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Victoria


These are by the side of the road to welcome motorists to Victoria. To me, they look like fruit but ... A tree. Work being done on a bridge. These look like they must be pumps for extracting water from the river. I'm using the old cattle bridge because of the work being done on the suspension bridge. The proper ... A slightly depressing-looking park. The sign says:... A railway bridge. Trailers on trailers. I didn't see any. My road, alongside the freeway. You can see that mine is hillier. How? Oh, like that. The cacti are making a reappearance. Just a hill. Oh, really? I might do that later then. Barnawartha. It looks pretty well closed. I wouldn't have known there was a road here. Chiltern. Chiltern. Chiltern has quite a Wild West look to it. Actually, with this phone box here, it looks rather Despe... The petrol station and garage. By the look of it, the Telegraph Hotel is into wireless telegraphy. Chiltern. I've had lunch in the cafe here. The cafe's toilet is in this shed in its back garden, accessed from... Now I'm on the freeway so I don't have to go over such a high hill as the other road. An unusual sign. There's an impostor in this field of cows. A lake in the loop of one of the freeway access ramps. Contrary to what I said yesterday, I may be using this road again tomorrow. A better idea might be to put the cables underground so that they don't obscure every view of everyt... In a park in Wangaratta. A fan blowing droplets of water across a cafe's outdoor seating area to keep it cool. Look, I could get another reflective jacket to to with the one which, along with my other warm and w... I think the thing on the right is some kind of fire hydrant. I saw lots of them in Melbourne at the ... Wangaratta. Wangaratta. The distances on this sign are a little unbalanced. Both yellow signs say "WATER OVER ROAD". Strangely, they're right. In the middle of the ro... Scenery. When I got to this motel, the woman asked how many of me there were and then for some reason gave me... I'm not all that impressed with Glenrowan. The shops have all closed already and there's a sign sayi... Cobb & Co was a famous stagecoach company in the 19th century. When the man from last night's motel asked me where I was going today, all I could remember of the t... Glenrowan station is no longer operational and has been replaced with a replica of the station which... It seems that Kelly didn't spend years wearing the metal helmet as I had assumed. He and his gang ac... I assume this is something to do with the siege. It's hard to imagine how in a place like this with ... From what I gather, some of which has come from information boards around this part of the town, the... The modern pub wasn't involved in the siege as it didn't open until 28 years later but it has been d... The view from my window. Glenrowan by night, with light glinting off the railway tracks at the bottom. As I'm in a small, dar... A plane towing a glider. Just a big house. A lot of planks. Presents in the trees. That looks like a good place to have breakfast. I didn't have any at the cafe next door to my motel,... One of today's warm roads. At times later in the day, even the bike's handlebars would feel hot. The crossroads in the middle of the small settlement of Baddaginnie, with another of those single su... Guess what the missing word used to be.... According to a few banners which I've passed, Violet Town has a "vibrant" market every Sat... I saw a train come down this line only about an hour and a half ago. Now there's machinery parked on... Flat, hot scenery. I thought there would be a surfaced road here but it doesn't exist. Back to the freeway then. The "E" sign shows the location of an emergency exit: that gate which just leads into a fi... It's like a "wanted" poster but for a plant. The pink gravel is a pedestrian and cycle path to let people from the town get to the motorway servi... My motel. The main gist of the reviews of this motel is that it's incredibly clean, which is why I was surpris... This is the oldest building in Euroa. It was started in 1863 and was originally an inn. There are si... The Seven Creeks Hotel, also started in 1863. It's the first pub I've seen in Australia with a pub s... At this end, the pub has two more signs: one showing a man on a horse and one showing a cow. Euroa. This looks like another bottlebrush tree. I haven't seen one since New Zealand. It's popular with th... The other ones I've seen didn't have numbers. Perhaps it's something they just do in Victoria. Now that I've left New South Wales, I haven't seen anywhere selling the Morning Herald. It probably ... This tree has its roots on display... ... and this one has a little red highlight. Euroa. Euroa. The Post Office. I'm afraid the pole has to be there. It's blocking out the Sun. This is now a private home but was a pharmacy until recently. This was a bank. This still is a bank, built from the same bricks as an earlier bank on this site which was once robb... These fronds feel very soft. An old gun. I assume this is one of the creeks which gives that pub its name. A noisy cockatoo, not that there's any other kind. Inside the pub. This cosy little space has posters and paintings of sheep and shearing, and some real shearing imple... I came into a petrol station to buy some biscuits and was surprised to find a fire hose for sale. I've got to adjust my map now. For weeks, this is the only paper map I've had and my