The Nomadic Explorers | Australian Travel Blog

There is an interesting place in Yarra Ranges National Park called Mount Donna Buang Skywalk. Mount Donna Buang (1,250 metres) is the closest snowfield to Melbourne. In winter it usually receives snow suitable for snowplay and tobogganing, and during the non-winter months the area is well visited by bushwalkers. The summit of Mount Donna Buang is surrounded by Alpine ash trees and Sub alpine snow gums, and at nearby Cement Creek there is a raised walkway through Myrtle Beech and Mountain Ash trees.

As Yarra Ranges National Park is located far away from our home (2h of driving), I kept visit to Mount Donna Buang Skywalk in my ‘to see and to visit’ list and waited till we go somewhere there. Last weekend we went cycling to Warburton, which is located not far away from Mount Donna Buang, so at the end of the day we went to the Skywalk.

In 2014 during Easter we spent 2 days exploring Flinders Ranges National Park, famous by its beautiful Wilpena Pound. We planned to see and to do following:

Day 1. Kanyaka Homestead Historic Site, Yourambulla Caves, Hawker, Arkaroo Rock Hike, Rawnsley Bluff Lookout, Sacred Canyon, Wangarra Lookout. Night at Wilpena Pound Campground.

Day 2.  Bunyeroo Gorge, Bunyeroo Gorge Hike, Brachina Gorge Geological Trail, Moralana Scenic Drive on the sunset. Night at Wilpena Pound Campground.

Day 3. Way back.

There were some other places that we wished to see and to do in Flinders Ranges like to climb St Mary's Peak (full day), visit the Great Wall of China (on the sunset), the Cazneaux Tree (anytime), Stokes Hill Lookout (on the sunset as well), but as we had not had enough time (as usual) we left them for the next visit.

In fact, we visited all placed and even more, except Bunyeroo Gorge Hike, as simply missed the turn, and Brachina Gorge Geological Trail, as we had to go back to Hawker for tyre fix. Please feel free to use maps of Flinders Ranges National Park, attached to the previous post.

I don’t remember exactly where and when I saw a beautiful photo of Wilpena Pound (Ikara) in Flinders Ranges National Park. That photo of a natural amphitheatre of mountains was made from the airplane and was simply stunning! You could probably imagine what happened after I realised that Flinders Ranges is not far away from us (only 1200kms) - I started planning when we are going to visit this magic place.

We spent a lot of time trying to figure out when is the best time to visit Flinders Ranges National Park and, more importantly, what to see and to do there. The problem was that there was too much information in the internet with names, places and points of interest in Flinders Ranges. I spent days trying to figure out where, for example, ‘Brachina Gorge’ or ‘Arkaroo Rock’ are located, what should we do there and, more importantly, when it is the best time to visit that place.

In this post I am going to share some useful information with you.

Here are our brief travel notes from the trip to Western Australia, day by day:

Day 1: Arrived to Perth. Way to Hyden. Wildflowers, Dogs Cemetery

Arrived to Perth at 10am. By 13pm got our luggage, a small Toyota Corolla from Hertz, bought some food, water and gas, some maps from the Visitor Centre and, then, finally, hit the road.

Southern Western Australia, here we came!

I haven’t heard anything about Coolart Wetlands and Homestead Reserve in Mornington Peninsula until I went there this July with my son to participate in one of the Junior Rangers school holidays activities. You know what? This reserve became one of my favorite, as it is a perfect places to go bird-watching.

It’s all started more than a year ago, when we climbed Mt Kosciusko and realised that, since we moved to Australia, we miss mountains so much! Luckily for us there are mountains not far away from Melbourne, that we haven’t visited before - the Australian Alps. Although they are not so high as real Alps, there is a lot of things to do there - hiking, cycling, walking, fishing, skiing (in winter). Moreover, there is a scenic drive through the mountains, called the Great Alpine Road. As it was our first trip by the Great Alpine Road, we decided not only explore the road itself, but also try different types of activities - from hiking and camping to star watching and beer tasting.

If you'd like to know more, read the full article.

Mt Cope (1837m) is one of the highest peaks in the High Plains near Falls Creek. It is a relatively easy hike to its peak. We walked up the Mt Cope on the next day after we climbed on the Mt Feathertop. It was a lovely walk and kids enjoyed it.

We spent three days exploring Australian Alps during the Australia Day long holiday in January 2014. This article describes a long walk to Mount Feathertop via Razorback - the iconic walk or headline walk of the Hotham area.

Read on to discover a little more of Australia's high country.