City to country

We’re leaving our city apartment to travel to the country to stay with Sandy. The apartment is on a very busy road intersection where a 7-lane highway crosses a further 6 and 5 lane highways and 2 tramlines so to say it’s always busy is putting it mildly. We collect our hire car from the airport and in no time we’re out of Melbourne heading along a dual carriage way to Eaglehawk. For large sections of this journey we are the only car on the road. Sandy meets us near a big shopping plaza, she’s told us she’ll be in a white car. Well, it must be white car day today as we eventually find her in the 4^th white car we pull up behind.

We follow Sandy to her house; the turnoff is a dusty road with very little housing but after following the dust cloud for a few minutes we’re there. It’s a beautiful, Queenslander style house set in 50 acres of land, all brown and dusty now due to the drought. We are both in awe of Sandy and the house as we know that it was designed by Noel and built by hand by just the 2 of them in 2 years. What an achievement, we can’t begin to imagine starting such a project. The whole area is so quiet and peaceful after our time in Melbourne, the contrast couldn’t be greater. We watch the kangaroos in the distance, searching for food, they soon bound away when we walk to the dam. Later, there are Rosella’s on the drive their bright red heads bobbing as they search for food. A meal and lots of chat is the end to a perfect start of our stay in Eaglehawk.

St Kilda

St Kilda Cenotaph

Luna Park

A day of exploring the sights of St Kilda is our plan for today. Our route takes us down Fitzroy Street, watching the racing trucks come out of the park rolling on to their next racing destinations. Then it’s turn left at the seafront and carry on past the St Kilda Cenotaph to the Palais Theatre and Luna Park, which we discover is closed today, so we have to be content with looking at the rides over the wall. The theatre has had a show on last night and the roadies are busy loading out the gear. Dave’s eager to have a look inside at the art deco building but I’m not so keen just in case I get given a job!

Palais Theatre

Our meanderings take us further along Marine Parade to the marina, unfortunately we’ve stepped onto the wrong section of the walkway as a cyclist gruffly tells us, “this is a cycle way only”, oops. Time for a coffee and as we sit there, I’m fascinated by the triple level small boat-shed, I mean, how do they get the top ones down? Also, there are lots of people returning with sky diving gear, Dave suggests I have a go, the answer is an emphatic NO.

St Kilda Botanical Gardens

St Kilda Botanical Gardens

We take a turn off the coast road and reach the St Kilda Botanical Gardens, they may be small in area but they do have a nice cross section of native trees, ornamental planting and a rose garden. We’re now walking through the residential streets of St Kilda, there seems to be a mix of modern apartments and old Victorian style houses both large and small, all in various states of repair. Our route takes us up Acland Street, an area rich with small eateries and back to the lower end of Fitzroy Street. This end of Fitzroy seems to be attracting several rough sleepers and feels less desirable than the upper part of the street. This is made more so from my point of view as I experience a direct hit from one of the many birds in the trees above us. Time for a quick return trip to The Icon for a change of clothes.

Restored Old home

Small is beautiful!

Our last evening in St Kilda should be memorable, we’ve decided to try the Windsor Ale House for a beer, it’s very like a traditional English pub and Dave tells me the beer is good, I’m sure this would be a favourite if we lived here. For our last meal here, we had picked a Sri Lankan restaurant but unfortunately, it’s shut, so a walk down Fitzroy Street takes us to The Prince of Wales. Now, it’s kerb appeal I think you would describe as a bit grungy, but the Art Deco building is crying out for a refurb. Fortunately, the Prince Dining Room has had just that, completed in December. It’s retained all the Art Deco features, rounded, tiled balconies, smaller paned windows, ceiling fans and enhanced them with curved booth type seating. The menu is equally unusual and middle eastern, hummus with baked chickpeas and pitta breads to start. To follow, skewered lamb with marinated chilli sauce, tabbouleh, wood oven potatoes and roasted carrots, so much food. Sitting at the end groaning, as we’re so full a scurrying movement catches my eye and we both realise at the same time, mouse on the loose, either that or a very large furry spider and neither of us are offering to evict it! Time to leave.

Lights out, Go, Go, Go!!!

Race day and we’re both restless with anticipation of the first race of the F1 season, however, the day is far too good to just sit in the stands and as this will probably be our only opportunity, we set off to walk round Albert Park lake and the track. It is a long walk, but it offers us a different view of the earlier racing and a good view of the lake and park. It’s amazing to hear all the cars racing round the track and yet the black swans, coots and seagulls just carry on serenely floating on the water searching for food. The grass is straw coloured, more like dust really, except where it’s been watered for the golf course. This must be the only place where you can walk a golf course while looking at great views of the lake and city and still see the motor racing. It takes us over 2 hours to circuit the lake, amazing to think Lewis Hamilton drove round it in under 1 minute and 21 seconds!

