Melbourne CBD

Our holiday in Victoria

September 2007

After leaving Cranbourne Botanic Gardens we headed for Melbourne along the South Eastern Freeway.

Mistake.

Big, huge, terrible mistake.

Melbourne on a Friday evening can be gridlocked at the best of times. Throw in an AFL (Aussie Rules Football) Preliminary Final at the Melbourne Cricket ground and the whole city comes to halt. After several frustrating hours we eventually emerged at the northern end of the city and it was then plain sailing all the way to Gisborne where we were staying with friends of ours.

Wildflowers in Cranbourne Botanic Gardens

Our holiday in Victoria

September 2007

Cranbourne Botanic Gardens are about an hour drive south east of Melbourne (if there is no traffic hold up on the freeway). This was one of the main reasons we travelled along the southern coast of eastern Victoria. We had visited these gardens several times before, but not for many years. As it turned out, we only had about two hours there but we did manage to go for a walk through the bush area of the gardens. We didn’t have time to visit the new planted and landscaped area. That will have to wait until our next visit.

During this walk we managed to see a nice selection of native Australian plants. It was a little disappointing that few were in flower. This is probably because of the dry winter and the early timing of our visit. If we had delayed our visit by three to four weeks much more would have been in flower. All this means is that another visit sometime is a must.

Tall Greenhood orchid in the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens

Sign in the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens, Victoria

Our holiday in Victoria

September 2007

On a previous visit some years ago to the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens south east of Melbourne we were delighted to see a Southern Brown Bandicoot near the picnic area. On this visit I was hopeful of seeing one again, this time with my camera at the ready. Last time we were so excited at seeing this lovely nocturnal animal out in the bright sunshine that we forgot to take a photo - despite having the camera in my hand!

I was not disappointed. In fact, we saw several bandicoots during our walk. On returning to the car we were pleased to have one hopping around our feet while we had a drink and something to eat. In went under and around the car and our feet as if we were not there. I had to be careful backing the car out of its parking spot for fear of running it over.

Southern Brown Bandicoot, Cranbourne Botanic Gardens

One million views on our photo gallery!

That is quite a milestone.

For people who are new to this blog you may not know about my family photo gallery. Over 1700 photos on a wide range of themes and subjects appear on our photo gallery. Over a thousand of them were taken by me, some by my wife and the remainder by my son. He is quickly catching up with me, due mainly to the fact that he is currently on holiday in South America giving his new camera a really good workout.

Some of the subjects covered in our gallery include:

• birds
• animals
• flowers
• Australia all over
• insects
• Nepal
• Thailand
• North and South America
• Hong Kong
• architecture
• parks and gardens
• scenery

… and much, much more.

Why not visit the gallery now? Click here.

Sign in the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens, Victoria

Our holiday in Victoria

September 2007

On our walk in the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens south east of Melbourne we were delighted to get good views of a Swamp Wallaby. It seemed a little shy about coming out into the open which made getting a good photo hard. I also found it a little distracting trying to get this photo; there were so many birds around me also vying for my attention and the focus of my camera.

Swamp Wallaby in Cranbourne Botanic Gardens, Victoria

Click on the photos to enlarge the image.

Sign in the Cranbourne Botanic gardens Victoria

Our holiday in Victoria

September 2007

One of the main places we had planned to visit on our recent holiday in NSW and Victoria was the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens. These gardens are about a hour by freeway south east of Melbourne. When I say an “hour” I realise that this is a rather rubbery figure. Melbourne’s freeway system leaves a little to e desired as we found out later in the day. The South Eastern Freeway quickly becomes a parking lot during peak traffic times.

Sign in the Cranbourne Botanic gardens Victoria

During our short stay in these gardens we went for an hour long walk in the bush section of the gardens. We didn’t have time to visit the newer planted and landscaped section. On the road in and on our walk we saw some interesting signs warning of the wildlife in the area.

Click on the photo to enlarge the image.

Instead I am enjoying my son’s blog. Sim’ and his wife are currently travelling Chile and Argentina. As internet connections allow he is updating us on their travel adventures. It’s great having the internet because it is just like getting a long letter with photos every day.

Now I can vicariously enjoy a visit there through the eyes (and camera lens) of my son and daughter-in-law who are on a six week holiday to Chile and Argentina. Lucky them. It was my son who called us this morning.

To read about their holiday there (and in other parts of the world) go to his blog, The Rhyme of Sim‘.

Orchids in a friend’s garden, Cranbourne

Our holiday in Victoria

September 2007

We’ve only known Doug and his wife for several years. We met through our common interest in Australian native plants. We had first met them when they came to the Adelaide plant sale which we attend. Doug has planted much of his garden with native plants, especially Correas. Both of us really love correas too. We were planning to visit the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens which are a mere five minute drive from Doug’s home, so we just had to visit him.

We knew that he grew plenty of Australian native plants. What we didn’t know was that his wife was growing orchids. Several of them are featured in the photos on this page.

Orchids in a friend’s garden, Cranbourne

Our cabin in Traralgon, Victoria

Our holiday in Victoria

September 2007

Yesterday I wrote about our long - and cold - journey from Canberra. Our destination was fuzzy - we planned to get as close to Melbourne as possible. As the sun was setting we pulled into a caravan park in Traralgon, several hours east of Melbourne. The photo above shows the cabin we stayed in for the night. It was one of the best we had encountered on our holiday, certainly far superior to the one we had in Queanbeyan near Canberra (see “A poor choice of accommodation“).

It was very interesting travelling along the south coast of eastern Victoria. This was a first for both of us as we had never gone far east from Melbourne on previous holidays. We travelled past many interesting places, including a number of National Parks well worth investigating. Another trip dedicated to this part of Victoria alone would be very worthwhile. I would avoid the high trourist season of summer. The fact that there happens to be more than a dozen caravan parks plus numerous motels, hotels and B & Bs in Lakes Entrance is a sure indication that this is a popular summer destination.

Another spot I’d love to visit is Wilson’s Promontory National Park which is quite beautiful I believe. We saw the signs but had to drive on. The same applies to Phillip Island where there is bridge access for cars. We will see it one day - sooner rather than later I hope.