Victoria Two 12 to 19 February 2011

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Well here it is Part Two of our blog for Victoria as promised………..we awoke early the next morning and set off towards Melbourne where we were going to visit Ros, the sister in law of our friends Peter and Margaret from Calne, Wiltshire. Ros lives in Somerville on the Mornington Peninsula about an hour by train away from Melbourne. We followed the coast road and stopped at Inverloch a seaside village located on the Bass Highway southeast of Melbourne, at the mouth of the Anderson Inlet. We called into the modern information centre to pick up some leaflets on walks and then took the Cape Paterson Road along the coast towards Cape Liptrap. We stopped and walked part of the George Bass Coastal Walk along a narrow winding track which led to a lookout on the edge of the cliff with panoramic coastal views high above the pounding surf of the Bass Strait. We then continued along the coastal road before turning inland and making a slight detour to Phillip Island, a small island where most people come to see the Penguins waddle up the beach to their burrows each night. You may have seen this ‘Penguin Parade’as it was recently featured on the TV in the UK with Rolf Harris. However we did not come to see the penguins but the Island is also the home of the Koala Conservation Centre where elevated boardwalks take you around the site for close up views of these gentle animals. We were lucky enough to see many, included mothers with young and watched them climb down from the trees and dart across the undergrowth to find another suitable eucalyptus tree to climb. There are four types of eucalyptus that they particularly favour out of about 70 different varieties – quite fussy these furry animals! Also whilst we were wandering around the bush we were lucky enough to see a huge kangaroo go bounding by much to quick to get a good photograph though….. We finally arrived at Ros’s home and although we have never met before we immediately got on very well. We had a lot in common with her as she was married the same month, the same year and also lived in the same county as us. Her first daughter, Carol was born the same month and year as Sharon and her second daughter, Vicky was born the same year as Kerry which was quite a coincidence. We intended to stay for a couple of days but she made us feel so welcome and it was lovely being in someone’s home rather than a hotel/motel that we ended up staying for a week. Ros had taken a few days off work and showed us around the area. We drove up the mountains to the Observatory in the Dandenong Ranges, at 633 metres above sea-level it is the highest point in the surrounding ranges. On the way up we passed ‘Puffing Billy’ an historic steam train still running regularly in the mountain district. It was built to serve the rural areas in the early 1900s and this century-old steam train is still running on its original mountain track from Belgrave to Gembrook. This views from the top out over Victoria were delightful, cool fern glades and towering native trees covered the landscape and you could see from the Mornington Peninsula across to Port Phillip Bay. Even though it was quite cloudy we could see the skyline of the city of Melbourne standing out in the distance. Ros knew the area well as she spent her childhood up here in the mountains, as her mother and father had immigrated to the Dandenongs in 1955. They had left Swansea in Wales for a better life, travelling to Australia on the ‘£10 package’, bringing with them their children and also their 80 year old mother. The boat journey took them six long weeks and it was quite an amazing and difficult journey. Whilst we were staying with Ros we also met her 94 year old mother who related some stories of her travel out to Australia in 1955 along with her return trips to the UK which she really enjoyed. In fact she was still badgering Ros to take her back, a journey that would be much too difficult for her at 94, but she still thought she could undertake it. When they first arrived in Oz in 1955 they were met by some relatives who had already been here for 30+ years and they had not seen them in all that time. An uncle living at Kaliste in the Dandenong’s region had set up a small business selling bottled water from the side of the road, in fact the place he had used is named after him and there is now a café on the spot called Cooks Corner Café and Foodstore. We stopped for tea in a small town and had Devonshire scones (they only ever have Devonshire and not Cornish in Oz!) before travelling down the mountain where Paul and Ros managed to get us lost and we ended up, as you so often do in Oz on a ‘dirt’ road – but that’s another story …….I did tell them to turn around! Back in Somerville we spent many lovely evenings sitting on the verandah chatting with Ros over a glass or two of wine! At night we could hear the possums climbing over the roof to feed on the tree in the garden and each morning we had to sweep up the ‘possum poo’ on the patio - one of the hazards of living in Oz! We were invited to lunch by Ros’s daughter Vicky and her husband Phil who lived nearby and they made us feel very welcome in their home. Vicky prepared a delightful lunch and I must get the recipe for the lovely quiche, made without pastry. The shops within walking distance of Ros’s home were really good with anything you should want close by. We decided it was time to change our mobile broadband as we were still experiencing very limited coverage with Vodaphone and had no signal at all in Somerville! Everyone was saying that Telstra would be better so we decided to try this and sure enough we managed to get good signals straight away, it’s a pity someone did not tell us this in Sydney!! We spent a delightful day with Ros on the Mornington Peninsula chatting to the local fishermen who had just arrived with their mussel catch. Huge crates were all over the quayside and they were weighing the crates on the quayside before transported them straight into refrigerated lorries. We walked along the seafront and sat on the beach near to where Ros used to work eating a light lunch whilst watching some huge container ships sailing into Melbourne across the peninsula. Sea birds were all around and we saw several Pacific Gulls which are sometimes mistaken for an Albatross, the black and white Pacific Gull is a very large gull, but a bird of the shore rather than of the oceans. It has a massive yellow bill with red, wedge shaped tip and yellow legs. It is much less common and is shyer than the abundant and aggressive Silver Gull, and is restricted to the seashores of the southern half of Australia. Pacific Gulls feed on a range of animal food, including clams, snails and sea urchins that they break by dropping onto rocks while in flight. We were lucky enough not to have any drop on our heads whilst we were there! Ros had to return to work on Wednesday and so Paul and I travelled into the city of Melbourne by bus and train which took us about an hour but only cost about £7. Compared to a trip to London from Winchester which would have cost about £27 it was extremely good value. Melbourne is the capital city in the state of Victoria and the second most populous city in Oz and we were impressed with our first visit. The city is located on the large natural bay known as Port Phillip with the centre at the estuary of the Yarra River. It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria in 1847 and in 1851 became the capital city of the newly created colony of Victoria. During the 1850s Victorian gold rush it was one of the world’s wealthiest cities. We had a great day in Melbourne, first visiting the Information Centre to pick up a city and tram map so that we could find our way around. However most of Melbourne best-known sites are clustered around the city centre with ‘hop on and off’ trams being the easiest way around so we did not get lost and Ros had given us an idea of what to see first. We started at Federation Square and walked over the bridge to Southbank and down the side of the river towards the Immigration Museum which details the history of early settlers as well as outlines moving stories of people from all over the world who have migrated to Australia. We continued on to Docklands area before we boarded the tram (feet were aching now) and did a circular tour of the city which took about an hour. We saw the Old Melbourne Gaol, this penal museum is a must see in the area. The dark, dank and tiny cells display plaster casts of some of the 135 prisoners who were hanged here. Ned Kelly’s iconic armour and the very gallows from which he was hanged are also here. We enjoyed our day out in Melbourne and on the way out on the train saw the MCG Cricket Grounds and the Rod Laver Tennis Stadium – we hope to return to see more of Melbourne later in our journey. On our last evening with Ros we drove into Frankston hoping to see the huge sand sculpture display on the waterfront but they were expecting heavy rain overnight and had closed the site to cover up the works of art. They said they would send us free tickets and we would try and get there on our return visit. We had a lovely meal overlooking the river before heading back to pack for our morning flight to Tasmania which we had booked at the local travel agency. Ros agreed to keep our backpacks whilst we were travelling around Tassie and loaned us some carry on luggage so that we could travel light. It was really sad to say goodbye to Ros who had made us feel so at home but we would meet up on our return in a couple of week’s time after our adventures in Tasmania – see you there.

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