Day Out in the Dandenongs

I had a pretty good idea of what my mom would want to do on her last full day in Melbourne, and as it happened, for once I was not wrong.  She and my dad chose a drive up into the Dandenong Ranges for a tour of the National Rhododendron Gardens followed by afternoon tea at our new favorite cafe in Kallista.  The Dandenongs are a magnet for tourists, or for anyone hoping to escape the heat in Melbourne, and they rarely disappoint.  Each little town has an assortment of cafes and shops designed to extract tourist dollars.

In the past we have driven through the touristy towns with their antique shops and quiet tea rooms, and headed straight for the Puffing Billy, or for another similar destination more suitable for the gaggle of children that usually accompany us.  One time last spring, however, Ross and I went for a drive by ourselves, and happened upon a cafe that was built more than fifty years ago.  Not only were the homemade scones, clotted cream, and jam fantastic, we noticed they had a children's corner with toys and coloring books.  I made a mental note of it, and it has turned out to be a big hit with our guests and our children alike.

The wonderful thing about the Dandenong Ranges, at least from my perspective, is that they are only about forty minutes from our house.  The minute we turn off of Burwood Highway onto the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, it seems as if we have entered another world altogether.  The fern tree gullies are lush and the Mountain Ash are magnificent.  The transition from city to rainforest happens so suddenly that it always takes us a bit by surprise.

On this particular day, the weather was just about perfect, sunny and clear with a light breeze.  There were no blooming rhododendrons at the National Rhododendron Gardens, of course, but the hydrangeas were beautiful, and I enjoyed photographing them against the Mountain Ash.

The Mountain Ash is one of my favorite trees in Australia.  Looking at a forest full of them is an amazing experience.  They are the tallest of all flowering plants, and are among the tallest trees in the world (up to 374 feet).

Officially called the Eucalyptus regnans, the Mountain Ash  is also known as a Stringybark.  In fact, it has several names, including Tasmanian Oak, Victorian Ash, swamp gum, or stringy gum. Take your pick.  Whatever the name, it is majestic, and has been an important source of building material in southern Australia.  One other great thing about the Mountain Ash is that it provides critical habitat for one of Australia's best known birds, the Lyrebird.  I mention this last fact because I want to include an exciting event that occurred on this visit to the Rhododendron Gardens.

I had pretty much given up on ever spotting the elusive lyrebird after having looked in vain on numerous occasions.  Thanks to my mom, however, I can now say that I have seen one.  She pointed one out as we walked back to our car. She first heard the loud scolding of another bird, and that alerted her to the presence of a possible predatory bird nearby.  Then she got a brief glimpse of it running away down the hill through the underbrush.  I followed it for a while, crashing through the noisy underbrush caused by all of the bits of stringybark falling to the ground, but was unable to get a photo of my own.  Here are a couple from Wikipedia.

The one we saw looked like the bird in the first photo, a female.  The males are the showoffs.  Lyrebirds are famous for being able to mimic other birds, and for this reason, among many others, they can be hard to find as their sound changes constantly. 

Here we are, just before spotting the lyrebird, followed by a few more photos of the gardens included especially for my horticulturalist friend Carol:

The second part of our trip was the one the kids had been anticipating: a visit to the Kallista Tearooms.  Somewhat against my better judgment, I had agreed that they could order "spiders," essentially a root beer float but with another soda substituted for the root beer.  They had settled on Coke, and James especially was excited at the prospect. The waitress was clearly unsure about serving full-strength coke to the younger two, but she eventually brought them out, much to their delight.

Just three days after our cool day out in the Dandenongs, the temperatures soared to well over 100 degrees F, causing the Rhododendron Gardens to be closed due to the threat of fire.  Bushfires are something we have heard much about, particularly as we approach the three year anniversary of Black Sunday, a day on which over 170 people were killed not far from Melbourne.  Thankfully this year there has been very little loss of life so far.

Comments

[Suzanne]

Love the pictures of your Mom and James. So sweet.
Sophie does look thrilled with her treat. :)

[Christie Wilkin]

Thanks Suzanne! James has been begging this week for a return trip, and I am sure Sophie would be only too happy to go along for the ride. It's on the short list for things to do with our next set of visitors, Paul and Linda!

[whits end mom]

HEY!! Congrats on winning the Ex-Pat Award! When did that happen?

[Christie Wilkin]

I can't really remember, to be honest. I was sent an email with instructions on how to insert the award into my blog, but it took me ages to actually do it. Bascially I think you just have to meet a few criteria to get the "award" but it was fun to add once I figured it out.