Melbourne and beyond

Leaving the heritage towns behind, we made our way to Melbourne, the city of 4 seasons in one day. Unfortunately the only season we got on this trip was high summer - very hot and humid - unbearable in the city but Neil was here to do business so we had 4 days to look forward to.

The seaside at St Kilda has a pier where you can seriously cool down in the strong winds blowing across it while considering whether to stay until evening and see the little penguins and water rats, two protected species who have set up home here and Neil's interest in aeroplanes took us out to Tyabb Airport, a 1.5 hour train journey down into the Mornington Peninsula. Apart from that, we were glad to be heading back to Perth on Virgin Blue - the coldest flight I have experienced in a long time - a complete antidote to all that heat but will someone please tell Richard Branson that people tend to get on an aeroplane in Australia in the lightest of summer clothing..........

We all went to 'Sculpture by the Sea' at Cottesloe and enjoyed the sunset. Then it was off to Kailis for fish and chips.

During the night of 21 March there was distant thunder and lightening and this got itself organised the following afternoon into the most tremendous storm which continued for most of the night.

The city recorded its fifth-highest March daily rainfall in 134 years of records, and its wettest March day for 39 years. If you google 'Perth hail storm' you can read all about it.

We had heard that Mandurah, about 50km south of Perth, was the fastest growing town in the world so decided to pay a visit.

It's all very new and is supposed to be modelled on Venice (??) . A bit souless for our tastes but
it might be better when the people get here.

Time for a few days in Margaret River where we followed the 'Cow Trail'. Painted and decorated cows everywhere

in the supermarket

and the DIY store

We watched more fantastic sunsets

Back in Fremantle at Easter weekend and the 3 day Street Arts festival with artists from all over the world appearing in various pitches around the town.

This guy could lean and juggle at the same time, very good.

From the botanic gardens in Perth you get the best views of the city and the Swan River.

There are magnificent Morton Bay Fig trees, white gums, palms, native flowers and - well, it's a botanic garden.

We are leaving Perth soon to return to UK. Look out for us again in New Zealand in a few weeks time.

Onward to Victoria

Before we arrive at Yackandanda, let me tell you about Dalgety, an historic town recommended by the Tourist information offices as well worth a visit.

To get there you have to negotiate several kilometres of unsealed road - not unusual in this part of Australia. Human habitation and other traffic are both quite rare and the view is vast but we did come across a herd of sheep crossing the road, ably assisted by a Fido lookalike and a couple of blokes.

Well, Dalgety is hardly a town. They have a great bridge across what remains of the Snowy River after irrigation projects have taken their share and a heritage trail around buildings and people that/who used to be there. We asked about how such a small community supported a school and were told that it had 10 pupils - unreal.

In the Snowy Mountains beyond Cooma is the largest hydro-electricity installation in the world. 100,000 people were involved in the construction phase and this put Cooma on the map by establishing a population during the 1950s and 60s. The whole area where the dams, pipelines and electricity sub-stations are is huge, probably 150x150 kilometres or perhaps more. We drove through the scheme, a very picturesque route over the Snowy Mountains, on our way to Yackandanda.

At Yackandanda, on Victoria's heritage trail, we were welcomed by Dieter and Karin to Maple Grove bed and breakfast cottages, furnished with antiques (all for sale) accumulated by Dieter who runs an antique business in the next town. There are an enormous variety of rare plants in the 8 hectares of garden, everything was very lush due to the comparatively wet summer this year and Dieter spent most of every day mowing the grass on his ride on mower.

Unfortunately, lushness means that the mosquitoes were rampaging every evening and this almost prevented us going out to view the heavens. Due to the complete absence of light pollution, the stars and the milky way are not only visible but indescribably beautiful. I wish it was possible to photograph it but alas, you will have to visit to see what it's like.

At Maple Grove they also keep alpacas, always very inquisitive when we passed them by.

The town of Beechworth is also heritage themed, we particularly liked the garage with authentic breakdown truck and RACV vans.

We decided to visit Mount Hotham, the centre of the Victoria ski and snow industry. They don't have much of either but make the most of everything they've got. The journey there was very spectacular up the newly constructed mountain pass and it was definitely cooler at 1600 metres above sea level but at this time of the year there was hardly anyone about and more or less everywhere was closed, including the airport, which is open for only 3 months of the year.

The small red car is ours, the airport was completely deserted.

This is Dinner Plains ski resort -also closed and almost deserted apart from the massive amount of construction going on. Whether anyone will come and live here, or buy one of these very nice units is anyone's guess. It really is miles from anywhere and quite inaccessible from every direction. We enjoyed our day out here but won't be counting on coming back when it snows - it's so hard to believe it ever does seriously snow and the skiing areas are tiny.

We'll be leaving for Melbourne soon so more from there.

Away from the snow

I arrived in Perth at last - delay due to snow in Paris meant that the connecting flight from Singapore was long gone when I got there so I found a convenient bench and began my life as an airport bag lady while I waited. Since I couldn't find anyone sufficiently interested to record my annoyance/discomfort/resignation, (including the airline - details supplied on request) I'll leave you to imagine the scene.

I was immediately into the swing of things with the One Tribe sonic experience, Christiane's yoga class and a visit to the Buddist Monastery at Janna Grove where we had lunch while the birds waited for their share.

We enjoyed Christiane's cooking and the Indian night with authentic music supplied by the very talented One Tribe ensemble was a great hit

Neil and I left Perth for Sydney where we were going to the air show at Illawarra then on to the very southernmost point of the south coast - Bermagui.

We stayed at Bimbimbi House in Violet Cottage, a residence that hasn't quite lost it's association with it's previous incarnation as a cattle shed. We never did get used to that sloping floor but it was a beautiful, peaceful place to stay.

It was a lovely spot, high above but overlooking the river. Bimbimbi means 'many birds' and it lived up to it's name in every way.

We came across three fishermen in Bermagui who had caught this lot near the river mouth in 4 hours.

Pelicans can smell fish a mile away

After leaving Bermagui we made for Cooma, where Neil's friend, Mike Apps, runs the airfield. We were amazed how green everything looked. After 15 years without significant rainfall the downpours have started. We took a ride on the heritage train line, run as usual by a group of enthusuastic amateurs.

From Cooma we took the scenic route across the Snowy Mountains to Yackandandah.