Melbourne – MCG

We headed from the gardens a 20 minute walk across the Yarra again to the MCG.

Awwww love a sun flare!

There were plenty of people heading in the same direction for the 3pm doors opening for the ANZAC Saturday game of Carlton versus Geelong.

I was expecting the MCG to be bigger but it’s surprising how intimate it seemed. Somehow.

Early on as the sun was setting.

We got snacks and settled in, watched the pre game warm ups and ANZAC memorial before kickoff at 4.35pm.

See the yellow ball up there?

Anyway it was a good game and Carlton lost. It was watched by more than 87,000 people.

We ate a foot long hot dog before the crowds moved on masse at half time. It was really simple but good!

Aside from some jerks arguing with each other – I was close to calling the number for anti social behaviour and there was a lot of cops and security around – it was quite a good crowd. Only for the kids behind us yelling the entire time I would have said the noise was bearable. However, the kids …such high pitched supporters they were.

And surprisingly it was a relatively orderly exit and walk up to the train station where we waited 1 minute for our train.

We saw the Federation Bells in the day time but much prettier at night!

And I had to step out of the flowing crowd again to get this shot!

We got home after 8pm after a massive day and many thousands of steps!

Melbourne – Royal Botanic Gardens

After eating croissants we headed off to kill a few hours before the AFL at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

All the entry gates are beautiful!

We traversed a range of hilly garden spaces including Fern Gully and Guilfoyle’s Volcano, which housed the water reservoir. It has recently been renovated to an arid garden scape.

The view across to the MCG from The Temple of the Winds, constructed 1901 by William Guilfoyle.

Gardens House

Fern Gully

View of the city from Guilfoyle’s Volcano.

Guilfoyle was the garden director and transformed it into the space it is today, making it less formal. The space is gorgeous, with small lakes surrounded by green lawns and plants from various world regions.

Parodia leninghausii from Brazil, in the arid garden.

There were so many people enjoying the space on the perfect weather day and so many places to sit on benches and relax.

Somewhere in there is Connor and Maddy, our hosts.

A short sit to rest feet!

After a couple of hours of walking around we headed off to our final adventure for the day – the MCG for an AFL game!

Melbourne – Lune Croissanterie

It wouldn’t be a foodie travel moment if we didn’t visit the much hyped Lune Croissanterie in the CBD.

We took the train from Altona to Flinders Street Station and wandered up to Lune. Then we wandered a bit more to the Ed of the line. The end of the line did not change the entire time…it was never shorter behind us!

Very difficult to show the length of the line from this angle.

It took about 40 minutes to get inside but you could smell the wonderful aroma for at least half that time and the weather was pleasant so we were all good.

We are in!

The staff were very pleasant considering the busyness of the morning.

We ordered the ham and Gruyère, the Everything, Pain de chocolate, plain croissant, and the Kouign Amann. Plus coffee and a hot chocolate that came in the same small cups. Cost $81.

Chopping up the shared ones…

Then we walked for a few minutes to the Treasury Gardens and ate our goodies! Delicious!

Lovely space!

Melbourne – Lune Croissanterie

It wouldn’t be a foodie travel moment if we didn’t visit the much hyped Lune Croissanterie in the CBD.

We took the train from Altona to Flinders Street Station and wandered up to Lune. Then we wandered a bit more to the Ed of the line. The end of the line did not change the entire time…it was never shorter behind us!

Very difficult to show the length of the line from this angle.

It took about 40 minutes to get inside but you could smell the wonderful aroma for at least half that time and the weather was pleasant so we were all good.

We are in!

The staff were very pleasant considering the busyness of the morning.

We ordered the ham and Gruyère, the Everything, Pain de chocolate, plain croissant, and the Kouign Amann. Plus coffee and a hot chocolate that came in the same small cups. Cost $81.

Chopping up the shared ones…

Then we walked for a few minutes to the Treasury Gardens and ate our goodies! Delicious!

Melbourne – Point Cook

We then headed about 20 minutes down the road to the Point Cook Marine Sanctuary. I have to say I really don’t think beach when I think Melbourne but here is our second sea encounter for the day!

First we wandered along a sandy path surrounded by trees wondering where we might end up. Eventually though we found the waters edge!

And a whole bunch of swans…there were more.

Amazing views across the bay to the city as well!

We discovered moon snail eggs and although the beach was small it was littered with many interesting things like abalone shells, mussels and sea anemone shells.

There will be a lot of moon snails soon!

Old pier

Despite the grey day it wasn’t quite as cold out here and it was very pleasant as we wandered along the beach.

Allison was excited to find sea glass as well!

Old homestead stables built in 1857.

Eventually we headed back to the car via the old homestead and some cross country, and we only had to climb over one fence!

The multiple sea anemone shells are still in a beanie in the boot…please pray that we don’t forget them!

Melbourne – Altona

This morning we headed out to explore the local area, and started at Altona Beach.

It was a little breezy and chilly on the pier!

We walked the new Altona Pier and watched the seagulls and people fishing.

Seagulls were doing dancing in the sand, presumably to stir up whatever bugs they were desiring to eat.

