Well today was a bit more touristy as I got to go down to the Dandenongs or I should say up Mount Dandenong. My Godmother's garlic business venture has evolved to incorporate growing hazelnuts and so she set up a meeting with an experienced grower in Gembrook located the other side of the Dandenong ranges.

She said I could come along and get a taster of the dandenong ranges and turn it into a family outing. 'The Dandenong Ranges are a set of low mountain ranges, rising to 633 metres at Mount Dandenong, approximately 35 km east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia' and as Wikipedia rightly says we rose the 633 metres to the top of Mount Dandenong. The winding road is just magnificent, at every bend you can see through some of the trees down the mountainside, and as you climb higher the vegetation changes to suit the changing climate i.e. more british!

SkyHigh Mount Dandenong sits at the top of the mountain with viewing platforms and gardens to wander around. The view across Melbourne is spectacular and no camera can capture how far the eye can see and the dramatic scape below. We then wandered around the 'English Gardens', stopped by the Wishing Tree and walked through The Secret Garden.

Realising how little time we had left to reach the grower in Gembrook, we rushed off through the ranges down through Olinda and realised as we entered Sassafras that we had made a wrong turn. As the map was being consulted to find the right direction, I glanced out of the window into a tea shop called 'Tea Leaves' which sells 300 types of tea! Plus the cutest tea mobiles that I have to go back and see in more detail.

We finally made our way across to Gembrook only an hour late... We spent two hours with the hazlenut man discussing the pros and cons of planting a small orchard in Victoria. By this time it was almost half two and well past my lunchtime so we drove back into the town of Gembrook and were just in time to see the famous Puffing Billy steam engine leaving Gembrook and I even got a piece of coal as a memento. We finally found a little cafe called Charlotte's that was also a cute giftshop. After the owner realised my Godmother's son had Down's Syndrome, she sent out one of her waiters who also had Down's Syndrome! My Godmother's son was in awe of this older boy taking our order and cleaning the tables and just really enjoying himself; he was dancing as he cleaned and we were blown away when he told us he was learning the foxtrot at a dance centre nearby.

After our fill of wonderful food and a mooch round the lovely items on sale, we headed back home. I look forward to going back to some more of the picturesque towns in the dandenong area, you never know what you are going to see in some of these little towns!