Travelling East, Part II

The lakes are very extensive and singing in my mind, 'a three hour cruise' alarmed me a little. Yes, most of you will get that. 

Before so, my host drove me around a newly developed area, which I thought was terrific but underused, for now. It won't always be, and just wait for the summer tourist influx.

The cruise with the commentary was terrific. We paid with cash and the lovely attendant did not have change and said she would deliver it to us later on boat. We said, don't bother. She offered us a Mel Bag Tag instead. I took up the freebie offer and paid $10 for another to give to Phyllis and Kosov. I had also bought them chocolate in the morning when we had coffee. I correctly guessed they would really like a souvenir. 

There was free instant coffee available, and tea bags, along with a bubbling hot water urn. At some point a huge hot scone with jam and lashings of cream was served.  (I've always wanted to insert lashings of something into a post and never had the chance since I last read a Famous Five book)

We were informed about many things involving the waterways and surrounding land and one fact among most I've forgotten was the area had the highest Aboriginal population in the state before the white invasion. 

We arrived back home around 4.30 and took a rest until we later went out for dinner to the local RSL club. The meal was ok although there was some bother about me wearing my hat indoors. I explained why and I was allowed to keep it. I was annoyed at about the way I was told and once back in Melbourne I sent a message to the club and received an apology. If you've forgotten, I had a melanoma removed from my scalp and there is a bare patch. Slowly its appearance is improving but I am not ready to expose it to the world yet.

The next morning we both set off in our respective cars to Paynesville and after meeting, travelled as foot passengers less than 200 metres across the water by a chain pulled ferry to Raymond Island. We walked the two kilometre koala trail walk and while I was hopeless at koala spotting, my friend was excellent. I couldn't even see some as she was pointing to them.

It took quite some time to walk the two kilometres because of the wildlife distractions. It was a terrific outing to Raymond Island.

We had coffee from a caravan near the ferry and I fortified myself for the journey home with a toasted sandwich and I took a break from driving at a service area at Officer South.

So, the day before:

There are a number of these timber carved sculptures along the foreshore, all war related. They are very well done.

A dredge can be seen in the distance. A lot of money has been spent in the main street along the foreshore and in a kind of marina area. This is to cater for the huge number of tourists who arrive during holiday periods and it seems there is space for numbers to increase. 

Here comes another dredge that I guess had been out dredging. No surprise there. 

A couple of young lads were crabbing near here.

The man made entrance has to be dredged to keep clear of sand. There was once another natural opening that often closed over, so fishing boats could not get out to sea. 

You can see the turbulence at the entrance. 

There were many seals next to the ferry, jumping out of the water but of the dozen or more photos I took, I did not get one of  a seal jumping from the water. A few were sitting on rocks.

The seal fin sits out of the water as the seal tries to warm or cool itself. 

 

Human made concrete point, that was in less than stellar condition but the cormorants liked it.

This sea eagle was sitting in the tree as I snapped, but it had taken flight, which made a much better photo.

The next day at Raymond Island.

The callistemon was past its prime, aren't we all, but what a great shape. 

A tawny frog mouth in its excellent disguise. 

Nein mein herr. I have a headache. I've never seen anything like this, although I've heard the sounds. Make sure you have yours on.

We were nearly back to the ferry terminal when a passing motorist indicated to us to look to the left, and a few metres away was an echidna, or a spiny ant eater. We would have missed it. It had no fear of humans, which they normally do and wandered around the feet of the rapidly gathering throng of tourists. Note its rear paws with claws that face backwards that enables it to quickly burrow straight down underground if threatened. Just wow!

I am again away for a few days where I will stay on my own in a quite posh hotel that I picked up for a good deal. Later babes...

Eight years in the making

Yes, that's how long it has taken to almost complete the Metro rail tunnel. It will open next year and my local Anzac Station is all but complete. 

A friend who does not blog asked to see some photos as he lives interstate, so I though the best way is to do it here, and the post may interest some of you, although there are many local references you won't understand. 

The tram platform above the concourse. I am just showing these as the hoardings have been removed. 

The terminus for the rerouted 604 bus. It now travels from Elsternwick Station to Anzac Station.

The Domain lift to the concourse.

The Domain entrance to the escalators to carry passengers to the concourse. One escalator only and it was suggested it would carry people upwards but I am not sure. Maybe Melbourne Grammar lads will use this, but few others. 

The platform stops for the rerouted 605 bus.

Live arrival time is updated every two minutes.

I pushed the button but all it told me was the current time. Not fully operational yet. 

Trams cannot run in Domain Road and I hope they never do. For historical reasons the tram once did but the route is now much more direct and sensible (and more useful to me).

The Albert Reserve entrance.

The final touches to the landscape are happening.

A shelter with a public barbeque. 

