Welcome to Melbourne

Arrived in Melbourne and spent a couple of days checking out the city and surrounds.  Always a challenge to find a place to sleep for the night without having to pay for it but we seem to manage at the end of the day and find some amazing spots.

A beautiful sunset from our night spot at Brighton Beach

Melbourne city from Brighton beach

Our venture into the CBD Melbourne was by train where we walked the city.

During our walk through the city we saw amazing architecturally designed buildings, taking photos of only a few...

We visited ACMI - The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (past, present and future), in federation Square where Tony posed as a monster...

walked through Carlton gardens housing the Royal Exhibition building and Melbourne Museum

 went for a ride on the free Scenic City Tram, doing the city circle and getting an overview of the CBD.

Went on a tour of the Old Melbourne Goal and Watch House which was in use until as recently as 1998. It also included a half hour show of the life of Ned Kelly who spent his last few years and was hung in the goal. AWESOME.

At the Watchhouse - girls on the left, boys on the right - ready for our de-brief and strip search

Exercise yard for the detainees who had committed offences and were being detained

The process..... hehehe 12347 has been set free

Cold, wet and windy

Hmm well not a lot of excitement since i last wrote, mainly due to the very crap weather.  We have been to Jervis Bay, which had lovely white silica sand - but didnt spend much time playing in it due to the rain.

Checked out Batemans bay which also had plenty of potential which remains unexplored by us.

Stopped and played at Narooma for a short while, found some awesome hot showers at the visitor info centre - thanks ladies.  Went for a walk and took some 'Australian' photos

The sacrifice my honey made so i could get a nice photo  xx

and tried to get the fur seals to play with us - or at least pose properly for the camera.

Crossed the border into Victoria.

Spent Anzac morning feeling very sorry for the people who attended the dawn parade at Bairnsdale - apparently one of the coldest days in history but spent a very nice few hours keeping warm in McDonalds and chatting to some of the returned servicemen who were waiting to march at 11am.  went and saw the amazing art work on the ceiling of St Marys church and ended up at Lakes Entrance - still cold and wet.

Found the best bbq shelter in all of our adventures at Kilcunda and managed a warmish and dry breakfast.

The sun thought it would try and make an appearance so we went for a walk down the to beach and played in the rock pools for a while - some wonderful pools with very little life in them in terms of fish and crabs - quite a lot of coral and that other planty stuff but not much else which was interesting.  Saw alot of cuttlefish (at least thats what I think they were) washed up on the beach which kept us entertained for a while before we carried on down the road to Phillip Island.

Had a lovely walk around Nobbys Point - with the sun still shining - amazing!!!!!  fish and chips for lunch on the beach and then off the the big smoke of Melbourne.

And oh yes - did a spot of surfing before we left the island.....

Park Benches Adventures Part 2

Well we landed safe and sound in Sydney on Thursday to a warm Autumn day.  Our first priority was to get to George so we found the train station bought our tickets and were on our way – I have to say that by now we were both feeling pretty tired, having gotten up at 2am to get to the airport, so I fell asleep on the train – how do I know this a) Tony told me I was snoring – whatever!!! And b) my head kept falling off my neck.

Anyway we after an hour on the train we were in East Richmond and off to find our boy – but first the half hour walk – thank goodness it wasn’t as hot as when we left – and there he was nicely wrapped up (it took us a good half hour to unwrap him – gosh we did a good job) just as we left him and whats more he started first time without even a grumble. 

After we unwrapped and packed up George it was off to the supermarket to stock him up and find something for tea and then we booked into the Richmond club for the night.

From Richmond we headed south – stopping at Bald Hill lookout for the night and admiring the Austin Marton that parked next to us......  

and view from the lookout down to the 655m Sea Cliff bridge which you may or may not be able to see, essentially it was built in 2005 because the cliff face was so unstable and kept slipping so they built a bridge out over the sea. 

The next morning was typically Hamilton – ie foggy so after breakfast we drove down the road and walked the bridge before carrying on to Shellharbour. 

Pelicans are incredible I am amazed at what these big birds can balance on, 

caught up with a few Rotarians at the Sunday Market, what a brilliant spot for a market - they had just over 55 stalls, with yummy food and goodies to be sampled

remembered one of the reasons i love travelling like we are, 

spectacular sunrises and beautiful breakfast spots

called in to check out the Kiama blowhole which wasnt that spectacular but the wind was coming from the wrong direction, we could still see the effect though

AND....drove around Jervis bay which although was very beautiful and had lovely silica sand was a bit disappointing but I think that was mainly because of the weather which is not that great.   

Now we are in the lovely beach town of Ulladulla and still heading South.

Love to you all - Janine and Tony