Day out in the Dandenongs

On Saturday the 8th August, the sun was shining and we had nothing planned in the day... So we decided to go out to the hills near Melbourne called the Dandenongs. The drive to the foothills at Ferntree Gully only took about 45 mins which was great as we really had no idea how long it would take.



We drove up the tourist road and stopped off in Olinda for lunch. We had the most amazing pie and chips from a place called Pie in the Sky (http://pieinthesky.net.au/).



We then headed off to Olinda Falls to have a look at the waterfall there. We got lost a couple of times on our way there and ended up driving quite a long way out of our way through fab forests and scenery. Once we got there, the short walk to work off some of our lunch which took us to the top of the falls through areally pretty forest... The trees were really tall - check out the one with Chris at the bottom of it.







The walk to the top of the waterfall was really easy and although they were cute we were not overly impressed!







So we took a fairly steep path down to the bottom of the falls. Here they were more impressive but still not a whole lot of water.... Although I guess that is to be expected in the time of a drought.







We then decided to head up towards the top of Mt Dandenong and arrived in a place called Kalorama and had a look at the pretty view out over the Silvan Reservoir. A pretty wee place but not much there apart from a cafe and some shops (a bit like a lot of the villages up there to be honest!!).







After we had finished there, we decided to head up to SkyHigh at Mt Dandenong(http://www.skyhighmtdandenong.com.au/) to get some views over the city and see what there was there. After paying $5 to get in we had a good wander around and saw lots of things as well as some good views over to the CBD - I imagine the views would be amazing on a clearer day although not sure how often they occur. It was interesting to see just how much Melbourne sprawls.... There was lots to see and do up there although a lot of it was aimed more at kids... There was a big maze, an English Garden, a secret garden and lots of other things to look at.







We then decided to head home as we were going out for a Vietanamese meal with friends in the evening but we had to stop in Olinda for a quick slice of cake :-) On our way out of the Dandenongs we headed into the Tourist Info who gave us lots of really good ideas for other walks and things to do in the area which I am sure we will go back and do soon...