Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Grant's Picnic Ground ~ 20/2/11


We headed out to Grant's Picnic Ground early on Sunday 20-2-11. It was a miserable looking day with rain forecast but we hoped to get in some bird feeding and bushwalking before the rain hit.

We arrived at the grounds before the coach tours got there, in fact we were the
first ones there feeding the birds! We purchased some seed at the gift shop and headed to the designated bird feeding area. There were no birds around but they had said to just scatter the seed so we did, hoping that birds would just appear as they do. After about 5mins of seed scattering some galahs appeared which William took great delight in feeding on the ground.
He was quickly surrounded by cockatoos so decided that standing was a better option and was happily hand feeding a rosealla when he was swooped by a galah! Then it was my turn ~ I don’t particularly care for birds at the best of times but it looked like fun. And it was fun, until I was covered in king parrots and roseallas and fighting off the cockatoos! I couldn’t handle it for long and so I gave the role of head bird feeder to Angus who really loved it. The birds loved him too :)



After we had finished with the seed and scrubbed our arms and hands with soap in the toilets we decided to head out on a little bush walk down one of the trails. We started out walking the Hardy Gully Nature Walk.
The start of the trail was very steep and slippery as it had been raining so the path had turned to mud. It didn’t deter us at all, we just took it slowly. It’s a beautiful walk and it was amazing to see the size of the trees and ferns. William announced that the trees must be very very very old just like daddy.
Not sure what daddy thought of that! We cut the walk short and started to head back to the picnic grounds as we could feel the rain starting and didn’t want to get caught.
When we got back to the grounds we decided that we would go to the cafe, order some drinks and eat our picnic lunch but the weather had other plans. We ordered and started to relax when the heavens opened and we had to move inside. We upgraded our order to include a bowl of wedges and sat there enjoying the view of the rain over the rainforest and I drooled over their homemade vanilla slice ~ apparently it’s famous and it looked divine. I’m going to try it next time we go back.

After lunch we bundled a tired William into the car and drove around the Dandenong ranges for a while before returning home. Unfortunately the rain stopped us doing anything else up there but it was still a lovely morning. We look forward to going back again in the future.

Monday, March 7, 2011

What is our ultimate adventure?

Earlier this year Angus and I sat down and wrote up a list of all the places we want to visit in Victoria. Some of them we want to visit on our own, some we want to take William (our 3yo son) to. It ended up being titled "our ultimate Victorian to-do list". And this is a chronicle of our ultimate Victorian Adventure. We're hoping to get everything checked off by the end of the year, and all things going well we should be able to get the majority done at least.

This is our list, it is a work in progress. Places may (and probably will be!) added to it over the year. Many places that have been suggested to us aren't listed as we have already visited them.

MELBOURNE
• Eureka skydeck
• River cruise
• Scienceworks
• Fire museum
• Ripponlea
• Como house
• The ballet
• Art gallery
• Melbourne Museum
• Immigration Museum
• Dairy Farm ~ only here because we will probably end up at the Collingwood Children’s Garden
• Herring Island ~ only accessible by boat, summer time
• High tea at the Langham
• Maritime Museum
GEELONG/WERRIBEE AREA
• Werribee Zoo
• Ford Discovery Centre
• History of Wool (Geelong)
• Fairy Park
YARRA VALLEY AND DANDENONG RANGES
• Grant’s Picnic Ground
• Lake Emerald
• Cardinia Reservoir
• Hot air balloon over the Yarra
• Healesville Sanctuary
• Hedgend Maze, Healesville
• Rhododendron Garden
• Puffing Billy
• Alfred Nicholas Gardens
• Sky High Mt Dandenong
MORNINGTON PENINSULA
• Ashcombe Maze
• Maize Maze
• Boneo Maze
• Coolart Wetlands and Homestead
• Cranbourne Botanic Gardens
• Cape Shanck Lighthouse
• Penguins at Philip Island
• Walking out to the Cape at Cape Woolami, Philip Island
• Strawberry picking
• Ferry from Queenscliff to Portsea
• French’s Island
• Point Nepean
GIPPSLAND
• Venus Bay
• Tullaree ~ lady of the swamp
• Wilson’s Promontory
• Port Albert ~ sailing tour, maritime museum
DAYLESFORD AND THE MACEDON RANGES
• Mt Macedon
• Lavendar farm at Daylesford
• Hanging Rock
• Chocolate museum
GREAT OCEAN ROAD
• Drive the length of it
• Otway fly walk
• Glow worms at Mungo Valley
• Bushwalks to see waterfalls
GOLDFIELDS
• Sovereign Hill including the light show at night
• Central Deborah Gold Mine
• Talking tram tour around Bendigo
• Kryal Castle
GRAMPIANS
• Wildflowers
• Aboriginal rock art
• Little Desert National Park
• Volcano discovery centre at Penshurst
HIGH COUNTRY
• The snow
• Glenrowan animatronics show
• Great Alpine Road
THE MURRAY
• Paddlesteamer on the Murray
• Stefano’s Restaurant at Mildura