Mini Adventure Series No.4 (10th-12th May)

Melbourne, A Day at the Races.

Firstly, I'm very sorry Julie. The car was only borrowed for a trip to Canberra, not the extra 800km. Though I'm pretty sure Casey's intention had only ever been to go to Melbourne, having mentioned it previously and being too stubborn to change his mind.

We actually had the full weekend away this time, leaving Friday afternoon. We went as far as Seymour, just outside of Melbourne that night, and found absolutely nothing to do in the town. The motel was miles (exaggerating slightly) out of the main town but it was the best quality motel we've stayed in. No, I have no idea which it was but had I been making notes of all we've stayed in I could probably have done a post about where to, and not to stay.

Saturday morning we ventured into the city. It is incredibly hard to find anything in a city when you don't even know what there is to find. It normally turns into hours of wandering around, getting lost and finding very little. It's much easier to find things in the middle of nowhere, such things always seem to want to be found. (I am not a city person). What we did manage to find was the oldest European building in Australia, built in 1755. Which you may or may not know was 15 years before Australia was actually discovered...

What we found was Captain Cook's Cottage which was shipped over from Yorkshire in 1933 and rebuilt brick by brick. (Thank you once again Jenny's book)
Somehow what I didn't manage to get was a picture. =(

After our somewhat aimless wanderings, we decided to go to Caulfield race course and to the horse races. Now I've always imagined going to the races as a fun day, plenty to do and everyone dressed up. Maybe that's the case back home but in Australia races are no big deal. They happen everyday. There can be a dozen race courses running a day. And to do there... there's a bar, betting and nothing to do between races, which can be up to an hour apart!
While the race is actually happening, it's quite fun. Choose a horse, even if you don't put money on it and get very enthusiastic about it anyway. I liked the grey horses that day. Even picked a winner at one point.

That evening we managed to find possibly the worst accommodation we've stayed in. It was in or near St. Kilda, right on the beach. It really wasn't very good. But we did find a little hill park next to the beach, which had a great view of the sunset over Melbourne and some really good live music from a youth group or something similar. And afterwards a good night out. Okay so we had to walk a fair way to find any trace of a night life but we got there eventually, and despite St. Kilda supposedly being a 'rough' area, it was a great night. We did get a bit lost trying to find our way back to the motel, then had a 2am wander down the beach, brilliant.

Since I had been given some idea of where we were going this time, I had actually had a chance to find something I wanted to do. I'd found an animal sanctuary just outside of Melbourne. Well it turned out that Healesville Animal Sanctuary was slightly in the middle of nowhere, and a fair drive away.





You could get right up close to the 'roos, even if you weren't actually supposed to (tut tut Casey). The pelicans just wandered wherever they wanted to. And the echidna!!! This was the first time I'd come across an echidna, even the first time I'd heard of them. They are the most adorable things ever!! I want one!!

There were dingos and emus and a koala experience. There aren't many places where you can actually hold a koala, unless you go find one in the wild, which would be extremely difficult anyway, and having seen their claws I wouldn't advise grabbing hold of a wild one.

Unfortunately Healesville wasn't one of the places you can hold one, but with the koala ex. you do get right up close and I did stroke one (shh don't tell).I still want to cuddle one though.
The wombat and the Tasmanian devil were no shows, but that's okay. I've seen a wild wommie so that's okay and I did get a peak of a tassie in Sydney.
What I did get to see was... a platypus! No picture 'coz it was a dark room with no flashes allowed. Platypuses are nocturnal. But at least I've seen one.

All in all it was a brilliant weekend. And I even got a lovely fresh loaf of olive sourdough bread to munch on the way home.

Mini Adventure Series No.3 (28th April)

Koorawatha Falls

This little trip was only a day trip, or even really an afternoon trip. Koorawatha is only about 50km out of Young.

To get to the falls you turn off the main road into a little village. The word that came to my mind in this village was 'hill-billy'. It was all really ramshackle wooden houses. Nothing really looked like it had been taken care of at all, and there were chickens or dogs in nearly every garden.

To get to the waterfall, you go down a dirt road out of the village. Really you need a 4x4. There are places where the bottom just seems to have fallen out of the road. Rather a rough drive.

Now just like the snowfields we went to the previous weekend that had no snow, the water fall had no water. That's what you get when you do these trips just after the summer. The views were impressive though, as was the erosion all around the top of the falls. Lucky it was late enough in the season to go exploring without having to worry about snakes.



I'm told that when the water is actually flowing it's fun to jump off the top, that is if you don't mind a few leeches at the bottom.












Well there may not have been water at Koorawatha that weekend, but what it lacked in water, it definitely made up for in wallaby!