Chilling out in Melbourne

April 20th - 25th

Got back from Central Australia without incident and settled into a cabin on a camp site in Melbourne that we'd chosen as it was described as a "Country" location and we wanted some rest. So when the planes started flying over at 4.30am we were not impressed! Suffice to say that after some frank discussions with the camp site management team who need some customer service training, we moved to a much nicer apartment, ironically much closer to the centre of Melbourne but in a much quieter location in the trendy suburb of Richmond.

Spent a lovely few days mooching around the City and its suburbs. Melbourne at this time of year is distinctly Autumnal and we even had rain! This is a lovely City with an eclectic mix of interesting older buildings intermingled with new high rise ones. Even in the rain, there's a great atmosphere here. Lots to do that's free (or by donation only) including an impressive art gallery and museum of the moving image in Federation Square. 

View toward St. Paul's cathedral from Federation square

St. Paul's Cathedral

Flinders St Station

Two wet tourists (Katie please note Mags jacket is Dare2B)

Some really interesting buildings hidden in tiny lanes

 Melbourne's suburbs include some great beach locations including the cosmopolitan St. Kilda, just a few minutes away from the City on the fantastic tram service that makes Melbourne so easy to navigate. 

Pier building, St. Kilda

All sorts of zany arts and crafts here but you have to watch out for the giant fruit!

We found a really great selection of fresh fruit, delicatessen items, bread and vegetables in the famous Victoria Market in the City centre. Well worth a visit but don't go when you're hungry!

Almost as good though on a much smaller scale was "Thomas Dux" greengrocer in Richmond. A very dangerous deli cum bakery cum all sorts of nice things. Very useful as it was just down the road from our accommodation and we had the delight of entertaining two visitors for dinner. Such a treat when you're traveling to have somewhere with a kitchen and enough space to cook dinner for 4! 


Our dinner guests were the delightful Sam (Sparrow) Dobson and his

Fiancé Lauren. Sam's my god daughter's brother and he Lauren are lucky enough to have been travelling around Australia for about 18 months. It's about 8 years since we've seen Sam and he's grown into a very personable young man. Mind you, not sure when Lauren ever gets a word in edgeways!