Brian arranged for us all to go away to a little cottage in the Dandenongs, a mountainous, forested area about an hour east of Melbourne which we have not explored at all, and what a delightful two days we had. The whole thing was a surprise for me (the children knew and they managed to keep it a secret!) and could not have been a nicer treat.
The cottage we stayed in was set back into the forest with its own secluded back garden, wonderful log fire and babbling water all around. It was a very quaint timber cottage with a corrugated tin roof, something I have come to love since living here. It was situated in the town of Olinda which has a number of lovely artsy, crafty shops and galleries and quite a few nice restuarants too (that was dinner all sorted!)
Here are the kids standing on the path leading up the cottage, you can see our little place in the background.
After a browse round the local shops and galleries, and dinner in a lovely restuarant, we came back to the cottage for a family movie night in front of a roaring log fire!
Today we spent most of the day taking a trip on Puffing Billy, a famous steam train line that runs through a section of the Dandenong Ranges. On this train the upper part of the sides are open with bars across the 'window' sections and the passengers are welcome to sit on the 'window' ledges with their feet dangling outside the train as it makes its journey through the forest! I'm surprised that there isn't some health and safety body stopping such behaviour but I'm sure glad they don't because it was a hightlight for my kids to be able to dangle out the train, even if it did cause their noses to freeze!
At one point the train goes over a 300ft long timber bridge...... and everyone is still excited to be dangling out the windows!!
1 comment:
...so thats where you went! Sounds idyllic.
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