Melbourne

SUNDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER 2016

 

Melbourne Zoo

Enjoying the warmth of the butterfly house

Cairns Birdwing butterfly

Making friends with a colourful elephant

Waiting for a pedicure

Spot the stick insect?

Bad hair day for the rufus night heron

Inside the aquarium

A seal in his wave pool

Japanese garden

Japanese garden

Melbourne Cricket Club members' entrance gate

Barrie, our guide, in his MCC blazer

A window so the members' don't miss any action

The Long Room

Part of a tapestry depicting the history of the MCG

Hawks' dressing room

A media grilling!

Players' race

Walking the hallowed turf (in his Lords' jacket)

The original rules of football (tripping and pushing allowed)

The bike Cadel Evans rode to win the Tour de France

Playing with the big boys

Bradman, of course

Just what a sporting museum must have!

Part of the AFL section

Our journey this year has reached its conclusion, as we wait in Melbourne to board the Spirit of Tasmania.

We departed Cobram on Tuesday morning, with the weather very overcast, cool and threatening.  By the time we reached the Hume Highway at Seymour, the rain had set in with a vengeance and the drive across Melbourne was probably one of the worst days we have had on the road – thick fog, heavy rain and even heavier spray did not make for a relaxing drive.  Things didn’t really improved after checking into the Big4 South Dandenong and being allocated a very muddy and wet site, with a water filled ditch at the edge of the road.  The site wasn’t really long enough for our caravan and it was nearly impossible to position comfortably on the concrete slab.  In the process of attempting to unhitch in all the mud, the caravan ended up on the ground.  After jacking the van up and rehitching it to the vehicle, we moved to a much better site which had concrete all the way to the road.  Again we asked ourselves, why are terrible sites allocated when much better sites are available!  After tackling the TimTams, we had dinner with a cousin to look forward to.

Wednesday was still very cold and dreary, so a touch of retail therapy was called for.  Needless to say, another shirt has been added to the collection!!!  Thursday saw a bit more shopping, including a visit to the Hawks Nest for a birthday present for a grandson and a visit with my one remaining aunt.  We enjoyed a great evening with another cousin and her husband at Waves Restaurant in Frankston.

Friday, we hitched up once again to move to the other side of Melbourne (we weren’t keen on staying at South Dandenong owing to the park being fully booked by petrol heads attending the nearby Sandown Car Races) and the Big4 Ashley Gardens at Sunshine.  This is a completely new area to us and probably not the most affluent, however, the large caravan park was clean and dry and we have a large drive-thru site.  Our friends, Carlene and Rex are also here, waiting to catch the boat on Monday.  The park is full of either Tasmanians or showmen from the Melbourne Show.

On Saturday we joined thousands of families and visited the Melbourne Zoo, which was a very pleasant day in the warm sunshine, before joining Carlene and Rex for dinner at the local pub.  Today we visited the Melbourne Cricket Ground for a tour and visit to the Sporting Museum.  The tour was really enjoyable and we spent a fair amount of time in the Members’ area, visited the dressing rooms, the television and radio broadcasting units, were able to walk on the playing surface and walked up and down (many, many times) lots and lots of stairs as well as riding in many lifts.  Our guide did seem to get a little confused geographically at times and he did forget to take us onto the ground when we were in the players’ race and we had to return from the upper levels.  We then took out a bank loan to buy a pie each for lunch before undertaking a quick tour of the museum, which is dedicated to all sports which have been played at the MCG, not just football and cricket.  We would have appreciated more time here.

Cat has his seasick pills all ready for the sea voyage.