The more we drive around the Melbourne area, the more I have come to realize that the street planners here were actually clinically insane, and google maps does not really like this. Many of the traffic signs contain odd wiggles attempting to depict intersections, and other signs simply vaguely indicate which road is which.
Today we headed out to explore the Yarra Valley, famous for wineries and rolling hills just over an hour outside of Melbourne.
We started at the Healesville Sanctuary, part of the Victoria Zoos network and an active rehabilitation facility for many native species.
I commanded the GPS to avoid tolls because I’m on vacation and it’s too much effort figuring out what the deal with the tolls is since there is no obvious transponder in the car. Some of the tolls are quite pricey – the one near the airport is about $10.
Little did we know, “avoid tolls” means take weird, narrow back roads where one can view many kangaroo crossing signs and admire many cattle.
Even littler did we know, Healesville and its sanctuary were way, way out in the backwater.
At this point I’m just going to accept that we know nothing.
We wound our way through the golden foothills, past vineyard after vineyard, up and down some impossibly narrow roads, but mostly stayed on the left and only had two wipers-not-turn signal incidents. I also became the master of the two-lane roundabout. Australia loves roundabouts.
The Healesville Sanctuary has an incredibly variety of local Australian fauna, many I’ve only seen as part of documentaries. It had a nice veterinary hospital for its wild patients, and runs an extensive breeding program which helps stabilize endangered species.
After visiting with the animals for several hours, I had compiled an easy mental guide for distinguishing Australian wildlife from the rest:
– Is it extreme in some way? Extremely venomous, or extremely large?
– Does it hop?
– Is it a chimera of other beasts?
– Does it carry its young in a pouch?
If the answer to any of those questions is “yes,” your animal might be Australian. You should probably not touch it because there is a pretty high likelihood it will kill you.
And now, some pictures:
For lunch, we wound our way to the Tarra Warra winery. It was accidentally quite fancy and we snacked on wine and snacks on a terrace overlooking the rolling golden hillside.
It was then time for the moment we had been waiting for: the chocolaterie and ice creamery! It was packed with people coming out of the Yarra Valley region for an afternoon snack, and the homemade gelato and view was well worth the long waits.
I hit the button on the GPS and told it to avoid tolls again. The GPS then interpreted this as a desire for gravel roads and strange, narrow residential streets. 3km of gravel roads and countless steep hills later, we found ourselves back in Melbourne.
Tomorrow is the Great Ocean Road!