Melbourne's "Secret Gardens" Walk - May 23

While Rick was away, I began work on my school report cards. It was a steep learning curve for me to understand and master an online system that was totally new to me. I had already become familiar with the Victorian Educational Learning Standards (VELS) which students need to attain at every grade level. For me the most daunting thing was to come up with individual comments for 350 students whose names I hardly even knew! There is always a Harry, Will, James or Chloe in every room (or derivatives thereof), and sometimes two or three! There are also two sets of identical twins that are almost impossible to tell apart. Thankfully the school gave me a copy of all the students’ pictures and that helped immensely to write the correct comment for the correct student! Of course there were much-needed diversions in between all this work, just to keep my sanity intact! In fact, I indulged in a big break on Sunday afternoon, May 23, to take a walk around Melbourne with Grace Jones, another Canadian exchangee, who was in the same dilemma as I was with report cards. We just needed to get out!

As part of Melbourne’s tourism industry, there are seven different self-guided walks that one can take to explore sections of the city. Grace and I decided upon Walk #2 entitled “Secret Gardens” which promised a walk to the Arts Centre, then past sculptures and monuments to the beautiful Royal Botanic Gardens. It was a lovely afternoon as we began our trek along the Yarra River. People were out in droves, enjoying the warm sunshine. When we left the road to enter the Royal Botanical Gardens,

it was as though we had entered a hushed sanctuary inside the city that blotted out all the noise and the hustle and bustle of life outside its gates. We were amazed! Each area of the garden had a different focus. Thus we came upon the giant River Red Gum trees,

the bamboo forest, the cypress garden,

and an ornamental lake with its tea house.

The gardens were established in 1846 and cover 38 hectares. There are supposedly some 52,000 different plant species in the garden, but we were unable to capture them all on film for you, so please settle on these few that I have included here as a small sample to whet your appetite for the stunning flowers, growing here even in the season of autumn. Buildings like the William Tell Rest House

and unique statues sprinkled throughout the garden

added to the charm and beauty of the place. What solace for the report-card stressed soul! Just to see the gorgeous flowers will bring solace to your souls as well, dear reader!

We were tired, but also so revitalized and invigorated , as we clambered onto the tourist shuttle bus to take us back to the train station. We had tramped some 6 kilometres over almost three hours and were exhausted! It was time to head home and get back to work! Well, thankfully the reports did eventually get done!

Unique Roadside Signs in Australia

We just keep on finding more and more interesting road signs. We have showed you some signs from New Zealand; we have showed you some signs from Tasmania; these ones are from within our state of Victoria in Australia, some on roads quite right close to our place, some on our travels throughout the state!

The Kangaroo

The Lyre Bird

The Koala

The Mallee Fowl

The Wombat

A Visit to the Dandenong Range - May 16

It seems that the people who are the most interested in meeting exchangees from Canada are the people who have been exchangees to Canada themselves. So, I was excited to finally find a time to meet up such a person, Rose Chapple, while Rick was in Canada. We arranged to meet at her place, and then we planned to visit her favourite haunts in the Dandenong Ranges. This, of course, meant venturing out on the roads by car by myself to an unknown location, but the GPS got me there safe and sound and as it was on a Sunday morning, the traffic was light.

Our first stop was at a place where parrots like to congregate, called Grants Picnic Ground. People “flock” to the area to feed them, and birds in turn “flock” to the food! I never tire of seeing parrots flying free in Australia, and thrill even more at the chance to have them alight on my hands! (What I would give to take one of them home with me as a souvenir!) The sulphur-crested cockatoos are the most aggressive birds, but the galahs,

king parrots

and crimson rosellas are also prolific here, if a little more reticent to feed. For those who have been following my blog avidly, here are some of the answers to the parrot recognition quiz we posted on February 1st.

Next we took a hike down the Lyrebird Gully Trail into a eucalyptus forest.

The huge ferns

and trees

were absolutely beautiful in the morning sunlight,

and the trek offered up some spectacular treasures, like a sparkling spider’s web, and a female lyrebird.

After our trek we drove to the little town of Emerald nestled among the green Dandenong Ranges hills. Here we came upon a little outdoor market with stalls selling every possible remedy for good health, good beauty and good sleep. One place had a display of Australian lizards and snakes and offered to take my picture with a giant Onyx Diamond Python snake.

With flashbacks to my university days when I underwent therapy for a fear of snakes, I consented. Now I know that snakes are not slimy creatures, so I was prepared to drape him around my neck, but I was not prepared for the constricting feeling as it wriggled to get warm around my neck! Nevertheless, I survived!

Tea time took us next to the local bakery shop where the quiche tasted as good as it smelled and the café latte was soothing as we relaxed at an outdoor table. My but the Australians know how to make coffee - almost as good as Tim Horton’s back home!

As we drove onward thereafter, we spied a kookaburra and then heard the toot of the Puffing Billy train,

which I have also written about in an earlier blog (Australia Day - January 26). This time, however, we were on the outside, watching as the passengers waved when they came around the bend.

We headed next to the Cardinia Reservoir, the reservoir which provides the drinking water for Melbourne. The area surrounding it has been turned into a beautiful park. Here we took a quick walk to look for kangaroos. We found none there, but as we began our homeward journey, we spotted a group of about 6 or 7 of them emerging from the forest. There they stood, oblivious to us, feeding on the grass.

I stood there mesmerized. What a perfect end to a perfect day! But all good things must come to an end, and we regretfully resumed our homeward journey. After getting back to town, I made my way back home through the maze of Melbourne streets successfully, tired but happy.