We talked about going away for Labour Day Weekend, but Astrid and Gizmo had only just arrived and were still adjusting to our new home in Australia. Anyway, that’s what I claimed when we hadn’t yet made plans and the long weekend had arrived.

So I quick did some research on things to do in Victoria with in driving distance of Melbourne. We came up with a 2 day trip from Visit Victoria trip planner. The main attractions on the list were the Healesville Sanctuary, Black Spur Drive and Ninety Mile Beach.  Day 1 was to be the Tall Trees & Vines Touring Route and Day 2 was to be a day trip with the dogs to Ninety Mile Beach.

Day 1: Tall Trees & Vines Touring Route

We meant to get an early start, but it was Saturday morning, so we slept in a bit instead.  First stop after hitting the road was the Healesville Sanctuary, which I’ve already told you about in The Zoos of Melbourne.  It’s quite a lovely drive out there, first through the suburbs and then into wine country.  We spoke of stopping at a vineyard a couple of times, but it was early, we were driving and Australia is quite strict on with regard to drinking and driving.

From Healesville, we headed down Black Spur Drive toward Marysville.  Along this windy road, we started to realize why they call it the Tall Trees & Vines Touring Route.  For those of you who’ve been along Needles Highway in the Black Hills, Black Spur Drive drives about like Needles: Slow & windy with big cliffs up one side and down the other.

At the end of Black Spur Drive you come to a little town called Marysville, where we began looking for Victoria’s highest waterfall.  While the directions are quite vague in the touring route itinerary, it turns out Steavenson Falls are very well marked and easy to find.  This is probably the prettiest waterfall we’ve seen since our arrival in Australia.

As we were walking back towards the car, looking for a restroom, we noticed a path that looked like it headed toward the top of the waterfall.  Since we are in it to win it, we headed up the trail.  Besides, the waterfall is only 84 meters high – it can’t be that far, right?

It turns out the “stair path” only looked like this for the first little while and then it degraded into a single lane intermediate hiking path.  By that point, we had to keep going.  The view of the Great Dividing Ranges at our resting points was spectacular.

About half way up we ran into an Australian couple.  The guy said, “There are big snakes up there.  Be careful, they’re poisonous.”  Naturally from that point on, I was freaked out.  Snakes are pretty much the only thing worse than mice & spiders.  Fortunately, we didn’t see any snakes, but we did see this little guy.

Finally, the view from the top of Steavenson Falls.  We definitely stuck around and enjoyed this for a little while before heading back down.

After the hike back down, I had to wash my feet in the bathroom sink before I could get back in the car.  I tried to save these sandals, but they were just too dirty.

From Steavenson Falls, we headed for Lady Talbot Forest Drive along the Taggerty River looking for the cascading falls, as recommended by the itinerary.  The view was amazing and ever changing.  First lush green…

…and as we got higher, white trees that were clearly fire damaged.

We never did find the cascading falls that Visit Victoria brags about. When we came across a tree fallen in the road, we began to realize that maybe somewhere we’d gone wrong.  Because we were just an hour before sunset and had no cell reception, it seemed like a very good time to turn around.  Because he’s smart, Ben had the foresight to turn on RunKeeper to utilize the GPS to track where we were driving.  When we got home he laid it over the top of GoogleMaps and determined that we had started off on the correct road, but when the pavement ended we should’ve stopped and hiked for the cascading falls.  When we continued along the gravel road, we were actually continuing along a fire road.  That explains why the road deteriorated so quickly!

Day 2: Ninety Mile Beach

We wanted to do something with our fur-babies on day 2, since they’d only been with us for 9 days.  After searching #90milebeach on instagram, I found many pictures of people with dogs and fires on Ninety Mile Beach.  So we packed 2 dogs and a picnic lunch into the car and hit the road.  At one point along the highway, we were allowed to drive 110 kph!  It seems like a silly thing to be excited about, but I drive 79 km to Geelong at 100 kph several days a week.  It is painful!

According to Visit Victoria’s blurb on Ninety Mile Beach we should be able to access the beach from either Loch Sport or Lakes Entrance.  Because Loch Sport is closer, we headed that way.  After 4 hours in the car, we arrived in Loch Sport only to find accessing Ninety Mile Beach impossible.  It turns out that the Loch Sport entrance to Ninety Mile Beach is actually at Golden Beach, which is 30 minutes away.  By this time, I was ready to wet my pants.

Loch Sport is not exactly what you think of when you think of the entrance to a famous beach.  Instead its very rundown, has no amenities and people who look at you like you don’t belong in their town.  I was definitely on the uncomfortable side….so we headed back toward Golden Beach to see what we could find.

