Did someone say "chocolate"? Oh well...best get in the car and drive over an hour to the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery then. This building is situated long and low on the top of a hill with a view of orchards and vines and other hills and it's all just rather marvy. Their devonshire teas are really good (fantastic scones) and the chocolate is amazing. I'd show you pictures, but I didn't take any because I was too busy feeding my face.
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I had the opportunity to go to Lake Fyans near the Grampians for a long weekend and it wasn't very busy which was pretty awesome. Each dawn jaunt was calm and quiet, except for the squawking of birds, the quacking of ducks, the buzzing of mosquitoes... Did you know Halls Gap has a zoo? Well it does, and it's definitely worth a visit. Go now. Well, at least go when it's open. And you have a spare couple of hours. It's got about 150 different species and lots of them are free range (not the ones that will kill you..obviously) and you can hand feed some of them. I last visited Organ Pipes almost 20 years ago and was pretty keen to see if my knees could manage the trip back up what I recalled was a very steep road. Nah, just kidding. As if my knees dictate what walks I will go on. Pure laziness decides that. I just wanted to see if an escalator had been installed next to that steep road.
The weather forecast predicted another 37°C day. Because another hot day might have actually sent me bonkers and because I’ve never seen them, I decided to head to the Aire Valley redwoods forest in the Otway Ranges. Because a forest has surely got to be cool temperature wise and cool as in groovy, right?
As is my wont, I decided right after dinner to drive out to Batesford near Geelong, to photograph the sunset from Dog Rocks. Theoretically, the journey should take just over an hour. But you know how it is: traffic…roadworks…me faffing about… 85kms and one wrong turn later, I found what I was looking for: an outcropping of rocks apparently named after a bunch of wild dogs, a tree, and the sun getting ready for its final drop. With 20 minutes to spare, I parked the car, braved the paddock which may or may not have been full of snakes, found a spot, set up my gear and waited. Half an hour later, I braved the (now darkening) paddock again and headed back to the car, all the while wondering what nasties were pricking at my feet. And for the next week, I picked barley grass seed out of my runners. This is the place where I very nearly died. See that handrail towards the bottom of this picture, winding its way downwards? Well, it's there to aid people walking down all those steps. Now....imagine that many steps times about a million more steps and you're starting to get close to how many freakin' steps there actually are to get to the bottom of MacKenzie Falls.
Once upon a time in a land far, far away there lived a little hill that was known as The Sugarloaf. Why? Did it look like sugar? A loaf? A loaf of sugar? What is a loaf of sugar anyway?
This is The Sugarloaf: The following morning I headed out to Point Danger for the sunrise. It was cloudy and chilly and a light mist was hanging about, so I wasn’t expecting there to be much to photograph. And there wasn’t, although it did clear up enough to get a couple of pictures once the sun had cleared the horizon. Shortly after, the clouds gathered again and it started to rain properly so I went off in search of breakfast.
I took myself on a road trip to South Australia via Cape Bridgewater, because I’d always wanted to have a look at the petrified forest there. But first, a visit to Erskine Falls just outside of Lorne.
Because I'm clearly a few kangaroos short in the top paddock, I braved the cold for a jaunt out to Trentham Falls - the longest single drop waterfall in Victoria. It’s an easy walk from the car park to the viewing platforms, and getting to the base of the falls isn’t difficult. I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to pass out from the shock of actual exercise. Always a chance of hypothermia though.
Lake Eppalock is another place I’d never been to up until a couple of years ago. I’d always imagined it was at least 300kms away. When I was a kid, other people always seemed to be "going camping at Eppalock". I assumed you camped in places that were very far away from where you lived.
I was quite surprised when I discovered that it was just over an hour's drive from my place. I can’t ever remember going to Lake Eildon. I’m pretty sure I never went as a kid and I’ve certainly never been as an adult. I think Lake Mountain is probably the closest I’ve got. That’s about 70kms away, so not very close really. I decided to go when I heard there were dead trees poking out of the water (I like a dead-tree-in-lake photo). The lake didn’t disappoint, being quite low in the water department.
