Kate-Me's VirtualTourist Home Page
| Page Views: 24,535 | Welcome/Bienvenue/Willkommen by Kate-Me - last update: Jan 16, 2009 |
2009
Happy New Year and happy travels to everyone.
In the past year or so, my husband and I have discovered a new hobby, that of Kayaking. We started out with a bright yellow Sevylor inflatible kayak, and recently moved on to a blue and grey 4.2 metre Pathfinder inflatible. Great when you don't have a big enough storage shed for a solid boat, or the roof rack to transport one.
With Australia in the grips of a 12 year drought, it can be a challenge to find lakes within driving distance of home which actually have water left in them! Ballarat's Lake Wendouree dried up for only the 2nd time in 100 years, filled a few cms in the winter, and is now back to dry again. Luckily, our own St George's Lake in our hometown of Creswick still has a fair bit of water, but as it becomes more shallow (so much is lost to evaporation in summer) it has got very weedy, so we're again looking for good spots. Two weeks ago we tried out Lake Weroona in Bendigo, which has been topped up successfully with recycled water, and the wildlife still appears to be thriving. Not just ducks and swans, but also many small tortoises. We must have seen at least 20 as we paddled along.
Over Xmas 2008, on a 3 day camping/kayaking trip on the Great Ocean Road, we found a great wetlands area to kayak (about 1 1/2 hours duration) at the Kayak club area of Anglesea . We also kayaked at Marengo at Apollo Bay - my first time sea kayaking, a little nerve wracking, but worth it, as about 400 mts offshore on rocks is a seal colony, which we could observe from a distance of around 20-25 mts. There are also sea kayaking tours run from the beach here. Photos soon....unfortunately our computer 'died' over Xmas and have to wait while it's fixed to access all my photos.
July 2007
My B & B under the snow...lasted about 3 hrs on this 1 particular day (normally just 1 part day's snow per year, if that). Sure was pretty and some kids took the day off school to make the most of it on nearby hills.
August 10, 2008..... our next snow fall, which stayed thinly on the ground overnight and early into the next morning.
Welcome also to people viewing my pages from outside VT,
et bienvenue les francophones (specialement les gens de francedownunder.com et Australia-Australie.com)
To see the full list of the travel regions/towns/destinations I cover, select
'view all travel pages' link above the map on the right.
By the way, my passport photo at the moment is of an Australian Ring Neck parrot (also sometimes known as the Twenty eight parrot') in the wild in the Park at the famous Gloucester Tree (in Pemberton, south west W.A.)
Bienvenue a tous ceux qui ont acces a ma page Internet grace a Virtual Tourist. Pour voir la liste complete de mes pages voyages personnelles, par region, ville et destination, veuillez SVP selectionner les liens HTML.
"Australia/Oceania" this section covers areas of Aboriginal culture & more outback type destinations.
Travelogues here include:
* Amusing road signs.
* Aussie slang and useful phrases
Hello, Salut, Guten Tag, fellow travellers.
One of my favorite types of holiday in Australia is to pack up the 4WD and go camping & travelling about. If you're into budget travel, you might like to take a look at my "Caravanning and Camping" travelogue under general "Australia" pages. I thought our Caravan Parks worth explaining, as they have many different accommodation styles. They're also quite different to those in Europe.
There's always so much to see in Australia. I'm especially fond of Wildlife viewing & photography and specialise in wildlife holidays, as you'll see from so many of my pages.
I also enjoy snorkeling, tourist caving and bushwalking. |
| Je suis Australienne mais j'aime la France |
|  | I'm also very interested in European culture, especially France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and more.
I belong to a French speakers social club called "Alliance Francaise" and a sub group of us meet once a week for dinner and French conversation, with the official Alliance Francaise dinners held once a month, plus they hold events such as an annual Bastille Day dinner, Christmas dinner, and summer petanque BBQ and competition each year.
(The mission of the Alliance Alliance Francaise network is to foster Cultural & Linguistic links between Australia & France)
En ce moment, je recherche des contact ou des amis francais ou suisses (particulierement ceux de mon age ou moins) qui sejournent deja en Australie ou qui arriveront un peu plus tard.
Si vous souhaitez vous joindre aux membres de "l'Alliance Francaise" de ma ville pendant un ou deux jours durant votre sejour en Australie ou pour diner, ecrivez-moi: K@maisonlagerche.com
Ce serait une bonne maniere de partager la vie d'Australiens au sein d'un groupe amical qui parle les deux langues durant nos soirees. Ainsi, il ne vous sera pas necessaire d'avoir un bon anglais.