Once we arrived in this mini-town we began following signs for Ninety Mile Beach – promising, right!  We ended up on shoreline drive and were certain that there was just a bristle filled dune between us and the beach.  Just outside of Golden Beach the campground began and went on for miles & miles.  Every time we thought there was going to be a pull off, it was more campground with huge NO DOGS signs.  We finally came upon a clearing that wasn’t campground and knew the dogs desperately needed a break from the car, so we stopped and marveled at the beauty of the dunes.

As we climbed over the top of the dune, we quickly realized the drive and the wait were worth it!

Astrid was pumped! (Just as we knew she would be)

Gizmo was less fond of the sand touching him (as we suspected), but his FOMO forced him to keep up with Astrid.

I was, of course, in heaven.  The beach is my favorite place and this one was pristine.  We could barely make out other people down the beach from us.  We could not hear them at all – it was like our own private beach.

We will definitely go back and with much more time to bask in the beauty and roaring silence of this amazing place.

Just before sunset, we decided to climb back over the dune and head back to the city.  On our drive home, we were blessed with a beautiful sunset across the Gippslands.

Back in February, our friends invited us to go to the Melbourne Zoo with them; naturally we went.  Once there, we realized that buying a zoo membership was actually a sweet deal: Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Open Range Zoo and the Healesville Sanctuary!  We knew nothing about the Healesville Sanctuary, but already knew we wanted to go to the Werribee Open Range Zoo.

Melbourne Zoo 

15 Feb 2014

All of the zoos here are smaller than I expect and close earlier than I expect, but the bright side is you can get through them in just a couple of hours.  We showed up at 2:30 and saw most of the zoo by closing time at 5:00 pm.  Here are some of the highlights for me:

I will always love Giraffes & Zebras.  I hope some day to see them in the wild in Africa.

I met my first Kangaroo!  He was very friendly or more likely sad.  I’ve yet to see one in the wild, but at least now I’ve seen one.

Who could ever tire of these cuties!

I sucked it up, faced my fears and got in the bird enclosure.  It turns out the birds did not come anywhere near me.  Most of them never even left their perches. 

Big Bird has got to be based on these goofy looking creatures.

I loved this little cutie!  Who knew wild boars were cute?  I imagined them fat, ugly and smelly like domestic pigs.

The last thing that I did after the rain started and before we made for the car was make friends with this tortoise .  He even let me touch his shell.

Werribee Open Range Zoo

2 March 14

This zoo wasn’t quite what I was expecting, although I’m really not sure what I was expecting.  It was part normal zoo and part safari-bus tour.  I think I was expecting it to be more safari bus tour than normal zoo.  My number 1 highlight, which I do not have a sufficient photo of, were the gorillas.  To see them, all the people are forced into a little glass box.  While we were standing in there, 2 gorillas conspired to scare the people.  They both grabbed a handful of poo while running at the window and then punched the window as hard as they could while smearing the poo down it.  People screamed and ducked and generally acted like the gorilla could actually hurt them.  Ben and I laughed hysterically!

Next up, hippos!  Early in the day they were in the water, late in the day they were out of the water.

When our friends arrived, we made for the Safari Tour.  We ended up with an entire car on the bus-train to ourselves, which allowed us to pop back and forth between sides of the bus for the best viewing.

This Rhino apparently has the largest horn known to man.

Oh, and that pile of dirt that the giraffes are always hanging out in, it’s Rhino poo.  Apparently giraffes are particularly fond of Rhino poo.

We’ll have to go back sometime, because we missed the part of the zoo that housed the Australian Animals.  You know, because everything in this country closes at 5:00 pm.

Healesville Sanctuary

8 March 14

Over Labor Day Weekend, Ben and I decided to go to rural Victoria.  One of the places we visited on this 3 day weekend was the Healesville Sanctuary.  Again, more of a zoo than I was expecting….but I was able to see more Kangaroos!  I still haven’t seen one in the wild, but at least now I’ve seen a lot of them!

And as usual, we got to see koalas.  I’d really like to take one of these little cuties home with me!

This was my first echidna sighting – they’re much cuter than a porcupine.

Again, I faced my fears and entered the bird cage.  Only one tried to land on me, but I shooed him away.

I thought the pelicans in Florida were massive, but they have nothing on these guys.

I nearly couldn’t handle looking at these massive bats, also known as Flying Fox.

We skipped the snakes and reptiles and moved on to the very cute Tasmanian Devil.

And lastly, even if the dingo did eat you’re baby, I still think he’s just a cute dog.

Of the three zoos visited on our tour of the Melbourne Zoos, I’d say the Healesville Sanctuary may have been my favorite.  It had actual Australian animals, rather than mostly African Animals.  We’ll definitely be going back to all three!