and have a look. I'd often heard about Melba Gully but had never been there. This is an area of rainforest in a relatively natural state (except for walk ways, bridges etc.) and was really well worth the trip.

Loads of native flora. Huge trees and tree ferns. Because of the weather and the time of season we had the place to ourselves. This would be a fantastic place for a day out with lots of space for BBQs and picnics.

We travelled the inland route on our way home. Not the same as the Great Ocean Road but still quite attractive countryside.

If you're thinking of making the trip to this part of the world I can tell you its a fantastic experience - well worth it. Two thumbs up!!!