Went to the zoo to check out the new Lemur Island where King Julien and his minion lemurs are free range but oh so aloof! Lots of them were hanging around looking like they’re doing yoga or directing traffic or just plotting the demise of the entire human race.
I recently spent some time working in Sydney with Nic Granleese at offices like these: Tragic, isn't it? Somewhat appropriately, this old camera was in the lobby of our digs. We're not talking "this is as big as your head" type of camera. We're talking "this is as big as you" type of camera. Each year the tulip festival is hosted by Tesselaars, and this weekend was Irish Weekend, whatever that meant. I didn’t see anything particularly Irish-y except baked potatoes and a pint of Guinness (oh how stereotypical of me!). There was a band that played a couple of distantly Celtic-sounding tunes. Does that count? Apart from that, it was just busy as buggery with far too many people to move around comfortably. It being a Friday public holiday with beautiful weather didn’t help matters much. It being Christmas/New Year time in South Australia, it's stupidly hot. Finally, a day when it's only mildly hot, so one can get out for a ramble. Ended up at Morialta Conservation Park. No falls running of course, but the koalas were plentiful. This is Silva, an Australian Fur Seal, at Melbourne Zoo. Silva’s keepers explained that she’d lost her partner of many years and in order to combat depression, they were trying to keep her busy by teaching her to paint.
A ramble around Melbourne Zoo on a stinking hot March day, hanging out with friends, eating ice cream, bonding with a seal - what's not to like about that?
Winter in Hampi: 36c, blue skies and sunshine and more sunscreen than you’ve ever seen in your life. We pre-arranged a touring day with Raj from a local tour company, and met up with him shortly after watching the morning elephant washing ritual on the banks of Tungabhadra River. Raj had organised wheels for us (3 motorcycles and a tuk-tuk) to move about between monuments and we managed to cover quite a bit of the Vijayanagaran empire area. The Hampi shrines and memorials contained in the UNESCO world heritage site are a sub group of the broader Vijayanagara ruins. Most of these were built between 1336 and 1570. The notable exception is the Virupaksha Temple which is a 7th century Hindu temple. The area contains various examples of civil, military and religious architecture and includes the Sacred Centre, the Royal Citadel, Hemakuta Hill Temple Complex and Zenana Enclosure.
My sis and I went on a little road trip to find a place called Sea Lake. I was driving, she was navigating. It's a big lake and I'm not pointing any fingers but.... somehow we missed it (I'm sure it's her fault...somehow!)...
I’ve often wondered if the guy that made Vault (Ron Robertson-Swann) painted it yellow because it looks good against a blue sky. Even one with clouds.
He designed it in the late 70s and the tradies who constructed it called it Steelhenge. Melbournians called it The Yellow Peril for years. I think it was ahead of its time. I’ve decided my Major Folio this semester will be an exploration of large interiors that dress to impress. I'm not really sure what that's got to do with Vault or Swann but I'm impressed enough to look for other impressive things. Every autumn, the CERES Community Environment Park in East Brunswick has a Harvest Festival which involves lots of fresh fruit and vegies, demonstrations of all things green, musicians and storytellers, roaming chooks, face painting (not just for kids!), a cake competition, people riding tall bikes, compost making activities (mostly for kids) and the odd pig.
Before uni started again and before my French buddy Eva left to go travelling her way back to Europe and beyond, we went to the Dandenong Ranges for the day. With the same intention as our trip to the 12 Apostles last November, we just rambled and photographed whatever we wanted to, just for the hell of it.
And we fed cockies! Went on a girlie road trip with my bestie, Balders, who is truly fabulous and not just because she once got rid of a huntsman spider in my house while I hid in the local supermarket. She's also good at killing moths. My contribution to the friendship is that I will kick a wasp in the face if absolutely necessary. We filled the car with petrol, snacks and good tunes and headed up to Eden on the Sapphire Coast (NSW) via Lakes Entrance, Lake Tyers Beach (just for a look), Nowa Nowa, Orbost, Cann River and Genoa. |
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