Mentone and Melbourne

06 Feb (Day 12): Late afternoon, we arrived at our house for the week, just around the corner from Rachel and Mark's home. Rachel and Mark had popped out with Brock for an appointment but left Clancy in the garden with us. We realised after a while that no-one had seen Clancy for about 20 minutes and found that she had escaped from the garden! What on earth were we to do? Telling Rachel and Mark we had lost their dog was not something we relished so I ran up the road towards their home whilst Adrian went in the opposite direction and Ray stayed in case Clancy came back of her own accord. Luckily she was found near her home but she was running down the middle of a very busy road with a school crossing patrol man holding up the traffic for her! Luckily again she did come to me when I called her and she did lie down and look very sorry for herself. I called Adrian to say I had her and he brought her lead for us to get her home - with 4 very sore paws. She needed a couple of days to recover from her adventure/non-adventure but at least she was back in the house by the time Rachel and Mark got home - phew. Enough excitement for one day thank you.

More photos from Monday 06 February

07 Feb (Day 13): Coffee and walks. Mark had appointments to do for his new job and Rachel was due to be doing a quick induction for helping out at a nursery group so she dropped Ray, Adrian and myself at a café for us to have breakfast whilst she went to do that. We found ourselves sitting at a pavement table again enjoying lovely food in the warmth of the morning. I could really get used to café culture in this heat. Rachel reappeared again after a few minutes though as she had mentioned that her family were in the country and the organisers told her to go! Go and be with your family. Very nice of them, so we all had breakfast together and watched the local community and all their dogs turn up for coffee and cake (humans) and water and biscuits (canines). Clancy wasn't with us as her paws were still very sore from her previous days' dash on very hot roads and pavements. A day at home for her.

After breakfast Rachel drove us a short way down the coast and we walked further along the shore to Black Rock and beyond. The beach was stunningly sandy and Brock slept all the way along in his pushchair and even through our coffee/sandwich at lunchtime. We walked as far as Half Moon Bay, and saw the cliffs that were featured in Mad Max. There was also a sunken ship, HMVS Cerberus, which had been purposely scuttled in 1926 to provide a breakwater for Half Moon Bay. Interesting concept. We walked back through Black Rock and  I noticed there was a shop selling Dunoon Pottery there! Really! This far from home? Finished up the day walking past, sorry no, into an ice-cream shop in Black Rock and then back to the car and home. 

More photos from Tuesday 07 February

08 Feb (Day 14): A day in Melbourne CBD (Central Business District to those of us used to the term city). Rachel found us an excellent place to inexpensively park alongside the Yarra River in Melbourne and from there we could easily walk into the main areas. Really nice to see Melbourne itself and Rachel said that she and Mark hadn't been into the centre since before covid. She would end up being there several days this week.

We walked into Fed Square near St Paul's Cathedral and saw a large number of new buildings in a regenerated area. We also walked to see a street where people were there to see the heavily graffitied buildings. Another street was more like the streets I saw in Hong Kong when I was there with Tim, narrow and pedestrianised with tiny food outlets serving various Asian cuisine. We saw more of Melbourne later in the day and later in the week.

We had a quick lunch by the side of the Yarra River as we had booked a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) - well you have to, don't you? It was a very good tour and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. The ground is huge and very well maintained and the tour guide was so proud of the whole area. It was fascinating to see how they pick up the pitch at the end of the season and replace it with an Australian Rules Football pitch for the winter, reversing it and putting the cricket pitch back again for the summer at the end of the football season. The video of how they do it was incredibly insightful. We also visited the museum they have in the grounds and they had a Shane Warne hologram show. Wow, that's something too, you'd think you were watching the man himself except that you know he's no longer with us. 

After the tour we walked back into the central area past a set of tall chiming bells (video, big file) that were lovely to listen to as we walked. We decided to go to a Chinese Restaurant on the Southbank for an early dinner. It was marvellous to see this leafy, vibrant area of Melbourne and the multi-cultural influences were everywhere. After our Chinese meal we wandered down to the ground floor to buy our dessert - guess what! Ice-cream! Did I mention................ If anyone wants to know where to eat around the Melbourne area or where the best ice-cream is then my guidebook will be out at the end of the year :-) haha.

More photos from Wednesday 08 February 

09 Feb (Day 15): The next morning we are all back in the centre of Melbourne, clambering onto a river cruise along the Yarra. It firstly went north and inland and then back, past the landing stage, and out south, towards the estuary and docks. There were very different scenes as when we went north it was more green, grassy, swampy vegetation and then going south it was city, regenerated dockland areas and apartments, marina, industry and commerce. Good to see both parts. The boat itself was low and broad, which was just as well as the bridges themselves were very low as we went south, literally around 10mm to spare. 

