We survived our night amongst the busy trucks and travellers on Sunday night, a little fitfully but finally waking later than planned. We hurriedly got organised and headed off, finding that we had to travel five kilometres north before turning south again toward Melbourne. Despite our slow start, we were parked outside Advantage Caravan Repairs before 10 am and before midday the hot water system had been given a good going over complete with new anode. Chris paid attention to the process and so may be confident to undertake the service himself next time. However in the meantime, all is as good as new.
We passed two caravan parks as we continued on down the Hume Highway, but one was closed and rather derelict and the other serving only a permanent resident base. With our options reduced and not wanting to return to the Sundowner Rockbank Park, having done the west of Melbourne well and truly, we settled for this park which is a lot closer to the centre of the city. Because of this and because of its franchise connections, it is much more expensive than the camp at Rockbank, the sites are tight (we have no space to erect our awning), but the service is impeccable and the facilities are wonderful. We are parked right beside the swimming pool complex, so closely that we could reach out the kitchen window and grab a sunbather’s towel if anyone was of a mind to lounge about the pool.
The afternoon was spent checking out the public transport terminals, stocking up our provisions and making a start on the mountains of washing we have accumulated.
Today dawned with clear blue skies and promised to remain fine all day. We set out mid-morning toward the Dandenong Range almost due east of Melbourne’s CBD. The National Park covers 3200 hectares, was established in 1987 and really is the oddest shape having been patched together by bits and pieces of land acquired for the purpose. Right through the ranges there are numerous residential properties tucked tightly into the dense bush of mainly mountain ash and tree ferns.
Initially we headed for Lilydale, a suburb of Melbourne but appearing to be a separate town. It is situated thirty five kilometres from the centre of the city, in the Yarra Valley with a population of about fifteen thousand. Our Tomtom took us from here at Coburg up through the rural areas of Park Orchards and Warrenwood, through Chernside to Lilydale. It was a rather roundabout route but a most welcome one, through delightful countryside and past some lovely homes. It was hard to believe that this was all part of Melbourne!
At Lilydale we called into the Scottish Restaurant for a complimentary coffee on brandishing Chris’s Seniors Card, then down to the town’s lake where there were an amazing number of cars. Tuesday morning at the Lilydale Lake was busy with walkers and mothers with young children. Again Tomtom had us thread our way through the maze of roads up into the ranges past Montrose to Olinda, a charming little village full of cafes, craft shops and surrounded by one hundred B&Bs. Three kilometres down the road we arrived at Sassafras, yet another small but equally charming village, and we sat beside a park eating our lunch in the land cruiser, too wimpy to venture out into the cold.
Near Olinda is The Cuckoo, a chalet restaurant which offers slap dance and yodelling entertainment and today there were several coaches lined up outside giving evidence that there were plenty of takers for the attraction. When we were in Bright and travelled the alpine circuit, we saw the German cuckoo clock shop in Omeo, and today, thinking about this, I was reminded of a cuckoo clock factory we were taken to on the Trafalgar tour I did around western Europe. As we have travelled about this country, we have seen sights that are as impressive as any I saw in Europe. Apart from the much older history of Europe, Australia has so very much to offer,.
We returned to Olinda, then headed south west on more winding wooded road to Monbulk, passing more and more residences hidden in the trees back from the road, all a nightmare for the CFA in the area. Everywhere there are signs reminding people that this is an area prone to bushfires, and so one wonders at the wisdom of living in such a place. People have short memories or perhaps the attitude of “she’ll be right, mate”.
All along the road were intermittent piles of inorganic waste, piled and ready for collection to occur sometime in the very near future; sofas, chairs, pushchairs, and every kind of “stuff” one discards from time to time.
From Monbulk, we travelled south to Emerald, a real town, real in that it has a hardware shop, a couple of supermarkets and many sensible useful shops. We pressed on to Belgrave, yet another suburb of Melbourne, with about five thousand people. The main street is stretched out along the side of the hill, above the rail. The suburban electric trains come here from Melbourne central, and from here there runs a steam train which takes tourists through the forest and fern gullies of the Dandenings to Emerald, on to Cockatoo and Gembrook. Chris took this trip in his previous life and remembers it as a particularly unpleasant experience, being subjected to suffocating smoke. Today I read the promotional literature and found that you can travel “first class in the luxury fully enclosed dining carriages”. I imagine this is would be a more pleasant option.
We travelled on back toward Melbourne, passed Upper Ferntree Gully and noted the large hospital across the gully, then on to Ferntree Gully which seemed to consist only of kilometres of car yards. We were soon onto the Burwood Highway, then took the tolled Eastlink Freeway, and were back at camp before 3 pm. The clouds had come over but the loads of washing I had left on the line to dry were ready to come in. Washing done and an excellent driving tour completed.
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