There’s so much more to enjoy, the Heineken village where there’s lots of beer on sale, a stage and live music, that is if he ever finishes sound checking! There’s a children’s play area and a brass band playing. Hot and not a little sweaty we need a drink and somewhere cool to sit, the F1 Advantage Club is an oasis when it looms on the horizon. Successfully settled in a couple of chairs, Dave finds us a drink, a beer for him and a saintly lime and soda for me. Or that’s what I thought, in large letters it advertises lime and soda but in the smallest of writing I notice it also contains vodka!

The last couple of hours are spent anxiously watching the clock and sitting in the shade. We’re in our seats in plenty of time to see the drivers parade with them all perched in MG cars, then there is the tribute to Charlie Whiting, race director who died a few days ago and the shooting tragedy in Christchurch, New Zealand. Then, at last it’s lights out and go, go, go. Bottas beats Lewis off the line and frankly, that’s race won for him. There are other exciting incidents, Sainz car going on fire in front of us, Grosjean going straight on at turn 15 to retire and Verstappen hunting down Hamilton but not quite catching him. All too soon it’s race over, not quite the result we wanted but well done to Bottas, it’s going to be an interesting season.

So tonight, we fancy a casual night, relaxed dining and may be a drink so we take a stroll down Fitzroy Street. However, it’s St Patricks Day and all the Irish bars are full of the green clad drinkers, not for us, an about turn and back to The Banff. It advertises “paperbag pasta” which doesn’t sound promising but is actually really good. 

The Storeroom

The stroll back takes us past a open glass door at the bottom of our apartment block and we find ourselves drawn in. it is probably one of the most random bars I’ve ever encountered, upside down gas lamps on the ceiling, skate boards, bikes, aircraft seats, traffic lights and Darthvader to mention a few of the items adorn the walls and ceiling of the place. Even better, as we arrive the black wooden door slides shut, and you have to lift the phone to exit! Fortunately, there’s a back exit to the lift up to our apartment!!!

Quallie!

Lambourghini's

We have another enjoyable day ahead of us at the Melbourne Grand Prix and the walk in to the circuit is getting busier with each passing day. First a little bit of shopping followed by an enjoyable coffee in one of the many street cafes along Fitzroy Street adjacent to Albert Park. As we approach the entrance, all lined up on the entry road to the circuit, is a long double line of Lamborghini’s all polished and with people posing inside them, so much ostentatious money out there on the tarmac. They’re only allowed one circuit of Albert Park before they’re being directed out of the gates. We’re fortunate enough to be here for the 1000^th Beaurepaires Supercars Melbourne 400 Race and judging by the excitement amongst the Aussies it’s a really big thing here. There’s a fair amount of jostling for position at corners 15 & 16 which is good as that’s where we’re sitting. This is the first year that the American Ford Mustangs have been in Supercars racing and they dominate from start to finish knocking the Holden’s off their long-time dominance of this race.

 The 1000th Beaurepaires Supercars Melbourne 400 Race  

Well, 3^rd Practise has one of the Ferrari’s at the top of the leader board, looks like Mercedes have a bit of work to do. Walking round the outside of the track we come across Aussie men dressed in a yellow dress, a red bull out fit and lots and lots of yellow for Danny Ricciardo, the local hero. There’s a great quad bike and pedal bike jumping display, an MG car display and a very loud air display again by the Australian Air Force, the sound of it would make you want to wave a white flag in surrender.

MG display

Finally, qualifying time is here, an hour of high-octane cars and excitement. The stands are full of people all waiting for the action to start, then, the high-pitched whine of the F1 cars engines and they’re off. With so many changes to the cars and drivers its hard to know what will happen and each section of qualifying ramps up the excitement with many of the rookie drivers performing well but in the end, in the final qualifying session Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton squeeze that extra few ounces of speed out of the car to qualify in pole position. It’s a great result, 6 consecutive pole positions here at the Melbourne Grand Prix but who knows if he can convert this into a win tomorrow. We’ll have to wait and see.

Tonight, we’re celebrating and the Babu Ji restaurant seems to fit the bill. It’s just off the main road to St Kilda and is a plain high ceiling room but in a stroke of genius it’s screening Bollywood movies and music onto the wall and ceiling. This sets the scene for the whole place and the food is to be honest fabulous, originating from Northern India with an Australian twist, slow cooked fragrant beef, hot and spicy lamb, rice, nan and raita what more could we wish for, may be a relaxing local drink on the way home. The Banff provides just this, in a relaxed room with lots of wooden tables of different styles, a brick fireplace and a large wooden bar. There’s locals in here tourists and even the odd Italian Grand Prix  photographer still hanging onto his camera and official photographers tabard.

