Healesville? (Hillies-ville!)

Decided to do another excursion out of Melbourne; this time northeast out of the city to the small town of Healesville. There’s little there with the exception of the World Famous Healesville Sanctuary. It’s a small Zoo type place full of Australian only wildlife – Dingos, Tasmanian Devils, Kookaburras and the like.

We cycled there on Saturday (18th Feb). It was a picturesque bit of inland cycling through the World Famous Yarra Valley Wine Region. The views were fantastic but there was a price to pay,, the ride consisted of struggling up impossibly steep rises then whizzing down canyon walls at break-neck speeds. (Top Speed: fully laden: 40 miles per hour!) and repeat.

We also got to see a few wine connoisseurs on one of the many coach tours of the area. They shouted and stumbled after us, “Wehay!” one greeted us, wearing what looked suspiciously like an England top.

Waking up early Sunday morning we pedalled off to the sanctuary – luckily only a short distance from the campsite. We spent the whole day there and took lots and lots of blurry and pointless photos. We also took in a Birds of Prey demonstration and got a see them devouring mice heads.
Next up was a talk by an Aboriginal chap, well actually, he was half Aborigine and half Scottish and sticking true to form he told us how to say Hello, and showed us is grandfathers Gum tree root Boomerang and then tried to sell us plywood copies.
We had a tranquil Sunday night drinking local Yarra Ranges wine while barbequing a couple of steaks, we sat on a hilltop over looking a crystal clear lake, surrounded by swamphens and ibis.
Monday wasn’t too eventful; the cycle home was easier, whether it was because there were more down hills than up or due to eating so well the night before, the only incident was John treating himself to a nice new comfy sympathetically designed saddle; having sorted that ‘area’ out, he spent the rest of the journey complaining that it was too far forward, too high and every nut, bolt and screw on his bike needed adjusting.