Glenrowan and Tallangatta

We made our way out of Melbourne and eventually stopped at a Service Centre for some dinner.  Along with everyone else heading out for the Long Weekend! It was incredibly busy! Once dinner was finished we loaded everyone back into the car for another hour.

We found our campsite which was already quite full with campers! As it was about 9pm we found the most suitable spot and starting setting up. As I set up one end of the camper I saw an Inch-Ant! I'd been bitten by one before we left for Tasmania and it was NOT pleasant. So we hurried up and finished setting up - as minimal as we could. In the morning we packed up and headed out at 8am to a local park for breakfast.

We kept driving onto Glenrowan, made famous thanks to Ned Kellys last stand and capture.  The museum was very interesting - documenting his childhood and into his teens. Unfortunately for Ned, as a teenager he was unfairly blamed for some crimes which shaped his future as a bushranger.

There are days where this seems like such a good option!

After some lunch we drove on, passing Lake Hume - a very large inland lake where all the jetskis and boats that we saw on the road were heading for the long weekend.  It was warm enough to swim but we decided to continue onto the Tallangatta Showgrounds to camp. As it turned out, the Showgrounds had views of the Lake.

As we arrived at the Showgrounds we realised the Tallangatta Agricultural Show was being held for the Long Weekend.  So we parked the van out of the way and enjoyed the Horseriding and Animal shows.  The kids managed to find some $2 coins on the ground so that kept them entertained as they hunted for more!  About 4pm a lot of the horse owners had packed up their horses and caravans and started leaving the Showgrounds.  We located a suitable spot to set up the caravan overlooking the grounds so we could continue watching the horses the following day.

Brotherly love means sharing your icecream...

... and lots of wrestling!

Overnight we had a small herd of cows contained in a holding yard about 20 metres away.  Our slumber was regularly interrupted with moooooo! It drove us a bit nuts but there wasn't a lot we could do about it! We were lucky enough to listen to them all day Sunday and then Sunday night again!

This herd of cows WAS taken away!  The remaining cows made all the noise!

Sunday morning we woke to see the riders getting ready to start the show jumping. There were various levels of ability so the rails on the jumps were lowered or raised to suit.  The show jumping stopped around noon so we put on a church dvd.

Following church and lunch we went for a drive to a lookout which overlooks the town and Lake Hume. Tallangatta town was actually moved in 1950s to make way for the expansion of Lake Hume. 

We continued driving to the Lake to watch the skiers.  The wind was making it a bit choppy on the Lake so there wasn't too many around. It was warm enough to swim but the kids weren't keen so we drove back closer to our camp and stopped at a more sheltered spot.  Karli was the most keen to go swimming but she didn't manage to go in further than her knees. So we spent some time playing cricket, play-fighting and dizzy whizzies!

 Play fighting... Dad always wins (for now!)

We made our way back to the caravan for dinner and some light reading!

Melbourne

We woke early and Mars went off to the Laundromat with Brenton to do a few loads of washing before we headed into Melbourne. When he came back we had breakfast and packed up.  Our plan was to drive into Melbourne, park near the Spirit of Tasmania (free parking!) then walk into the City to get onto the free tram. As we only planned to be in Melbourne for one day we didn't want to spend $50-$60 to buy a Myki for us and the kids.

We found a parking spot then started our walk into the city (thank you Google Maps!).  It was a really warm day but a beautiful day to be out!  We walked the 50 minutes into the City then stopped to enjoy lunch in Nandos. From there we had to find our way to a ferry for a tour on the Yarra River.  It was a short walk to the dock but eye-opening for us with beds set up under bridges and lots of rubbish littered around.

 

We arrived at the dock just in time to take the cruise which was departing in the next 5 minutes. We hopped aboard the boat and made ourselves comfortable, Axel quickly started charming the people behind us with peek-a-boo games!  We were able to sit out the back of the ferry - which we chose to do on the return trip.  Every time the ferry went under the low bridges the Captain blew the horn for the people on the back to duck!

The driver gave a running commentary on the history and uses of the buildings and bridges we saw. As we got to the shipping wharfs there were a number of Cargo ships waiting to be loaded up with shipping containers.  Apparently it costs $2000 an hour to park there, so the loading has to be done quickly! The apparatus which is used to load the containers has been fine-tuned to run very efficiently!

We watched the Tourist helicopters launch from the rivers edge to do a quick tour of the City.  We also went past high rise apartment blocks - which have some hefty price tags! There were a number of other ferries doing tours of the river as well.

As the ferry turned around the kids chose to sit on the back of the boat to enjoy the sunshine and the views.

It was an enjoyable boat trip.  However, this was the only sightseeing we did in Melbourne so we really didn't see much!  We had hoped at least to take the kids on the free innercity tram but just ran out of time!  We were all a bit disappointed with that but just focused on the idea of doing the trams in Sydney instead.

We started our long walk back to the car and caravan. It definitely got a bit long towards the end. In general the kids do very well with long walks, however, it only takes about 3 minutes of walking for Rowan to pipe up 'I got a tummy ache!' which is repeated until someone picks him up! Good thing he doesn't weigh much!

We managed to find our way back to the car where we sat and enjoyed a drink to recover! Mars worked out which way we were going to head out of the City - at 6pm on Friday night (on a Long Weekend!!!).

Geelong

We disembarked the Spirit of Tasmania early Tuesday morning.  We stopped 5 minutes down the road for some breakfast and to figure out where we were going!

We decided to head to Geelong as we could get the camera serviced and new tyres on the car while we were there.  We made our way to the Showgrounds there and found ourselves a spot close to the road so the kids could use their scooters.  After 3 weeks on-the-go in Tassie we enjoyed just chilling out in the sunshine, catching up on some schoolwork and journaling.

On Wednesday we organised new tyres for the car so Mars was able to drop the car off and walk back to the showgrounds. The kids could spend some time working out how to tow each other, as we only have 2 scooters and 1 skateboard. It worked well!

Late in the afternoon we drove out to Eastern Beach for a walk along the Boardwalk.  There were lots of quirky painted Bollards with different characters.

On Thursday we had the camera back (HIP HIP HOORAY FOR A CLEAN CAMERA!!!) and headed off to the Werribee Open Range Zoo.  It's a fantastic place where all the animals are (obviously) contained but their cages aren't obvious and you feel like they are oh-so-close!

Our priority when we arrived was to see the Lion Cubs before they were tucked away.  On the way we stopped to see the Meerkats, which looked quite small compared to the ones we see at Perth Zoo.  They weren't very active either but we enjoyed them anyway.

We continued on to the Lions and their cubs. Such a great experience seeing the cubs interact with their parents and each other! 

After viewing the Painted Dogs we took a Safari Bus that drove through different parts of the African Animal Park.  That was really cool! We felt like we were in the animals environment. 

After some lunch we stopped to watch the hippos.  There were three in the pond and very active! They would 'fight' underwater then come to the surface and continue fighting! And so close!  They were definitely a highlight for me.

On our second lap of the zoo we stopped to learn about the Gorilla hierarchy. The Gorilla was very happy to pose for us and then wandered down to the window where he relaxed and laid down in front of us!

We continued on to the Lions again.  The cubs had been tucked away but the adults were still quite active.  It was really cool to see them moving about, the male came and laid in front of us too! They are such a majestic animal!

After a fabulous day strolling through the African animals we did a quick trip through the Australian part - to see the kangaroos, koalas and emus. Then sit around the 'fire' and cook some imaginary damper while the tea is brewing.

One last happy snap!