Free Practice Day

Today is all about enjoying the Grand Prix experience here in Melbourne, so we set off late morning to be in the circuit before noon when the first practice session starts. Fortunately the apartment is on the corner of Albert Park and is the nearest point to the Schumacher grand stand, the only problem is getting across the 5 or 7 lane roads, the pedestrian lights seem to take ages but we make it and enjoy the practice racing and being the only Mercedes/Hamilton fans in our section of the grandstand. In fact everyone seems to have gone yellow for the local Aussie hero, Ricardo.

After, practice we have time to walk round part of the track watching the other racing and entertainments around the track. there's a Land Rover 4 x 4 driving experience, a children's driving experience, wheelchair rugby, pit-stop challenge and so much more. the Australian air force do a very loud fly past and a few loops and rolls. It's very hot and as the commentator says remember to slip, slap, slop out there and stay safe in the sun, ....mmm.... more suncream for us then.

Final practice and Lewis, Valteri and the Mercedes are flying, here's hoping the rest of the racing goes as well for us and them, though the Aussies might not be so happy.

Motorsport & St Kilda

Today will be the start of an exciting weekend for us as the Melbourne Grand Prix starts today, so mid-morning sees us scurrying down the road towards the entrance. Along with other excited fans we queue at the gate to go through security then like the numerous school children in the park we hurry to the Schumacher stand to see for ourselves what our view will be like on race day. We both agree, the view will be superb, with 2 corners, a section of the straight and the pit entry in full view, there should be plenty of action to watch. We spend the rest of the morning walking round some of the circuit and posing for photo by the AUS GP sign before leaving the circuit for a few hours to stroll down to St Kilda and the beach. The road is lined with small eateries and coffee bars giving it a great vibe. Then there’s the beach, a huge horseshoe shaped arc of golden sand with a pier on once side and a marina full of boats in the middle. The walk down the pier to the pavilion is bracing in the sea breeze but with plenty of kite surfers to watch, how they still have arms attached to their bodies I’ll never know. They zip across the bay before being l pulled vertically into the air to turn around and go back in the other direction. The information board at the end of the pier tells us about the little penguins that have made their home here along with a rare Australian water rat called Rakali, I’m not sure if this last bit of information isn’t some big Aussie wind up! Time for a beer or in my case a sparkling rose wine to consider this information…I’m still not sure especially as they only appear at night!

We’ve decided to go back into the Grand Prix to watch one of the races but this time from the top of the F1 Paddock Club. This gives us a great vantage point to look down onto the pit boxes, watch the start and finish of the race as well as the Renault crew practising their tyre changes. The whole tyre change takes less than 3 seconds, Kwik Fit aren’t that rapid Dave grumbles!

By now I’m walking slower and slower as fatigue sets in, in fact crossing the roads within the time set by the beeping green man is becoming a big challenge. Somehow, I make it back to the apartment in one piece with Dave’s help, s short rest then off to The Fifth Province for a steak. We feel we’ve well and truly earned this meal as we’ve walked nearly 11 miles today!

Back to Melbourne

At last my body clock has aligned its self to Western Australia time just as we’re about to fly back to Melbourne which is a further 3 hours in front of us! So, it’s an early morning start for all of us, with John and Jen kindly driving us to the airport through the rush hour traffic. I have a big lump in my throat saying goodbye to our lovely hosts, the time here has been a wonderful start to our Aussie adventure.

The flight back to Melbourne is very much wind assisted and only takes 3 hours, our transit through the airport is equally rapid and soon we’re in an “Uber” speeding towards “The Icon” our next stop on this adventure. Emmanuel, our driver really knows his way round Melbourne, avoiding the regular commuter routes and the area of Federation Square where the Formula 1 opening ceremony is taking place. The route through the older areas of Melbourne is fascinating with lots of small older houses dripping with verandas, ironwork, wooden sash style windows and old sprawling trees. 

The Icon

The Icon is in contrast a very modern, colourful building but entry seems to be a bit of a challenge as we must wait for our Chinese host to arrive with the electronic key. In a mix of sign language and broken English all the necessary instructions are finally clear, and we are left to explore our small but perfectly formed apartment. It has wonderful views over Albert Park, St Kilda and the sea in the distance. I can also say that the sunset view from here is wonderful.

Tonight, we don’t have the benefit of Jen’s wonderful cooking so after a short walk we find our nearest restaurant, Mahjong. It’s a modern Chinese and we enjoy a superb meal of special fried rice, chinese greens and kung foo chicken is much appreciated before we stroll back to enjoy the night view of the city from the balcony.