entire route fr... A big ant. I don't know why but my camera doesn't seem to like to focus on ants. I've tried taking p... Today's weather. Just a vehicle. An avenue of trees. Ah, here's a pub sign done properly. The village of Longwood is, naturally enough, represented by a long piece of wood. I don't know what's happened to this tree. A kind of sculpture. An interesting pattern in the tree bark. A slightly unusual request. The old bridge at Avenel, built in about 1869. The noticeboard talks a bit about the bridge and a bi... More restrictions on movement of organic matter. Another cyclist. He passed my a little while ago going the other way. There is a sign in front of the door saying that this pub is closed because it's now a private resid... There are signs along the freeway instructing cyclists to use the left shoulder only. The trouble is... The Catholic church in Tallarook. The Anglican one across the road is a similar shape but made of wo... The emergency phones are a long way apart on this freeway. Insulators from the overhead power lines outside my motel, which are being replaced. Like I had been... This town is called Broadford so I would guess that this is the only branch of Broad Fuel. It has a ... If they're going to start labelling everything that isn't a road, where will it stop? It must be well over a month since the last time I saw my computer reporting that it couldn't detect... A doona is a quilt. Presumably the dog doesn't go in the same machine as all the rest. The Sunday Creek, the stream which flows through Broadford. Broadford has a large paper mill, which I have not yet seen. This is one of 12 straw boilers which w... Some other old equipment. The first personalised rego I've seen for a long time. The board on the right gives information about Hamilton Hume and William Hovell's expedition in 1824... A collection of old buildings from the local area, which have been moved here to be preserved. The s... That well-known trio: the butcher, the baker and the hairdresser who also rents out videos. Galahs. A ramp for loading sheep or cattle into a truck. I don't need to use the freeway today. It's strange how such green trees exist in such a parched landscape. I don't know what that little building is. Young trees growing on the opposite side of the valley. The hills didn't last long. Now the scenery has got much flatter. A cutting. These llamas were lying in the shade but got scared and jumped up when I stopped next to them. Now t... Scenery. It looks like these trees have been made to grow in a strange way to leave space for the power lines... Melbourne, 33 km away. I've had to tinker with the contrast a bit to make it visible through the haz... The same view but zoomed out and with more normal colours. Almost every tree has animals hiding under it. I've seen a few chimneys like this during my travels. The chimney must be the only brick part of a w... I'm now on the edge of Melbourne's urban sprawl. On this side of the road, there are still fields an... ... over here is a modern housing estate... ... and here are some new houses under construction. Epping bus station. The cycle lane into Melbourne. Another section of cycle path. She just nearly rolled that over going round a tight corner. A cycle lane along the wide grassy median strip of a road. I don't know if that building is on its way up or on its way down. VH-VRC, a Hawker 800. When I looked it up later, I found that it has just come from Honalulu. A suburban road cut in half by the railway. Looking towards the city centre. For some reason, there's a load of rubbish sitting by a bus stop outside the station. I've now reached the edge of Melbourne's tram network. Trams in their depot. Here's a better view of one of the tram warning signs which I mentioned nearly two months ago in ... A pleasant cycle track, flanked by flowers and trees, flanked by the tram lines, flanked by the vehi... Pretty. I've been here before! I don't know whether this counter is actually working. The number of "cyclists this year" ... Velo Cycles offers a free full service for every bike which they sell. Because I didn't know exactly... I think this strip of parkland is only really here to be somewhere to put the power lines. I took a picture like this on the day I bought the bike, before I started this tour. The grass was r... Another park. A dog in the water. A little splashing fountain. This will be my home for the next three days, just 1500 metres along the road from the bike shop. It... I booked the cheapest kind of room here but I've been upgraded to an apartment. Not to the one with ... A lot of motels provide a jug of water in the fridge, which I appreciate. I don't know how long this... The shower head here is below head height but it can be made to squirt upwards so I can still stand ... Near my motel. Some of the buildings on Sydney Road. Suddenly, there are bike shops everywhere again. Sydney Road. A slightly different view. Lots of bikes. That giant clock looks a bit strange up there. I'm happy that long Summer evenings have come back. At 9:28 pm, the sky in Melbourne is still notice... I can have a lie-in tomorrow. It will be the first one on this trip. I think I may have been a little over-prepared for this trip. I haven't used any of these things or ... There was a magpie near me while I was eating a sandwich in the park. Then this one came over and st... The yarnbombing which I saw outside the bike shop back in November is still there. Here's some more. A football