More recent Travel

 After scaling the Piccaninny and having a rest we went to do the historic tour of Dunkeld.  To some extent this was like the historic tour of Montreal where the signs tell the tourists about what used to be there before the current modern building was erected.  In part this may reflect the 1944 fire which destroyed a third of the houses and businesses in the town.  Here is the map with numbers linking to my images which follow. The first image 1 is of a fossil in the sandstone blocks of one of the buildings before we got to the Royal Mail Hotel.  We were told these were visible in the wall around the Myers Garden but couldn't see any there. This 2 is the Royal Mail Hotel, which these days is mainly known for fine dining. Across the street is 3 the Sturgeon View Cafe.  I looks a nice place and does a good line in delivered meals: we had an excellent fish basket. The Post Office 4 was sold as a private house but the owner then took on the PO business a a lic...

I thought I should offer a warning about the size of this post so that folk on limited download can choose whether to open it. Frances thought that we could manage to ascend The Piccaninny as it was rated as Easy/Moderate.  Mount Sturgeon was also a possibility but a fair bit longer and higher.  Before tackling that we did our morning heartstarter walk extending it a bit to come back along Salt Creek.  Fortunately Frances looked closely at the marked up map from the Visitor Centre and realised the track was on the South side of the Creek (after I had followed an illusory track towards the Northern side)! We came across a sign about an art work and initially couldn't spot it.  Then we did as well looked from the correct position.  Rocks on wire (marked 1 and 2) suspend a wire canoe over the creek.  The work is "Hide" by Trevor Flinn.  It was sponsored by Maria and Allan Myers , owners of the walled garden. "What is beyond along the path?"  Allison ...

 No, not the musical: the town in Western Victoria. I will begin with the excellent view from our accommodation as the morning sun hits Mount Wargurri. When we arrived in Dunkeld a nice volunteer lady at the Information Centre had shown Frances a few walks around the town.  One of these went on a series of dirt streets around a walled off garden.  There are a number (I think 12) of gates in the wall through which the curious can peer in.  Here is a gate and a section of the sandstone wall.  This is a view through the gate. From a conversation on one of our walks it emerged that this is the holiday house of a Melbourne QC (now of course a KC).  Joining this information with various other things we came across said KC owns a lot of property around town including the posh hotel and restaurant in the main drag.  The Kitchen Garden (across the road from the walled garden) provides the fruit and veg for the restaurant.  One could draw an allusion to the...