Melbourne Trip: Dandenong Ranges

[4th May 2010]
As planned, we signed up a half-day local tour to Dandenong Ranges. Since we stayed a bit far from the pickup point, therefore they provided free hotel pick up service at 730am. There were lots of people waiting for boarding and we were one of them. CH grabbed a cup of coffee and bread before we started our journey.

We stopped at Grant's Reserve for second-time breakfast. We were same table with a story writer from Perth. We chatted a lot about her experience and life. Meanwhile we were enjoying delicious home-made Devonshire tea and hot fresh scones with jam and cream. Yummy!


Here comes to the most terrifying session - bird feeding. Why I said terrify? because you will not know whether those birds will bite you when you feed them. They are living in wild.



This is our tour bus.

Next we stopped at Belgrave and took Puffing Billy to Menzies Creek. It is a unique journey through the lush forest ride the restored Australia's oldest operating steam train.

"NO STANDING ON THE WINDOW LEDGE OR BARS"... But....

We were sitting on it! =P

The railway was originally one of five narrow gauge lines of the Victorian Railways opened around the beginning of the 20th century. It runs through the southern foothills of the Dandenong Ranges to Gembrook. Being close to the city of Melbourne and with a post-preservation history spanning over 50 years, the line is one of the most popular steam heritage railways in the world, and attracts tourists from all over Australia and overseas.

The Puffing Billy Railway is kept in operation through the efforts of volunteers of the Puffing Billy Preservation Society, although intensive year-round operations necessitate a small band of paid employees to keep things going behind the scenes.

The railway aims to preserve the line as near as possible to how it was in the first three decades of its existence, but with particular emphasis on the early 1920s.


Next we headed to unique town of Sassafras, renowned for beautiful antiques and local crafts. Here I found the famous tea house - Miss Marples Tea Room.




Here the end of our half-day tour to Dandenong Ranges and the driver sent us back to Melbourne Centre. We stopped just right in front of St Pauls Cathedral and took free tourist bus to "Little Italian".

We were searching high and low for Papa Gino's Italian restaurant and we got it! ^_^

Delicious Italian pizza.

Spagetti in Amatriciana sauce (Bacon in spicy tomato and cream sauce).

After taken our lunch, we walked around city area.

RMIT University.

Old Melbourne Gaol.

I rest on the ground. It is so relaxing. Look, someone is sun-bathing!

Since we were too tired, so we decided back to hotel earlier and rest. Tonight our dinner would be Beef Lasagna, chicken fried rice, and chicken mushroom soup. And tomorrow's breakfast would be apple pie.




Tomorrow morning we will heading back and I will always miss Melbourne. If I could find any chances, I would re-visit to Melbourne again!

Sorry for could not arrange my Melbourne blog entries in sequence due to my laziness... =P Here are the links that will direct you to my trip story.

Melbourne Day 1 (29 Apr 2010)
Melbourne Day 2 (30 Apr 2010)
Melbourne Day 3 (1st May 2010)
Melbourne Day 4 (2nd May 2010)
Melbourne Day 5 (3rd May 2010)