1,000 Steps, Melbourne,

 So WAYYYYYY back last year now folks, around November whilst still in Melbourne Jamie and I had a fantastic time doing the famous “1,000 steps”, this was a famous walk up that commemorated the lives of soldiers from World War 2 who had given their lives; lots of whom I believe were from Papa New Guinea – new history learning for me!  Anyway it had been recommended to us by family and friends and had good reviews from “Things to do in Melbourne” internet sites and so as tourists and people fond of walks we decided to go for it. 

 So we got up early and took two train rides and eventually found it. It was beautiful; huge trees and dense forest and a HECK of a lot of steps!  It was a long time ago but I remember being exhausted but the scenery was beautiful; anyway getting to the end of the 1,000 steps we found nothing short of strange. It seemed to come to such an abrupt end that Jamie and I kept questioning ourselves to whether it carried on somewhere else or not or that was the end. 

We ended up with several country roads around us and some beautiful looking country houses and some fields and at this point we didn’t know what to do – head down or loop around. In the end we decided to take the more scenic route and try and loop around. 

Well this proved very fortunate, through our little walk we came to an arts aboriginal walk which had lots of pictures, waterfalls and statues all with incredibly interesting aboriginal art depicting families and children and older ancestors. 

After that we caught a bus because Jamie was desperate to see some flower gardens that he’d read about in the area. Well…we got a bit lost and wandered through a nice little town. At this town we saw some interesting shops with some rather creepy dolls (we took some pictures as Jamie reminded me his brother loved stuff like this). Anyway after hours of trudging about, poor Jamie found that the gardens had closed. This was awful but also a little funny as I had jokingly made this remark that this would happen much earlier in the day and Jamie told me he would literally cry if it happened…he didn’t. 

But none the less it was a fantastic day and we finished it off by venturing into Melbourne city and having food in a pub called “The Prince of Wales” (fitting huh?) and having a beer or two before heading home J

Tandeming in along the Melbourne Coast (3rd Nov 2016)

Hello there guys and girls, and how are we during these cool and damp December days? We’ve been tip-top here in the +30°C heat. That’s the smugness over with, let’s get down to the blog post. 

Today, we’re going to take you all the way back to Melbourne, the date is November 3^rd, it’s a hot day and we decided to on a little bike ride down the Melbourne coastline and get a good feel for the place.

Starting bright and early, we arrived in St Kilda beach to pick up the Tandem that we’d be renting for the day.

Me and Ruth first went Tandeming along the Italian Reviera, and got in the swing of it within the first minute (that’s teamwork, ey?) So a 10Km ride is nothing to us. But we went a bit further than that.

We started by walking to the coastal cycle route, which looked ridiculous, but safety first. Then we got sun-screened up and ready to roll. 

The coastline was incredible, scenic and serine. We hugged the coastline for a good few miles and planned to stop at Brighton to take a look at these famous beach huts. 

 

After a long while later, it became apparent that Brighton had whizzed by without so much as a mention. Stopping to take a look at where we were, then to make a plan of how much longer to cycle. Then we stumbled upon a familiar place name.

Up until this point the journey had been really, really flat which allowed us to take it easy and go at a leisurely pace. We got to Beaumaris and there was a huge downward slope, which is when we learnt that the bicycle didn’t have any breaks!!

After us grinding half the rubber from the bottom of our shoes, we managed to stop the bike from smashing into the wall at the bottom of the hill.

It was break time. 

Ruth here, searching where to go for lunch and hence our final stop. We carried on cycling towards Mentone Beach and to get lunch at a restaurant called “Chain of Fools” – smooth, I know.

After a few hair-raising moments with some small steep hills, we finally made it. Had a relax on the beach before getting halloumi burgers for lunch.

And that ladies and gents was our journey down the Melbourne coast line. We had a lot of fun and really recommend it to anyone looking for something a little bit different. Just a few more pictures here to cap the blog post off.  Speak soon.  X

P.S. I know that the website looks terrible, I think we'll be investing in a proper site when we get a proper Internet connection.