Melbourne Hills - The Dandenong ranges

Trip Start Aug 15, 2008
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Trip End Mar 19, 2009


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Flag of Australia  , Victoria,
Sunday, December 21, 2008

Thanks to the wonders of the internet (and in particular facebook) we linked up with an Aussie friend of mine who has moved back to Melbourne. Laura Spirt (nee Schneider) spent some time in Ledbury in the late 90's and became good friends with many at the Rugby Club and the Talbot and especially the Scholefield family. It was 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 hills. A really fun journey with the kids and we got to see two big fat kookaburra's.
We were again spoiled by the Aussie hospitality and very well fed and watered (with cider!). A particular highlight was looking through Laura's old photo albums from her travels in Ledbury and laughing at my brothers (and friends) hairstyles!
Laura also took us up to Cockatoo to visit her sister Ann, husband Troy and their family who had been so kind as to look after me during my travels here in 2000. It was so nice to catch up with them, see the house where I stayed and see how much baby Caitlin had grown - it made me feel very old!
After a lovely couple of days we said our fond farewells to Laura and family and heading back down the hills to Malvern to prepare for Christmas.
Sam
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