So Wednesday 26 January was Australia Day - the day when Australians celebrate the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788 (this led to the establishment of Sydney). It's also the day when thousands of wannabe Aussies go through the citizenship ceremony, say "Bonza" and "Strewth" a few times and become fully fledged Australians. And (best of all) it's a public holiday meaning I had the chance to get out of Melbourne and visit the lovely Dandenongs hills, just of the city, in the company of two lovely, if slightly hungover, mates.
The drive to get there is through drab suburbs and past dodgy bars with Billy Joel tribute acts but all of a sudden you turn off the huge motorway and the concrete is replaced by massive eucalyptus trees, soaring above lush ferns that fill the hillsides. The towns here are small and strewn out along the single road running through the region.
First stop was Sherbrooke Forest where we had a wander along the trails, admiring the birdlife, looking out for wildlife (none seen - very disappointed, especially by the lack of wombats), and flicking leeches of my legs! Yes really.
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| Some birds (can't remember the names but they were tame enough to eat out of people's hands) |
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| The Forest |
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| Cliff in The Forest (the nearby 'waterfall' was very poor, both in terms of water and in terms of falling) |
Then we had lunch at this lovely little bistro-type place which did great home-made cakes including sticky date pudding (aka sticky toffee pudding in the UK - who knew I would eat and like something with dates in?), right next to the Miss Marples Tea Room (who knew she had time to eat afternoon tea in between solving murders?).
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| Miss Marples - bakes cakes, catches criminals |
After that it was a stroll round an eco-friendly sculptor's garden (with one particularly weird sculpture - see below) and then a drive up to a viewpoint for a view (well, almost, it was hazy) of the whole Melbourne area before heading back to one of the towns for scones - only to find that everywhere was closed and we would have to return home unsconed. The horror! Luckily I'd bought a pie earlier so found compensation in that (and the chips I bought to go with it).
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| Possums don't normally have water coming out of their ears |
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| Melbourne's in there somewhere |
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| One man and his pie - a match made in heaven |
Next stop Tassie (flying there on the 5th Feb) - if I don't see a wombat there someone will pay!
G'bye for now.
Cliff
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