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Week 567 – Leaving Melbourne – (Part 1 of 2) Day Trips

jcantrel

This is my last blog from Melbourne, at least on this assignment. My 6 month assignment ended by lasting about a year and a half – but luckily Sharon was able to come with me and it been a great experience for both of us. Melbourne is truly one of the great cities of the world and one of my favorite places that we have lived. The people are great as well, both professionally and socially.

Since returning to Australia in September, I’ve been pretty focused at work and we have really settled into living here (e.g. not doing tourist stuff all the time) with weekends similar to what we would do in Maryland – local bike rides or events or playing pickleball with friends. We ended up liking the high-rise and as the weather finally warmed up, were able to take advantage of our near beach location more (but water still freezing). Did day trips to some places we had already been –

• The Mornington Peninsula & Arthurs Seat for wine tasting and hiking

• Daylesford and Bendigo

• Kilkunda/Philip Island for biking and penguin stalking

• Rail trail in Australian Alps

• Found a local bike ferry to take a short cut to Williamstown and Altoona beaches

Mornington Peninsula & Arthurs Seat

Can barely see the Melbourne skyline across Port Philip Bay from Arthurs Peak
Downhill MTB trails – but potential obstacles
A winery near Arthurs Peak – large post-modern concrete structure in the middle of nowhere
The Mornington Peninsula & Arthurs Seat for wine tasting and hiking

Bendigo

Chinese museum in Bendigo
Random waterfall
“The Convent” – a converted Convent to art museum in Daylesford
Out in regional Victoria (the country) we came across a museum in the spa town of Daylesford – note the water was beneficial because it was RADIOACTIVE
The Wine Bank in Bendigo – a converted gold rush era bank.
The Convent
Bendigo has a strong Chinese heritage as miners came from China in the 1800s’
Daylesford and Bendigo

Kilkunda & Philip Island

Rail trail near Kilkunda
Rail trail near Kilkunda
Break on our bike ride
We drove to “The Nobbies” which is the farthest point on Port Philip Island and saw a lot of Wallibies
Sharon finding baby penguins – they wait in the nests all day
Baby penguin
Penguin beach – where we saw the penguin parade last year.
Quick trip from our Kilkunda bike ride to Port Philip Island
Kilkunda/Philip Island for biking and penguin stalking
Bike ferry across the Yarra under the West Gate Bridge from Port Melbourne to Williamstown
Biking the Australian Alps – The Australia Alps get more snow than the Swiss Alps. I had to check fact – it is true but the land area of the Australia Alps is much larger
Trip from Williamstown to St. Kilda (and then rode back to Port Melbourne)

Part 2 has some highlights of our last couple of weeks.

We are in process of starting our next adventure – we are returning to Australia but moving across the country to Perth for another assignment for a bit. We are looking forward to hot days instead of more shoveling snow in Maryland!

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