ground. Water and nuts for the wildlife. Somebody watching cricket. Cricket. As predicted, it's very hot today. This is what it's for. According to the signs, the equipment in this little area is just for people ... A bird drinking from some water which is leaking from somewhere. One of the university buildings. Another. This will probably be another one. I do like big flags. They move very slowly. Another part of the university. Plenty of cycle lanes. The Queen Victoria Market. A backpackers hotel, originally built in 1863. Part of the market, where I got a few plums. The market. I've already got a hat. Outside the market. Trams. Central Melbourne. It's not a very good picture but the signs on that tram say that it's a restaurant, just trundling a... Some of Melbourne's hire bikes. The hire bike scheme here is complicated slightly by the fact that h... Melbourne. Melbourne. Interesting stonework. Melbourne. Melbourne. I did it! I mamaged to get from central Sydney to central Melbourne without using any powered transp... Melbourne. It was getting a bit dark last time I was trying to take pictures of Flinders Street Station so here... The clocks. The tennis is on this week. Melbourne. Melbourne. Boathouses. This is the finish line for rowing races. There is a window in the box so the judge can sit in there... I'm going on a sightseeing boat trip. Strange name for a road. The silos are part of the old brewery, which was apparently once the largest brewery in the world. A... Apparently, this building was a hospital, then a something else, then possibly something else, and i... The lattice-like structure on the right is the cycleway which brought me into Melbourne back in Nove... Melbourne. Somebody being filmed. Melbourne. An empty water taxi. There's a working piano on the bridge. Three people have now played it while I've been standing here... A strange statue. A water feature at the National Gallery of Victoria. Melbourne does sometimes seem to think that Vic... A fountain. This stainless steel toilet has got very hot in the Sun. The insides of the walls are almost too hot... One of a lot of monuments in the park. Field Marshal Sir Thomas Albert Blamey. Sorry to have three views of the same statue but I quite like this picture... ... and in partcular the little mini-statue on the end of his stick. The Shrine of Remembrance. The shrine. View from the shrine. Melbourne. I wonder what's in the crypt. These books list the names of all the Austraians who died in the First World War. It was modelled on the Mausoluem at Halicarnassus. Looking up into the roof. The view from the balcony. I'm not sure what that sunken area is meant to be, apart from somewhere to keep the bins. Another visitor. The observatory. It's only open on Monday and Thursday nights but there are some information boards ... Government House, the residence and office of the Governor of Victoria. Port Philip Bay. The gate of the garden at Observatory House is made of gardening implements. Topiary. A tree with fuzzy stuff covering its bottom part. The view from one of the toilets in the botanic gardens. This building is set among the bamboo and h... The botanic gardens. I can see where the Weeping Paperbark gets its name. The botanic gardens. This tree looks like a zebra. People having a picnic. Another one of these birds. Bees on a tree trunk. This tree has been dropping a lot of branches. This one has the fuzzy stuff on its top part. A plant. Plants. Cacti. Blobs. A view, including Government House. There's a space at the top right. Couldn't they think of another way not to use a toilet? The tree here is called the Separation Tree because it's where people were first told that Victoria ... The list of curators or directors of the botanic gardens. The Temple of the Winds is a neoclassical folly but the Stag Horn Ferns at the tops of the columns a... Runners in one of the sports grounds across the river. These look like more runners, except that they aren't running now and they're heading for the botani... Another view of Melbourne's skyscrapers. Taxis outside the Australian Open. The queue for tickets isn't very long. I was almost tempted to buy one. Tennis. That's not right. The cardboard sign is warning people that the metal counter is hot. Everything is. That toilet was h... There's a big screen on the outside of the arena so that people can watch the tennis from here. I don't know why I'm standing here watching this. I don't know who's playing, what the score is, or ... Here are some people really watching the tennis. You can see into several of the outside courts from this walkway. Here's a women's match... ... and here's a men's match. A slightly different view of the Melbourne Cricket Ground from the ones which I took the first time ... One of the messages which came up on the big screen outside the tennis arena said that trams on rout... I'll never get to see how busy Melbourne really is. The first time I was here, there were extra crow... Another big screen. This is at the base of the tower which appears to house both the telephone compa... The Victoria parliament building. Chinatown in bright sunlight. The Royal Australian College of Surgeons. I would have taken better pictures of this and the Treasur... Another bright street. The building at the front has a strange ornament on its roof. The Royal Exhibition Building, built for the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880. People cooling off around the fountain. It's still very hot. A church