Trains, Wine and Cuddly Animals

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Day 135
18th January

It was an early start but we were looking forward to our day out. We’d had a look around and decided to go with APT Tours for our Puffing Billy Trip, which included lunch at a vineyard and an afternoon at a wildlife reserve as well as the train ride. Puffing Billy railway is one of the five narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways and opened around the beginning of the 20th century. The steam train runs through the southern foothills of the Dandenong Ranges to Gembrook. (just outside Melbourne). To be honest it was something neither one of us knew anything about until we were putting our wedding list together all those months ago. I’d spotted it on a website and thought it sounded cool!

We had to be a Federation Square at 8.10am, so we hopped on a tram (the number 3 I believe) and headed into central Melbourne. We had a bit of a moment where we couldn’t find where we were being picked up from, but we eventually worked it out. (it turned out to be around the corner from where we were, fail). We got on our coach and headed off. There was a bit of a drive to the start of the railway and the guide talked about the area, the railway and various other things as we drove along. Ellory was a bit tired and had a bit of a doze, bless him. After about an hour we pulled over into a layby, which seemed a little strange until we saw the huge number of birds nearby. We were also about to be treated to some Australian snacks, namely Billy Tea, vegemite and lamingtons. I drink a lot of green tea, and we’d had a fair share of strange drinks while we’d been travelling so to me the Billy Tea tasted nice! It was also very funny watching non Australian and British people eating vegemite. Obviously it’s not quite the same as marmite but it’s close enough and as Ellory and I are firmly in the ‘love it’ category, we thoroughly enjoyed our morning snack, however we can understand it is an acquired taste. Once we finished I went bought a bag of bird seed from the shop near by and we wandered over to where all the birds were. It was quite clear that the birds were very tame due to being fed by tourists which is a bit of a shame, however it is very difficult to resist the temptation of get so close to so many wonderful birds. In particular the very famous Australian Cockatoos and the (flamin’) galah! As long as you had bird food in your hand they would come and sit on you which was an amazing experience, they were so colourful and beautiful and would obligingly sit so still for photographs. We didn’t get to spend very long there, as we had to head off to get our (Puffing Billy) train, but it was great!

We carried on our journey and on the way there we passed areas that looked like they’d been burnt to the ground. This turned out to be exactly what had happened as we were driving through the area that had been devastated by forest fires in 2009 that left 173 dead. I remember watching it on the news and I couldn’t believe the scale of the destruction. We were told that the area was slowly recovering but I fear it may be many years yet before it returns to its previous state.

We got to the station and made our way down to the platform. The steam train was so cool, it had no windows so it was all open air. We found a seat in our designated area and waiting for the train to leave. We then found out that you could sit on the window ledge with your legs outside the train during the journey. I knew the chance of me being able to do something like that ever again was remote so I decided to do just that. I ended up with a numb bottom at the end of the journey but it was worth it! It was such a pretty journey, winding up through the mountains and we both enjoyed it very much. The train arrived at a station called Menzies Creek and we disembarked. There was a little bit of time at the station to take photographs and then back onto the coach that had followed us so we could go and get some lunch.

We were in the Yarra Valley which may mean something to some of you. It is a well known Australian wine region, and it would be a shame not to visit one! We were taken for lunch at the Fergusson Winery, which was not a name either one of us knew but we got to try some of there wines which were lovely and there was a great lunch of spit roast meat (Ellory had fish) and roast potatoes, vegetables etc. Very tasty.

Our group split after lunch, some people were going on a wine tasting tour and the other half (our half) were going to the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary. It’s one of the best known sanctuaries in Australia and they have a huge range of animals. There was a guided tour to take us around, but as Ellory likes to take his time taking photographs we decided to make our own way around. It was great! We saw all the well known animals of Australia, Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, Kangaroos, Koalas, and a personal favourite of Ellory and me, the platypus! Healesville have a fantastic platypus enclosure and an excellent breeding programme and we spent ages in the observation area watching them swimming around. They are so so cute and it was fantastic to see them up close. We had a lovely afternoon at the sanctuary and got so many excellent photos. Eventually it was time to leave and head back to Melbourne. I actually nodded off on the way back, it had been a long day. We were dropped off back at Federation Square at around half five and we jumped back on the tram to St Kildas and our hostel where we made ourselves dinner in our room and chilled out for the rest of the evening. Thank you very much Meryl, Leon and Sandra for our wedding present, we had a great day!
xxx

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