A Box of Birds

Saturday, July 09, 2005

The Great Ocean Road

The south-west coast of victoria is a spectacular drive, known as the Great Ocean Road.

It was a cold winters day but the beach was beautiful and the sea air was invigorating. We could have watched the whales all day. I could not believe it. Woken by Cockatoos in the trees, wild kangaroos at the side of the road and now surfing whales on the beach. This whole country is like a giant zoo!

Southern Right Whale

I was a bit sceptical but we parked the car and walked 50 yards to the lookout spot. Straight away we saw a male and female whale and their young pup playing in the surf just a few yards away from us.

They were difficult to photograph but take my word for it. The black line is a whales nose poking out of the sea.

Whale Watching at Logans Beach, Warnambool

Our plan was to drive back from the Grampians by heading south till we reached the coast and then drive along east to Melbourne.

When we reached the town of Warnambool Tracy told me that the Lonely Planet guide book said that it was possible to see southern right whales from the beach at this time of year.

Grampians

The drive south was very scenic.

I Think we're Being Watched

Skippy and Friends

We were driving back to Melbourne when Tracy cried out "STOP!". We parked the car and walked over to these wild kangaroos. They seemed nervous at first but soon went back to whatever it is kangaroos do.

Dawn Chorus

We spent the night in the quiet village of Halls Gap. The next morning we were woken by the sound of 1000's (literally) of cockatoos squawking in the trees outside our motel.

Friday, July 08, 2005

Mackenzie Falls

At the bottom of a steep climb are these spectacular waterfalls.

The Pinnacle

We did a short bush walk to this lookout point. A whole hour in the bush without being bitten by a funnel web or a snake!

Cheeky Chappie

Parrots are everywhere in Australia, you can even see flocks of them in the city parks. We saw this cute fella eating nuts while bush walking in the Grampian mountains.

Grampian Mountains

We spent the weekend in the Grampian mountains, a few hundred k's north-west of Melbourne. They aren't snow capped and sheer like the New Zealand alps but they are a beautiful red colour, surrounded by gum trees and are spectacular in a very Australian way.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

View

Not a great picture but this was the view from our hotel room. The place was OK but best of all it was around the corner from Lygon St which is the Italian quater. I love italian food, but I had better italian food on Lygon St than I ever had in three trips to Italy.

Monday, July 04, 2005

Melbourne Library

A grand old building that has just been refurbished.

Ned Kelly's Dead Head

Quite spooky, this was cast just after Ned was hung at Melbourne Jail. I think he looks surprisingly at peace with the world. His final words were "such is life".

Ned Kelleys Armour

This is on display in the city library. It was smaller than I imagined, he must have been a little guy. You can see the dents from the bullets he took at his last stand.

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Platform 9 & 3/4

Laughing Kookaburra

Like a large kingfisher, these birds really do laugh. If you see a group of them, sat together on a branch, they can be hilarious.

Thomas

Time Flys By...

This was a great day out, the train is open sided and the passengers are allowed to sit on the side-rail and dangle their legs outside. It's like travelling on a train in India except no-one was on the roof! The train travels through eucalyptus forest for an hour and stops at a lakeside for a few hours. At the lake we went for a walk and were just blown away by all the parrots flying between the trees.

Puffing Billy

The puffing billy train is a narrow guage steam train that runs through the Dandenong mountains, outside of Melbourne.