Pavement water run off will run into the dry ponds to be filtered by plants and then presumably flow to nearby Albert Park Lake. 

Rather nice spoon drains carry the water to the dry ponds.

During construction the Boer War Monument was dismantled and has now been re-erected. 

The Albert Road Reserve lift, with a lower set of doors and a higher set of doors.

The services lift. 

The cycle way and I suppose Displan on the cabinet stands for disaster plan, meaning equipment if there if some kind of disaster at the station.

Plenty of hoops to lock up bicycles.

Left to right, general ventilation shaft, general exhaust shaft, tunnel ventilation shaft used if there is build up of heat, say on a hot day and something has caused trains to stop and remain at the station and there is a build up of heat from the train motors and the air conditioning pumping out heat.

Two chiller plants to cool plant, equipment, the platforms and concourse. Only one will run, with the other being a back up. Under testing and manually overridden, at full power on the hottest day, all plant will emit no more than 60db and at night, no more than 50db. That is not loud. No one likes the design of these but it is a case of function over form and they were designed by one of the top ten world architect companies. 

Wednesday sadness

It was my Uncle Peter's funeral today. I watched online and there did not seem to be any family and only the person conducting the funeral spoke. No mention of my father, his older brother was made although there was of his youngest brother. There are sad and joyous funerals, but this funeral was really just sad. I was under the age of ten when I last saw Uncle Peter, when he then disconnected from family. 

A couple of weeks ago as I had a couple of minutes to kill before catching a train back to town from Victoria Park Station, I snapped this poster. There are always missing person posters around but for some reason this one struck me enough to take a snap.

Sadly, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-20/vic-isla-bell-alleged-murder-caught-on-cctv-court-told/104626702 

Travelling east Part 1

The four hour drive to eastern Victorian seemed interminable. I stopped off along the way to check out the two houses I lived in as a teenager and for some lunch. The houses are modest but still existent. The second, a brick veneer, was built by my father. After we moved in, Step Mother wanted a dishwasher. It was not plumbed in to the sewerage system as it should have been but into the storm water drain because there was less digging and cost. That is bad, meaning the untreated caustic dishwasher water went into the nearest river. Not great work, Father. 

I pressed on. At Bairnsdale my body needed a break from sitting in the car, so I stopped for a wee time (go for it YP) and and took a street walk. A few spits of rain began. I set off and then the rain pelted down. The traffic slowed. There goes my nice clean car. Trucks sprayed water everywhere and I could see it was dirty water. Amazingly when I arrived at the home of Pants, my car looked clean. It was not to stay that way.

It was lovely to see her and after a short time we quickly fell into nattering away like old friends, as we are. I should have taken my luggage out of the car when I arrived. I went outside to do so and again the heavens opened. I sheltered in the carport. The next day, locals reported they had never seen such rain.

Pants had bought a posh bottle of veuve clicquot from Aldi and after chin chin, we ate her delicious fish curry and then watched an easy film called The Fall Guy. Ok, I did kind of watch it mostly because lead actor, one Ryan Gosling, was quite attractive.

The next morning, what a view and blue skies. 

 

Pants had also bought me a special cereal for the next morning, which with lots of fresh fruit and home cultured yoghurt, was very tasty. She gave me the remainder to bring home. Vogel, or something like that, and I ate some more the next morning.

Then we were out to meet blogger Sparkling Merlot for coffee at a rather interesting cafe come chocolate shop. Merlot was exactly as I expected, lovely, personable and interesting. I say the cafe was interesting because the owner can be overly friendly or quite rude. I think it might be his business schtick. A few weeks earlier a friend, who like me drinks black coffee, was asked if he wanted cold milk with his black coffee. He thought this was highly amusing. FYI, it is brought in a separate little jug. I was inclined to agree with him. 

But one of morning tea party wanted cold milk with her coffee, and Pants dutifully asked for a black coffee with cold milk. The owner replied, 'Can you make up your mind? Do want black coffee or not?" Process of elimination will inform you who wanted black coffee with milk. Each to their own. I do kind of get black coffee with milk on the side, that you can add to your own taste. It really was lovely to meet Merlot, who was a local near where many of my family live and now is a resident of where Pants lives. 

We parted ways long after we finished our coffee and Pants got on her telephone and booked us an afternoon cruise of the interconnected salt water lakes. But first, at my request, we went up to a lookout point, which Ray and I had visited in the past. It has now been very organised and no longer patchy grass and mud. It was still a bit raw in looks but it will improve. A sea eagle flew above. 

The distant sea gap is the entrance from Bass Strait to the lake system.

Infrastructure!

In the manner of the best stalkers, we drove past Merlot's newly built home with its feature rocks. I'll tell you about the lakes cruise in my next post.