Victorian Holiday Destination - part four

Back to Melbourne to spend 4 days with my girlfriend who I have known now for 60 years, and her husband. They live on 10 acres so plenty of room for the van. We went to the huge International Flower Show in Melbourne which I will do in the next post, but also visited  a Diggers Garden who are a major seed company in Australia.

 This garden was in  the town of Olinda, called Cloudehill.

Entrance

  A very large garden, with some wonderful plants and was once owned by a family. It is quite hilly and seeing it in the rain, spoilt the enjoyment of it traipsing up and down the hills.

Lots of little "garden rooms"

Into the open area where weddings and functions are held.

Area of the wild Garden, Raining as usual.

Once down had to go all the way up

 Had a lovely morning tea there though , and did a bit of seed shopping, mainly sweet peas, marigolds and garlic bulb shopping.

Huge garlic selection

A Gardner's Dream Wall

In the next couple of day we went to two converted disused quarries that are now beautiful gardens and man made lakes. The first one was  Wilson Botanic Park.

The entrance has a lovely rose garden and leads into walkways that go right around the lake with side paths to resting areas.

Rose Garden

My favorite rose

 Lots of great areas for family get togethers. Managed to see it without raining although overcast and quite cold.

Lake full of lillies

 Being a disused quarry there are lots of deep gullies to work with.

Bottom area of Quarry

Top level on left hand side  very bushy area.

View of  other side of lake.

The next  day was Royal Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne which was made up of Native Australian Plants representing the inland and coastal area. By now I was starting to feel I had walked miles.

Private party waiting for the bus

 We took a bus tour with a very informative driver quoting all the scientific names as we went along. It has been designed to represent the desert, coast, city living, and waterways.

This feature is enclosed so no-one can walk on it.

 
 The entrance is the start with the inland desert or outback.

Swales also at the Entrance

 Slowly we work our way through representations of Rivers.

Down by the riverside

Rivers.

The whole garden can be walked all around

The coastal area.

Coastal View

It did rain while touring around, and we got some protection from the open bus.

                                      One very large sculpture and waterfall of red cliffs.

Urban Landscape

Eucalpyt Walk

These few photos do not do it any justice and I highly recommend visiting this garden. Well designed, tells a story and picnic areas. A very large coffee shop and a lovely tourist shop with lots of Australian items. I bought a beautiful fine tea mug covered in australian flowers.

Next post I will show our visit to the International Garden Show held in Melbourne every year.

Till next Time.

Victorian Holiday Destination - Part three

We stayed 4 days with my brother, and caught up with the washing, dinner out, and a visit to Walhalla.

Walhalla Township

 Of course it was still raining.

Post Office now a Cafe

Walhalla is a heritage town which runs a train

through the valley, made up of ferns and  gumtrees  and along a small river.

Very old carriages with a ticket collector.

A railway historical group run trips 3 times a week  and the train and carriages have all been fixed up, as has the track which was  rebuilt from old tracks in the area.

Reversed for theTrip Back

Great view of the train track.

Although it was wet it was very pretty, as we rattled along the track and over 4 little wooden bridges.

The Only Bridge Not Made of Wood

We had lunch in the tiniest cafe of 4 tables, while watching a bus load or tourists trying to get in. Very nice cutsey town even in the rain.

Small Cafes

 
Once on the road again we headed off to Seymour, for a meetup of some forum girls, and a few husbands. Believe it or not it stopped raining for the day.

Beginning of the gathering.

 Everyone bought goodies to swap and we all filled up 3 tables.

1/3rd of the loaded tables.

 I came away with hand made soaps, lemons, apples, patterns,  jar of pickles, books, quinces,  and a bonus of leftover muffins ,sausage rolls  and grapes. Wonderful. Handed out tastings of  our ginger Kombucha which was obviously liked, with  3 empty bottles

The Ladies of the Forum who Moderate.

From Seymour we went on to Porpunkah, near Bright, and spent 3 nights there. It rained and it was cold but so different from the sub tropical weather we normally have.

Park Site Opposite the River

 Unfortunately the leaves hadn't turned to colour, but the maples were lovely and a novelty for us. The little rivers part of the Ovens  river were delightful.

Ovens River

  I did a lot of embroidery and just relaxed.

Hardanger

Entrance to Bright

So packing up again we headed off back to Melbourne to meet up with my girlfriend of 60 years.

Till next time stay safe. 