near the museum. Between the museum and the exhibition building. Another primary school. This one is number 2605. This is near where I got a haircut on my first day in Australia. I remembered that there were a lot ... This is the seating area for a huge cake shop. Unfortunately, at the moment, I would like something more substantial than a cake, and cheaper than ... Another road. Spiky. Part of Melbourne General Cemetery. It's possible that I might come here again tomorrow or the next ... This seems like a strange sign to have outside the cemetery. On closer inspection, it seems to be re... This must be where people's ashes are kept. I left my room at about midday and removed the "do not disturb" sign. I didn't know whethe... I suppose as I've brought this all the way from Sydney, and then carried it 18 km around Melbourne w... This must have been a railway once. Houses. Somebody has a lot of stuff in their balcony. The public golf course. Today I've come to the zoo, just because it's close to my motel. Here's a meerkat. Hippo. Echidna. Gibbon. The walkway past varoius apes' enclosures. I can't remember what this is but it likes to swing from its tail. I know what this is. Today feels as hot as yesterday but more humid and there are a few spots of rain occasionally. These... In the butterfly house. There are several enclosures for the elephants. These gates can be opened to let them walk from one ... Here's a baby! A bird. Two turtles. This orangutan was intently dismantling a scrubbing brush. I thought this one, slightly below and to the left of the centre, was another orangutan but I'm not ... It says something when it's too hot for giraffes to come outside. This koala is wet because there's a nozzle at the top of its tree spraying a fine mist. A funny fluffy bird. Birds. This is how wombats sleep in their burrows. Budgies. The emu isn't interested in little kangaroos. Little kangaroos. Baboons. The zoo's water recycling plant, which takes water from drains, filters it and uses it in some of th... "Pssst... got any more of those lollies?"... Seals. A seal. Penguins! If you were paying attention throughout the New Zealand sections, you will known that thes... Apparently, the keepers have just changed from feeding them over here to feeding them in the water r... "No, it's not up here." Feeding penguins. Penguins. This one got fed in the water, then swam round the corner climbed out and tried to pretend it was a ... Penguins. This television set may be broken but it's still smiling. My bike is now in the shop getting its free service, which will take all day. I was even offered a c... Someone's had fun writing this menu. I had the crepe. It was very good. Today's weather forecast. I can't imagine what the cafe keeps in these drawers. Whatever they are, they come in a lot of diffe... Just around the corner from the main Velo Bikes shop is this offshoot specialising in electric bikes... Just some roundabouts. A quiet part of Melbourne. Melbourne. Melbourne has a lot of parks so to do today's crossword, I've come to one which I haven't seen befor... Seen enough houses like this yet? Brunswick Street, known for being quite a bohemian district. Brunswick Street. Brunswick Street. Brunswick Street. Still on Brunswick Street. I was surprised to see this "Little Creatures Dining Hall" here because the Little Creatur... Another interesting building. Approcahing the Central Business District, the common Australian term for the city centre. I was tau... A tram. A private hospital. As well as Italian, I've noticed quite a bit of Greek this morning. Melbourne! Melbourne. Melbourne. The old law courts. All the Ned Kelly stuff around Glenrowan reminded me that the old gaol in Melbourne is open to the p... Each cell along this side of the cround floor gives the story of somebody who was executed here, alo... The gaol. The gaol. The gun which Ned Kelly used at Glenrowan. The heat has risen to the top floor so I didn't stay to read the exhibits up here as thoroughly as t... A lot of the cells on all three floors have exhibits in them so the visit to the gaol took longer th... A deco building. The ticket to the gaol includes the chance to watch, or take part in, a recreation of the trial of N... With that wig on, the judge looks somewhere between Boris Johnson and Richard Herring. Now she's just spraying water into the fan. I don't think the original Kelly trial would have looked quite like this... ... for a start, the counsel for the defence probably wasn't wearing such bright shorts. I still haven't quite got used to "Victorian" being a geographic term rather than a tempor... A strange taxi. The prison grounds. I know I've been taking pictures of lots of things but even I haven't take one of a coach wheel. Unt... A tour of the old police cells is also included. This is where people in the cells would spend their daytimes. I'm back in the gaol because I hadn't quite finished in there. This is the gallows, seen from above.... I should be heading back to retrieve my bike now but I'm interested in this conical building. A colourful alleyway. This is a complicated array of traffic lights. The "T" is the one for trams. La Trobe Street. The conical building is a modern shopping centre but inside it is this old brick building... ... which the cone is there to cover. The tower was used for making spherical lead pellets for shotguns. Drips of molten lead were dropped... Although this food hall is quite deep within the shopping centre, several birds have