De temps en temps, nous avons des BBQs et jouons aussi a la petanque ensemble.
NOUVELLE:
Pages bilingues traduites avec l'aide du VTer "skydivefred" et "1Ozman"
Merci beaucoup mes amis!.
1. Huonville, Tasmanie
2. Warrnambool, Vic (Great Ocean Road)
3. The Grampians, Vic (Parc Nationale des Grampians)
If you'd like more information about Australia, especially if you intend to visit.....take a look at my Australia pages, and you can email me. I enjoy assisting wherever I can and promoting tourism.
I've been a weekly volunteer at Ballarat Tourism for two years now, and have been one year at Daylesford Tourism as well.
I'm quite expert at sights to see in Victoria, the state I know best. I've travelled almost every road and highway, but happily I still find some great new places to explore.
I've also explored in detail along the coasts of Southern NSW and Eastern South Australia, and Tasmania.
My Best Page: I recommend Mt Gambier. It includes bats, wildlife and special underwater shots in a 50 mt deep sinkhole.
Most Unusual Town Page:Housing/living underground in the Opal fields of "Coober Pedy".
Indoor and outdoor outback art - "Broken Hill".
Hope you enjoy!
Amusez-vous bien! |
| | My birthday 2007 (1 day early on September 8). Some of my multicultural friends, from Russia, France and Peru |
| | One of my favorite birds of all, the tiny but spectacular "Superb Blue Wren" |
| | Tram in Flinders St, Melbourne city |
| | Wonderful memories of a beautiful village... Ah, Akaroa. What fond memories I have of visiting it for the first time in February 2004, and then again in November 2005 and May 2007. Located on the Banks Peninsula, 1 1/2 hour's drive south of Christchurch (South Island) it is unique, especially in view of the fact that it is New Zealand's only originally French settled village. See my Akaroa pages if you'd like to know how this came about and to see my large collection of photos. Also unforgettable was our swim with rare Hector Dolphins in the bay (see Akaroa Travelogues). |
| | Animal pages |
| my husband on stage at Horsham, 2005 |
| | A little more about me (un peu plus de moi) MUSIC
extract from song: HIGH - David Hallyday
"Go High - high - high
Up higher than to dream
There are places yet undreamed of
Your heart still yearns to go....."
MUSIC
A Vter's Music contribution page, in one my personal Travelogues (see t/log below for entry details)
I'm a keen Melodic Rock music listenerI've decided to collate a page of all the old music gig chapters I have on VT, so here they are.
Portland with Azio
Great Western Rodeo
Healesville with old band Almost Angels
Horsham with Almost Angels
Warrnambool
Ararat
Melbourne, Almost Angels
I also really enjoy French pop and rock, as well as a bit of middle eastern, Spanish and German rock.
Melodic Rock is sometimes a hard genre to define. "Often 80's sounding powerful rock, including keyboard sound" is the best way I can describe it. Favourites of mine include, Asia, Ten, E.L.O., Journey, Foreigner, Tower City and Toto.
This is the very best comprehensive website I can recommend: www.melodicrock.com
My favourite singers:
1: Jeff Scott Soto (USA)
2. Jean Jacques Goldman (France),
3. Gary Hughes (Ten, UK) and
4. John Payne (Asia, UK)
5: Daniel Johns (Silverchair, Australia)
Mainstream Music favorites:
Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Bon Jovi, David Hallyday, Killing Heidi (Oz) Eskimo Joe (Oz), The Veronicas and others.
Books: I LOVE books. Pictorial/Travel books: Archaeology, views of European countries, Roman ruins, etc. Novels, etc plus Sci Fi Space Comedy: Lois Bujold McMaster is absolutely brilliant with this! Nora Roberts (USA) is my favorite Romance/Mystery author of all time and I really like Iris Johanssen's murder/thrillers as well. |
 Kate-Me's Albums | | | |
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 Comments for Kate-Me | | | | |
Tripack Fri Sep 11, 2009 11:30 UTC
Bon anniversaire Kathryn! J'espère que le champagne va couler à flot pour fêter ce jour ;-) Salutations des Alpes! Patrick | a2lopes Wed Sep 9, 2009 19:06 UTC
Happy birthday Kathryn and many happy returns of the day. Greetings from Lisbon which is waiting for your visit | Jefie Wed Sep 9, 2009 15:26 UTC
Bonne fête Kate et gros bisous de San Francisco!! Isa xx | pieter_jan_v Wed Sep 9, 2009 06:03 UTC
Happy Birthday greetings from the Netherlands. PJ |
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