Victorian Holiday Destination -Part Two

Leaving Ulladulla was a relief and we had heard  that the weather in Victoria itself was lovely, nice autumn days , and no rain. So with great expectation we headed off, to Orbost .

 Stopping at Canne River for lunch on the way, watching the convoy of caravan and boat traffic flowing through, probably due to a $45,000 fishing competition at Eden.

Orbost Caravan Park

As promised Orbost was lovely and sunny, the maple trees just turning to a lovely yellow and the air smelt, divine. We sat in the shade and I did a bit of embroidery, it was heaven.

Enjoying the Sun

That night it started raining, and the locals loved it. So packing up wet things again we set off once more. First stop was for morning tea at Nowa Nowa at the Stoney Creek wooden trestle bridge, the longest in the southern hemisphere.
This bridge is 4km into the bush. Very quiet and peaceful.

Stoney Creek Trestle Bridge

The next stop was Lakes Entrance, overlooking the inlet.

Lakes Entrance Inlet

Kilmany Pier

Finally we came to the Latrobe Valley, popped into the Bairnsdale Catholic Church.

This is beautifully painted all over by Francesco Floreani, who came to Australia in 1928 and painted the church in 1931. One of the church volunteers gave us a tour and interesting history of the church and the painter. Well worth visiting,  was an unbelievable find.

Church Alter

Part of the Ceiling

So off to my brothers we went. Raining all the way.

 Till next time.

Victoria Our Holiday Destination. Part One

We decided to finally actually use our caravan and visit family and travel the full circle from the mid north coast down the freeway via Wollongong to Bega way, then through Melbourne, back up the middle via Seymour and Bright, Henty, Berrima and Barrington Tops.
When we left it was overcast, little did we know the torrential rain and wind gusts were to follow us most of the way. Our first stop was Mungo Brush National Park in the lovely Myall Lakes.

Our First Camp Site Mungo Brush

We were also late arriving due to getting lost and missing the ferry. Àrriving at 7pm just as the sun was setting.  John also was not used to setting the van 12 volt system and took ages, just to get the fridge onto gas. By this time I was cooking sausages in the dark with a torch, which we had with bread, and boiling water for a bucket bath, to have  in the tiny 2 foot area known as the van bathroom, in the dark again. According to the head of the household going to bed at 8.30 is what you do when camping.

       You Never Forget to Ride.

The bikes came in very handy for riding the distance to the drop loos, you never forget how to ride. The van was sorted and organized next day,  with the solar and 12 volt and we managed quite comfortably for 3 nights. It started raining day 2.

Missed Ferry

We Overlooked This Lovely Lake

Moving on  to Ulladulla for the next 3 nights, and perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean, is when the torrential rain started, as it was a bit cold when setting up we decided to put the side annexe wall up as well.

118mm later and 3 am, night 2 with 80 kph gusts had us, dismantling the annexe, the camp kitchen, and flooring all saturated, and because we are good neighbour's,  helped two ladies pull down the most complicated tent you are ever likely to see.
 I hung on to a rope around my waist trying to keep the thing on the ground and imagining myself being Mary Poppins flying while holding onto the tent kite. Consequently I didn't take any photos, although John went wandering about with his camera.

You don't see this sign every day.

Stay tuned as we move on.
Till next time.

Renovating the Caravan - Part 2

Well finally I have got around to finishing off the curtains in the caravan. I ended up just covering the old ones rather than remaking, they in in a pretty good condition it was just that the colour wasn't to my taste. I wanted something bright, cheerful and something that made you feel in a holiday mode.

Fabric Used

Bed End

                                                     
                                                                      Fabric and Caravan  Reminder

After a great deal of fixing, sewing, glueing and sticking, it is finally coming together. The outdoor fabric is not the easiest to work with. It is quite a stiff texture and doesn't conform like a light weave would. The old fabric is an acrylic weave, with an openness to it that can be molded around cushions and ends. It has been a bit of a struggle at times.

Under the table are USB sockets which will be very handy when plugged into 240 volts. Also a couple of little cupboards for all the condiments and morning tea biscuits.

This was a J seat now much more practical.

Finally though it is finished, new floor, new curtains, new bedding, new arrangement of table, and lots of electric to improve the function of it. All set for our camping trip next month.

Beds much nicer with extra power points to plug in radio and a fan.

I can see a lot of weekends away also.

Till next time.