Day out at the Dandenongs

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Day 313 (3.2.08)

Less than an hour’s drive from Melbourne are the Dandenongs, a range of hills with large areas of National Park topped off by Mt Dandenong itself. There are loads of walking trails and as it was a nice day we thought we’d go and try a couple out.

As we approached the ranges and drove up the steep and windy road into the hills the tall trees lining the edges of the road and the lush ferns beneath promised us some interesting walks. Our first walk took us through towering Mountain Ash trees to the Sherbrooke Falls - the name made us think it would be the usual torrent of water associated with a waterfall but it was more like a small set of rapids in a stream! It was pretty none-the-less and made a good halfway point in a walk which saw us returning through a picnic ground filled with beautiful crimson rosella birds who thought nothing of pecking up birdseed inches from your feet. We finished this fine introduction to the Dandenongs with a picnic and then made our way through more winding roads to another walking trail.

This time we’d be in the more northern reaches of the ranges and were aiming for the Olinda Falls which we hoped would be a little more impressive than the Sherbrooke Falls. Well they were, but only a little! Considering the drought issues in Australia we couldn’t really complain and both walks had taken us through lovely forest scenery and given us a good chance to stretch our legs.

We finished our day’s outing with a wander around the small and pretty village of Sassafras on the main road through the Dandenongs. We pottered around the artsy crafty type of shops and then spent a happy time in a shop selling over 300 different varieties of tea. We selected a couple to take home and try and then jumped back into Nora to head back to the city determined to visit the Dandenongs again before we left Melbourne.

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