2025 Adventures

I was sad to leave the little house on the hill and its beautiful views, parrots and kookaburras. I was less sad to put some space between myself and the tiger snake who lived under the chicken coop. I did see him and he was quite pretty colours but being very venomous I was wary of our close quarters! The owner had put a call in to "the snake guy" to see if he could be relocated as he is eating the eggs!  I drove to a hotel fairly near Melbourne Airport as I need to return the car tomorrow morning. On the way I stopped at Alowyn Gardens which is 7 acres of different gardens and was really nice to look around. I missed the wisteria but lots of roses and irises were out. Weather forecast: warm and cloudy with occasional drizzle.  The drizzle turned into rain so I popped into a popular chocolate factory for a bit of a look round and lunch. My final stop was the town of Kangaroo Ground as it sounded nice and had an observation tower to view the hills. However, the tower was unde...

I collected a hire bike yesterday evening and cycled today to Seville and back (total 50km) on the Lilydale to Warburton Rail Trail, aka the Warby Rail Trail. It was a gorgeous spring day and the cool morning soon heated up. The trail went through the farms, hills and vineyards of the Yarra Valley. I was glad I had a helmet on as I was swooped on by a magpie, another Australian rite of passage. Many aussies had cable ties or foam sticking out of their helmets to deter the magpies! It was a popular trail and there were many other cyclists, walkers and runners. A flat tyre shortly before Seville necessitated 1km of pushing and a bike swap. The new bike had fewer gears but a more comfortable saddle so I did alright out of it!  Cafe in an old railway carriage  Steps at Warburton and below a mural of a very evil looking platypus! 

I stayed close to home today. Visited the 'Rainforest Gallery' which has a short elevated platform at canopy height and then a circular walkway through the forest visiting a creek. Its hard to take good photos of the rainforest as the trees keep getting in the way. I then visited a planted Californian Redwood forest. The trees were planted in avenues which looked very effective. Beyond the redwoods was natural rainforest and another beautiful stream.  Back to Warburton for lunch and a potter around the shops and the river walk. Now enjoying the wamth, sunshine and views from my accommodation. 

Spring has returned! Although there was frost this morning, the sun shone all day and the Yarra Valley looked very green and beautiful as I drove through. Unfortunately there were no convenient stopping places on the road to get a photo. Another day, another wildlife sanctuary as I was after a glimpse of the elusive platypus. Healesville Sanctuary has 15 of them and I saw two at very close quarters. They are smaller than I thought but very cute. They are very buoyant so they dive down to feed and pop straight back up like a cork. It was obviously dark in their enclosure so no good photos but I got better videos. Apart from the adorable platypus Healesville had all the usual Australian animals plus tree kangaroos from Northern Queensland. The echidnas were especially active today as well. There were regular keeper talks going on so I really enjoyed my day with the animals. I'm staying nearby at Warburton in a "little house" courtesy of airbnb. Its perched on a hill but an ...

I was woken by a very noisy crow. The cawing of crows has definitely been the soundtrack to Australia! It was also very cold outside - don't be fooled by the blue sky in the pictures, temperatures were between 7 and 9 degrees all day with a wind that I reckon came straight from the Antarctic. At least it was mostly dry. As I went to school in Malmesbury, Wiltshire I had to stop in Malmsbury, Victoria even though they lost the 'e' at some point. This was once a supply town for the goldfields and now retains a small high street and gardens. It was actually a bit more charming than it came out in the photos and I did my bit for the economy by visiting the bakery and antique/gift shop.  I then realised I was driving straight past Hanging Rock so that made a nice place for a walk and explore. It was too cold for a Picnic at Hanging Rock which is just as well as apparently that's quite a dangerous activity. The rock itself is an extinct volcano and rock type is trachyte. It l...