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Kata Polakova and Pavla Trcalkova are happy to have a comfortable bed and a bath after cycling more than 26,000 kilometres from their Czech Republic home. Stopping in Warrnambool at the midway point of their round the world tour, they looked for accommodation through the cycle touring app Warm Showers, and found a bed with Lois and Herb Morrow. "It's amazing because the people are so friendly and welcoming," Ms Trcalkova said. "In Albury we stayed with a family we hosted in the Czech Republic in 2016," she said. "It was like meeting old friends, for a few days it was like we were part of their family." The Morrows love hosting guests. "Whoever you talk to in Europe, if you tell them you live near the Great Ocean Road they know where you are," he said. "We have been trying to encourage more people to host Warm Showers. "The world comes to us, you meet interesting people with interesting stories to tell." Mr Morrow said that he made use of the Warm Showers app during a trip through Europe in 2016. "It's a reciprocal system," Mr Morrow said. "We have had nothing but positive experiences." The Great Ocean Road is the big attraction for growing number of cycling tourists Mr Morrow said. Ms Trcalkova and Ms Polakova started their trip in May 2017, and travelled through Scandinavia, Northern Europe, Russia and much of Asia before arriving in Sydney on January 25. They made a special detour to ensure they could travel through Albury. "We didn't need to go to Albury, it was a little bit out of our way, but we wanted to go there to see them," Ms Trcalkova said. The couple is getting used to the distances between towns in Australia. "It is not so bad, we expect it to be harder travelling through the outback to Darwin," Ms Trcalkova said. "We originally thought that Australia was flat and orange, with a lot of kangaroos. We don't do much research before coming into a country because we like the surprise." They plan to arrive in Darwin before April 24, the date when their tourist visas expire. Ms Polakova said they would continue through Bali, Java and then onto Africa, across to Greece and then home to the Czech Republic. Interested people can follow Ms Trcalkova and Ms Polakova journey at http://sjetsvet.cz/ or on Facebook. Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.

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