managed to find... The back of the lead shot building. This shopping centre is bigger than I initially thought. For a while I thought there was a mirror so... The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology has some even more interesting buildings than the Melbou... This one has a hole in the side with a garden in it. This view doesn't feel like the rest of Melbourne to me. It seems more German. The public swimming baths. You must get some quite impressive views from this climbing wall. A climber. What a remarkable collection of buildings. I'm back on Lygon Street, where I bought an amazing mint ice cream. It looked rather dirty but was f... I don't know what that little building is. One of the recommended cycle routes out of the city. The serious touring luggage doesn't really seem to match the clothes. The arrows on these signs are holes. You can see through them. A utility bike on display outside the shop, where my own bike has now been serviced for free. I can'... The Moonee Valley racecourse. The racecourse. This is the full version of the freeway sign. Having collected my bike, I'm now relocating to a hotel near the airport. There has been a thunderst... Since my bike has just been serviced, and presumably re-lubricated, I didn't much fancy leaving it o... It's tempting to ride it, as it was on the QM2. The room is certainly big enough for the bike. I deliberately picked a hotel near the airport for last night but I'm not here to catch a plane. Ins... ... this! This is what I'll be driving for the next week. I'm going to start by driving along the Great Ocean Road because several people have told me how spe... Surfers going to the beach. The waves are nowhere near as wide on this beach as on some I've seen previously. It's like each lit... Waves. Part of the beach in Anglesea. Split Point lighthouse. Flitting up and down between beach level and the clifftops is a lot easier in a van than on a bike. One of many beaches along this coast. Exposed soil where the road has been cut through the hill. My van again. A rescue helicopter. I'm down at beach level again. Near here is one of several information boards explaining that the whole of the Great Ocean Road is ... But contours don't do that. Houses. The hot weather has dried some of the leaves along here. Now a sudden strong wind has brought them d... All of these signs appear frequently along this road. Another beach, in the mouth of another river. People in the waves. There are a lot of camper vans on this road but I haven't seen any others quite like mine. Great Ocean Road scenery. The road. There is an inverter which powers this fridge but the other mains sockets in the van only work if th... The inside of the van. I did pay $10 for a set of sheets and a sleeping bag so if I'm feeling ambiti... Another picture of the van. A paddler. The beach at Apollo Bay. Apollo Bay. It's busy. Perhaps we didn't need quite so many pictures of this beach. Apollo Bay. The extreme heat is now abating. The radio has just said that the temperature has dropped by 10 degr... Apollo Bay. This looks like it will be an interesting road. This isn't actually the Great Ocean Road. It's the side road to the Cape Otway lighthouse, which I s... Woods. The colour of the sunight at the moment is remarkable. I kept thinking I must have had my sunglasses... One of several helicopters continually flying tourists over the coastal rock formations known as the... I have't seen any rain all day but the air is very dark over to the left. Some of the apostles. When they were names the Twelve Apostles, there were only nine and one of thos... Some tourists. Apostles. Looking the other way along the coast, with a helicopter in the top left. A stack. Smile! He's explaining how they form. It's quite busy here. Sorry, I was in a hurry to pick the best pictures from today. This one probably wasn't necessary. Rock formations. Another stack and some people on the beach. Cliffs. That vehicle has come from Western Australia. Perhaps I should be worried by how many extra fuel and... Port Campbell. A detail of Port Campbell. Port Campbell. Port Campbell. Port Campbell. Windswept trees. This feature was known as London Bridge when there was another arch bridging where there is now a ga... The remaining arch. Another beach and cliffs. Somebody on the cliffs. More rocks. This is another of those places where waves break in specific places a long way from the shore. I never expected to see a koala just walking along the road like this. I thought they spent all thei... A cheese factory in Nullawarre. The restaurant and supermarket across the road are called Cheese Wor... Evening sunlight in Warrnambool, where I have chosen to stay at a motel rather than in the van. I ha... Some kind of cycling monument. The notice board under the shelter on the left gives the names of the... Warrnambool. I'm not sure what the round thing is. This is a kachumber. I've seen it on the menus in a few curry houses in Australia so I thought I wou... It looks like it's rained during the night. Right now, I'm wondering whether it was the right decisi... Two churches and a house hiding in the bushes. The local shop, Post Office and petrol station in Yambuk. While I was here, the long-distance bus pu... The Codrington wind farm. Stacked hay. Cows and turbines. These workmen arrived while I was looking at the turbines. I've seen a lot of signs going on about water conservation so I was surprised that in this quiet roa... Sheep. The rest area.