Then we headed to a local cafe on Pier street and had hot drinks in the warm while deciding where to go next!

Melbourne bound!

Heading for the weekend in Melbourne and what a sunrise it was! Stunning. No photos but you’ll have to trust me on the moon, the colours and the beautiful countryside.

We swung through Wangaratta looking for a cute cafe break but didn’t find anywhere…ANZAC Day precluded a lot of things being open! Anyway it’s a nice looking older town in Victoria.

After a rest stop along the way we ended up in Seymour for lunch stop at Gaffney’s Pie Kitchen, which had come up as a very rated spot!

And it was open!

We joined the queue and chose a bacon and cheese pie and a beef and Shiraz pie, plus a mini sausage roll and a passion fruit vanilla slice.

Bacon and cheese – definitely rated!

Shiraz beef – Allison rated this one for beef chunks and Shiraz flavour.

Sausage roll – Allison liked this one as a good traditional sausage roll.

Passion fruit vanilla slice – was ok but we’ve had much better.

We also bought a pack of mixed goodies for later. ANZAC biscuit last minute taster was good too!

From there it was only an hour and twenty minutes to our destination.

Gone fishing!

Our wonderful friends took us up the road to try some fishing.

First though, look at these crabs!

Soldier crabs are all up here in the Morton Bay area and come out when the tide is low. We got these guys at 8.38am this morning. Very exciting but hard to photograph as they cover themselves in sand and burrow into the sand when scared.

Next we got a fishing lesson and it must have been good because after not too long I caught a fish!

My first ever fish!

Allison followed shortly after with her fish!

Whiting was the fish of the day.

I was a bit freaked out when something ran over my foot…something spikey. I figured maybe a crab? A man with an Italian greyhound came and chatted and said there were stingrays. We didn’t see any.

Unfortunately Allison found some sea creature that was unhappy in her vicinity as it stabbed her foot! There endeth the fishing as we go her straight to the Beachmere health hub. They were really great. Note that ice is NOT helpful in this situation. My bad, sorry babe!

What does work is hot water as it denatures the proteins in the venom. Good to know!

Ouchy!

Half an hour of hot foot soaking in an esky (it was all they could find) and Allison was feeling a lot better. That stab had some pain attached to it!

A bandage to stop it bleeding on the carpet and we were good to go with a latte in hand. They also didn’t charge us which was very nice of them since they don’t bulk bill.

Home by 11am and resting for the rest of the day. Final night at our friend’s place and aside from this it’s been such a great week!

Redcliffe, QLD

Our adventure today was to wander Redcliffe, see the Bee Gees and have a swim. We did that and then some!

And the then some was a funny story about my friend that took us the wrong way for two kilometres.

Fortunately we don’t mind a stroll and especially one that ends up at a fish and chip shop!

Not sure what the beach is called but that is not in the direction of Redcliffe!

As it turned out we had a lovely promenade to Margate.

Mecca turned out to be very simple!

Also it was quite hot so we were glad to stop and relax in the shade. There was also a nice bathing pavilion nearby and I took an arty photo before using the facilities.

This is not the arty photo.

There were nice little shelters regularly along the promenade and I took this picture looking towards Margate.

Who are these very tall people? Not us!

Redcliffe is famous for being the home of the Bee Gees and they have Bee Gees Way here, which celebrates their achievements in their own voice (well Barry’s voice anyway).

Next up was the Redcliffe jetty.

The third jetty as it turns out and quite a lovely structure with its big pavilion. This structure might have previously been called a halfway house and previous jetty’s had games parlours inside. This one opened in 1999. The previous one opened in 1923 so let’s hope it lasts a bit longer!

We were very ready to be cool by this time and headed to a public swimming place called Settlement Cove.

It was very not busy which was nice.

Totally loving a dip!

Once nice and cool the three of us headed back to Beachmere for a shower and a rest before trivia night at The Silver Spoon.

We didn’t win but we did enjoy a schnitzel and some laughs. 11.5 /21 so not the worst but the winners had 15 so no one really aced it.

Before it got too dark and before schnitzel arrived!

A little night time visit to the beach was rewarded with a great photo.

Also we saw a cane toad.

Glass House Mountains

Again amazing views if you can find the space to pull over!

Bald Knob to the left apparently…

And the other side of the road is the Glass House Mountains. And impressive clouds.

More excitement as we dipped into a hole at low speed in the 4WD we were in. Funny but unexpected!

Nice views and a big hole at the Skipper Musk Teahouse Lookout.

Allison had to be convinced not to go over the side to capture her fungi.

We were travelling the Blackall Range tourist drive through here and it was beautiful.

The Glass House Mountains were named by Matthew Flinders and are quite lovely magma plugs from a while back.

Views from the lookout.

Very cute mosaics throughout.

The lookout is still a working fire lookout for the area. Allison found no fungi but enjoyed the scenery anyway.

More photos from the lookout cafe but can’t post them just now for technical reasons!

Here it is!

On the way home we managed to see the frowning road speed sign here in Beachmere smiling…quite the feat according to the locals!

Then it was all about relaxing and enjoying the company for the rest of the afternoon.

The Glass House Mountains are on Jinibara land.