Dandenong Ranges Melbourne

Kathryn and Phillip took us on another trip to the Dandenong Ranges, about an hours drive out of Melbourne. It was beautiful scenery, lots of lush forest and huge trees that grow in perfectly straight lines.
We went to the William Ricketts Sanctuary, a walk through the forest with 90 aboriginal clay sculptures worked into the trees along the …

From what we see Melbourne is a very clean, well-organized city. There are several well defined districts, or precincts: theatre, financial, sports, legal, etc. The city allocates 1% of its budget for the arts and 20% of its area for parks which makes for a very pleasant atmosphere. They also offer bicycle rentals, similar to Montreal's Bixi Bikes …

We hired a little car from the Thrifty around the corner from our house and then the two of us and our Irish house mate Kelly headed over to the Yarra Valley which is about 1.5 hours drive out of Melbourne.

The tom tom guided us towards more Welsh looking country side and eventually to the small town of Healesville and its wildlife …

... to escape the rain. It turned out that she'd never heard of Neighbours, and had just come along because we were visiting the Dandenong Ranges afterwards! Usually the tour involves a barbecue, but the rain meant that we were going to a cafe for pie and ...

... I'm a tough cookie today. From the south we saw St Kilda and Port Phillip Bay, from the east we just made out the ridges of the Dandenong Ranges, from the north it was views towards the bush and to the west . . . well you got me there, but it was a long ...

... Paige was kind enough to share some of her eggs with us since the English Easter bunny could not find us. We headed up to the Dandenong Ranges, went in a few shops in ____ (Gill please can you let us know where - too much wine eroded brain cells) and ...

... great to meet up with Laura, her husband Dimitry and their two lovely children Emily and Michael. We spent two days in the Dandenong ranges exploring their home town of Belgrave and taking a trip on Puffing Billy - an old steam train - through the ...

... it was over Melbourne and quite beautiful as we went over the skyline. Friday I decided to take another tour to the Dandenong Ranges. It included a ride on the 'Puffing Billy' steam train through the Sherbrooke Forest. It goes from one town to ...

This morning we boarded a steam train that has run since 1900, the Puffing Billy Steam Train. The hour long trip took us slowly through the rainforest and it was a great trip. For lunch, we went to "The Cuckoo", a Bavarian Restaurant with a great ...

... I was quite at home then. A bit later, once my coffee fix had abated, we drove up into the Dandenong Ranges which gave a fabulous view of Melbourne and the sea and the sunset. I also saw my first Kookaburras as well. Coming back into the city, Simon ...

... just don't drink the water!! Gillian lent us her car for our time in the area so we set off on a day-trip to the Dandenong Ranges or the 'Nongs' as they are called locally. After taking in the views from, and strolling around the top of Mount Dandenong ...

... where they were getting it ready for the Australian GP in a few weeks. Later that day the four of us drove to the Dandenong Ranges 35km east of the city for the afternoon. There were great views over Melbourne from there. On the way there they surprised ...

... stop this morning was to board a restored steam train that puffs its way through the hills and fern gullies of the Dandenong Ranges. The Puffing Billy Steam Train is the last survivor of a series of experimental narrow-gauge railwayh lines that were ...