Thursday & Friday

We started our drive along the Princes Highway through the state of Victoria  towards New South Wales.   Fires alongside this road in January and February had caused sections to be closed at the time, but by the time we were there the whole road had reopened.

We drove to Wilson's Promontory which turned out to be a serious walker's paradise.  I'm not a serious walker and the weather was really hot.  30 degrees celsius.

So we had a quick walk on Squeaky Beach.  So called because the sand squeaks when you rub your shoe along it.

 We eventually arrived in Metung where we saw a great sunset.  And stayed the night.

On Friday morning we drove to a small ferry which took us to Raymond Island where wild Koalas live - amongst the houses of a small village.

Then we were off to Mallacoota.  This was one of the most affected areas we saw on UK television during the fires.   We drove through the fire hit areas and were pleased to see that already the trees were recovering.

There is still work being done clearing trees and undergrowth.  Some areas were being burned back under supervision.

We reached Mallacoota and found these pelicans waiting to be fed by a fisherman who was filleting his catch of fish.

 

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Phillip Island

We continued our road trip from Belgrave by first visiting the Puffing Billy Museum.  Lots of lovely old steam engines.  Loved it.

There was the obligatory bits of rust first:

 

 Then we were off driving across country and to the coast of Victoria.

We saw a variety of wildlife.

The purpose of our visit was to see the Little Penguins come ashore as sun sets.  We arrived at the beach about an hour before.

No one is allowed to take photos at the event so here is one downloaded from the internet.

I didn't feel we had seen many penguins come up the beach but as we walked back to the car park through the sand dunes we saw sooo many.  And they were all making such a racket.  It was well worth the wait.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Puffing Billy

We had deliberately chosen to stay in Belgrave so that we could go on a vintage train.  We had already deicided we would travel on it when we saw a Michael Portillo programme where he was riding the train.  I have found this great video of the journey.

Belgrave Station

We did wonder whether the train would be running.  By this time all flights from China were banned and this part of Australia was very dependent on tourists especially from China.

 Two engines were put on the front of the train.

The train chugged through the forest.

Across a wooden bridge.

Lots of people got off at Menzies Creek.  Half of the carriages were detached from the train and one of the engines moved to take that half of the train back to Belgrave.

We continued our journey to Lakeside Station.

 

At Lakeside we walked down to the lake and around it.

We had a drink back at the station, accompanied by this little guy.

Then we started back to Belgrave

A better picture of the curve of the bridge

The best part of travelling on this train was that because the carriages were open you got the smell  and noise of the engine.

We had eaten our lunch on the train ride back so we were able to straight away drive throught the Yarra Valley.  We also had a little walk to find a rather disappointing waterfall - it had virtually no water in it!

This is us looking at the waterfall!

 

We drove up to Mount Dandenong to see the view over Melbourne - however it was rather hazy.

Our next adventure is Phillip Island.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice