Lunar New Year Celebration in Springvale
11 Feb 2010 Leave a Comment
in Life Tags: 2010, Australia, Lunar New Year Festival, Springvale, Victoria
For those who celebrate it, I wish all of you “A very Happy and Prosperous Lunar New Year”.
These are few glimpses of the Lunar New Year Celebration in Springvale Shopping centre which was held on February 06, 2010.
PS. I thank Frankie33888 and inaricci for the wonderful clips that you posted at YouTube.
A Journey down Margaret Rose Cave
05 Jan 2010 Leave a Comment
in Travel Tags: Australia, Lower Glenelg River, Princess Margaret Rose River Cave, Victoria
After a hearty breakfast served at the Melaleuca Motel in Portland, we checked out and continued our journey to Princess Margaret Rose River Cave. The sunny and cool morning made a terrific and enjoyable travel.
Margaret Rose Cave is situated in Lower Glenelg River National Park and can be reach from Portland via Nelson (a small town). From Nelson people can take a boat to the cave, but we prefered to drive to the destination which took only about 15 minutes.
Princess Margaret Rose Cave is a Mother Nature wonderland where stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, rimstone pools, cave coral and many other amazing formations can be found. It is an hourly 45 minutes guided tour which starts at 10.00 AM to 3 PM daily. The service closes on Christmas Days and during maintenance.
The entrance to the cave is in the building behind the park office. The steep 80 steps to the 15 meters beneath the ground start from a small opening. Once underground the surrounding feels wet and clammy. It is not very good for those who are claustrophobic.
The strange and unusual lime stone formations are breathtakingly beautiful.
Hopkins Falls
29 Dec 2009 7 Comments
in Travel Tags: Australia, Hopkins Falls, Victoria, Warrnambool
Hopkins Falls are located in R.A. Crothers Reserve in The Shire of Warrnambool. It is around 15 minutes drive north-east of Warrnambool city in Victoria, Australia. The shallow but quite wide waterfalls run over a long sledge of black basalt rocks. In winter months the falls are the fullest, but on the day of our visit on Boxing Day, December 26 this year (summer time) there was less water but it was still quite enjoyable to see.
This place is also well known for the migration of baby eels that are racing against the water flow to find the way upstream through the slippery ledges of the falls to reach Hopkins River. It only happen for a few days in the beginning of Summer in early December.
The pleasant drive from Warrnambool to R.A. Crothers Reserve was going through farming area where cattle were quietly grazing. It is an ideal place to have a picnic or a barbeque and also a good spot for fishing.
The Petrified Forest
28 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in Travel Tags: Australia, Cape Bridgewater, Petrified Forest, Portland, Victoria
A short walk from the car park brought us to a barren rocky landscape. Walls of unusual round hollow lime stone pillars and shallow round pockmarks that appeared on the ground had given us the impression of a moonscape. We hardly saw any vegetation in the area but the occasional calls of seagulls reminded us that we were still on Earth.
They name the place the Petrified Forest. It is situated in Cape Bridgewater, 21 kilometres south-west of Portland, off the Great Ocean Road (Victoria, Australia). There are few different theories on how the rock formations were happened. One popular belief is that it was formed when the forest of Moonah trees was smothered by a large sand dune. Water seeping through the sand formed a crust of sandstone on the outside of the trunks, decaying the organic matter, leaving behind petrified trunks.
The other acceptable theory is a natural geological formation where water dripped on sand stone area and it created holes that channelled into the ground so it created rounded pipe formations that resembled hollow petrified tree trunks.
The path to this desolate part of Cape Bridgewater is an easy short walk from the car park where the opposite direction is the path to the Blow Holes. We were so lucky to also enjoy the perfect summer weather on Boxing Day this year.
Bushfire Images
11 Feb 2009 1 Comment
in Life Tags: Australia, Bushfire, Images, Victoria
Bushfire In Victoria, Australia – February 2009
Bush Fire
08 Feb 2009 5 Comments
in Life Tags: Australia, Bush Fire, Life, Victoria
Today, the State of Victoria in Australia is declared as an Emergency State because of the bush fires that were raging in a dozen of different areas around the state yesterday and some are still burning today. There are 25 people confirmed died and more than a hundred houses burnt to the ground. The extreme heat waves in the last few days, the extremely dry condition and yesterday’s very strong hot Northern wind made the fire spread out of control with a shocking speed. The wind direction changed later in the afternoon and it also changed the direction of the path of the fire and threatened different areas………….
Three of us in my family love Australian bush. One of the favourite spots we often visited is around Kinglake National Park and this is includes Toolangi Forest. We are in tears when we heard that Kinglake and the surrounding area were the worse area hit by the fire. Today, the road into Kinglake area is still closed as the situation is still regarded very dangerous.
This YouTube link about Bushfire with a background of Aboriginal song and music makes me imagine the land is crying and weeping because of the irresponsible individual (s) who deliberately burn this beautiful yet a fragile place….
Our prayers are for those who have become the victims of this terrible disaster.