In the afternoon we went back to the house to meet Mark's mum and stepdad, Margaret and Quentin. Rachel had arranged a photographer to come to the house and to take photos of us all holding something that we are known for. No formal setup at all but the photographer did an excellent job of corralling us into some sort of order so that she could get a good photo, without stepping back into the swimming pool. 

Once the photo was in the can then Mark and Adrian set about organising dinner by having loads of meat going on a barbeque and preparing some salads whilst the rest of us sat and chatted and got to know each other. Another really excellent day. 

More photos from Thursday 09 February

10 Feb (Day 16): Another absolutely brilliant day with family. This time we visited Werribee Open Range Zoo on the western side of Melbourne Bay. Huge open areas with free range animals that we were taken through on a safari bus. We saw two baby zebra, one 5 days old and one that was just one day old. We also saw giraffes and assorted other beasts and birds. Let me just say, if you are ever in the Melbourne area then Werribee Open Range Zoo is an absolute must for a day.

More photos (many more) from Friday 10 February

11 Feb (Day 17): This was a more relaxed day with just a bit of shopping during the day itself. We firstly went to a local Farmer's Market with many various local produce. Bread, sauces, meat products, vegetables, all the regular suspects but different because they were local to this area. Really lovely hour or so wandering around. Ray then went with Rachel to a cricket supplier and he helped her choose her belated Christmas present of a cricket bat, ensuring that they got one that was suitable for her. The rest of the day was a relaxing stay at home and getting ready for going out later. 

In the evening we attended a Gala Dinner for the East Sandringham Cricket Club in Melbourne for them to celebrate their 75 years anniversary. This had been Shane Warne's club at one time and they had over 250 people attending the event. Rachel plays for the ladies cricket team at this club and it was great to meet some of those she plays cricket with there. The atmosphere and energy was more than I have ever seen at a cricket function. A beautiful warm evening on the water's edge at a large and very well organised event centre. We get around, don't we?

More photos from Saturday 11 February

12 Feb (Day 18): We left the rental property this morning and took everything back to Rachel's place. We then all went to watch Rachel playing cricket in the afternoon. We spent the time relaxing in the shade of a cricket pavilion, enjoying the very pleasant weather. The opposition was one of the best in the area and it was a very good match. Brock had great fun on the playground at the side of the cricket ground. 

Adrian was leaving to go back to Perth this evening so that he could be back at work the next day. He was taken back to the airport by Mark and we will see Adrian again in 3 weeks time when we reach Perth next month. Stayed at Rachel and Mark's for our last night with them at their home.

More photos from Sunday 12 February

13 Feb (Day 19): This was our last day with Rachel and Mark and we were to join our next leg of the adventure later this day at a hotel in Melbourne CBD. Rachel and I dropped Ray's and my bags to the hotel where we were booked into that evening and then we went back to park near the botanical gardens and meet Mark, Ray and Brock there. We all spent the morning exploring the gardens and parkland with its many different trees, flowers and bushes. Lots of these I had only ever seen growing in a hothouse environment in the UK and now here they were in their natural environment and the lovely heat of Australia. We had lunch sitting outside a delightful café within the gardens and enjoyed our time together there. After lunch we explored the visitor's centre and gardens of remembrance. 

Whilst we were in the gardens I noticed on Facebook that there was chat about the Queen Elizabeth ship not going to New Zealand the next day for the cruise we were joining as the ship had barnacles on its hull and was not allowed into NZ waters. Instead the cruise was going to be up the east coast of Australia to Eden, Brisbane, Cairns and back to Sydney and Melbourne. Initially very disappointed to not be going to NZ but as we already knew we wouldn't be going to the places we really wanted to visit and as we would get a refund of 50% of the cruise fare then we decided to make the best of a situation we could do nothing about. We haven't been to any of these places before and we'll just have to come back and do NZ another time. We didn't hear officially about this change from the travel agent until minutes before boarding the ship. Just as well I was in a Facebook group for Cunard and heard about it before we got there.

We said an emotional goodbye to Rachel, Mark and Brock by the side of the Yarra and walked across the CBT to the hotel we were to stay at that evening before being picked up for the cruise the next morning. We walked back into the South Bank area of Melbourne that evening to find a lovely little restaurant for a meal. 

Not sure when we will see Rachel et al again but hopefully we can see them sometime next year, we have mentioned Christmas 2024 if not before. Miss them all.

More photos from Monday 13 February